Page:More Celtic Fairy Tales.djvu/264

 well-known Æsop's Fable; see my edition of Caxton's Æsop, vol. ii. p. 307, and Parallels, vol. i. p. 267. The trick by which the cock gets out of the fox's mouth is a part of the Reynard Cycle, and is given by Chaucer as his "Nonne Preste's Tale." How the wolf lost his tail is also part of the same cycle, the parallels of which are given by K. Krohn, Bär (Wolf) und Fuchs (Helsingfors, 1889), pp. 26-8. The same writer has studied the geographical distribution of the story in Finland, accompanied by a map, in Fennia, iv. No. 4. I have given a mediæval Hebrew version in my Jews of Angevin England, pp. 170-2. See also Gerber, Great Russian Animal Tales, pp. 48-50. The wolf was originally the bear, as we see from the conclusion of the incident, which professes to explain why the wolf is stumpy-tailed. "The Keg of Butter" combines two of the Grimm stories, 2, 189. "The Little Bonnach" occurs also in English and has been given in two variants in English Fairy Tales, No. xxviii.; and More English Fairy Tales, No. lvii.

Remarks.—It would lead me too far afield to discuss here the sources of Reynard the Fox, with which I hope shortly to deal at length elsewhere. But I would remark that in this case, as in several others we have observed, the stories, which are certainly reproductions, have received the characteristic Celtic dress. It follows that we cannot conclude anything as to the origin of a tale from the fact that it is told idiomatically. On the other hand, the stories of "The Fox and Wrens" and "The Fox and the Todhunter," and "How the Fox gets rid of his Fleas," have no parallels elsewhere, and show the possibility of a native beast tale or cycle of tales.

XXXIX. SMALLHEAD AND THE KING'S SON.

Source.—Mr. Curtin's "Hero Tales of Ireland," contributed to the New York Sun.

Parallels.—Campbell's No. xvii., "Maol a Chliobain," is the same story, which is also found among the Lowlanders, and is given in my English Fairy Tales, No. xxii., "Molly Whuppie," where see notes for other parallels of the Hop o' My Thumb type of story. King Under the Waves occurs in Campbell, No. lxxxvi.

XL. THE LEGEND OF KNOCKGRAFTON.

Source.—Croker, Fairy Legends of South of Ireland.

Parallels.—Parnell's poem, Edwin and Sir Topaz, contains the same story. As he was born in Dublin, 1679, this traces the tale back