CONCLUSION.
Retrospect--The fairies of Celtic and Teutonic races of the same
nature as the supernatural beings celebrated in the traditions of
other nations--All superstitions of supernatural beings
explicable by reference to the conceptions of
savages--Liebrecht's Ghost Theory of some Swan-maiden
myths--MacRitchie's Finn Theory--The amount of truth in
them--Both founded on too narrow an induction--Conclusion.
We have in the preceding pages examined some of the principal groups of
tales and superstitions relating to Fairies proper,--that is to say, the
Elves and Fays of Celtic and Teutonic tradition.
Dealing in the first instance with the sagas found in this country, or
in Germany, our investigations have by no means ended there; for in
order to understand these sagas, we have found occasion to refer again
and again to the _märchen_, as well as the sagas, of other European
nations,--nay, to the traditions of races as wide apart from our own in
geographical position and culture, as the South Sea Islanders, the
Ainos, and the Aborigines of America. And we have found among peoples in
the most distant parts of the globe similar stories and superstitions.
Incidentally, too, we have learned something of the details of archaic
practices, and have found the two great divisions of Tradition,--belief
and practice,--inseparably interwoven.
I do not pretend to have touched upon all the myths referring to
Fairies, as thus strictly defined; and the Kobolds and Puck, the
Household Spirits and Mischievous Demons, have scarcely been so much as
mentioned. Want of space forbids our going further. It is hoped,
however, that enough has been said, not merely to give the readers an
idea of the Fairy Mythology correct as far as it goes, but, beyond that,
to vindicate the method pursued in the investigation, as laid down in
our second chapter, by demonstrating the essential identity of human
imagination all over the world, and by tracing the stories with which we
have been dealing to a more barbarous state of society and a more
archaic plane of thought. It now remains, therefore, to recall what we
have ascertained concerning the nature and origin of the Fairies, and
briefly to consider two rival theories.
We started from some of the ascertained facts of savage thought and
savage life. The doctrine of Spirits formed our first proposition. This
we defined to be the belief held by savages that man consists of body
and spirit; that it is possible for the spirit to quit the body and roam
at will in different shapes about the world, returning to the body as to
its natural home; that in the spirit's absence the body sleeps, and that
it dies if the spirit return not; further, that the universe swarms with
spirits embodied and disembodied, because everything in the world has a
spirit, and all these spirits are analogues of the human spirit, having
the same will and acting from the same motives; and that if by chance
any of these spirits be ejected from its body, it may continue to exist
without a body, or it may find and enter a new body, not necessarily
such an one as it occupied before, but one quite different. The doctrine
of Transformation was another of our premises: that is to say, the
belief held by savages in the possibility of a change of form while
preserving the same identity. A third premise was the belief in
Witchcraft, or the power of certain persons to cause the transformations
just mentioned, and to perform by means of spells, or symbolic actions
and mystical words, various other feats beyond ordinary human power. And
there were others to which I need not now refer, all of which were
assumed to be expressed in the tales and songs, and in the social and
political institutions, of savages. Along with these, we assumed the
hypothesis of the evolution of civilization from savagery. By this I
mean that just as the higher orders of animal and vegetable life have
been developed from germs which appeared on this planet incalculable
ages ago; so during a past of unknown length the civilization of the
highest races of men has been gradually evolving through the various
stages of savagery and barbarism up to what we know it to-day; and so
every nation, no matter how barbarous, has arisen from a lower stage
than that in which it is found, and is on its way, if left to its
natural processes, to something higher and better. This is an hypothesis
which does not, of course, exclude the possibility of temporary and
partial relapses, such as we know have taken place in the history of
every civilized country, any more than it excludes the possibility of
the decay and death of empires; but upon the whole it claims that
progress and not retrogression is the law of human society. The
different stages of this progress have everywhere left their mark on the
tales and songs, the sayings and superstitions, the social, religious
and political institutions--in other words, on the belief and
practice--of mankind.
Starting from these premises, we have examined five groups, or cycles,
of tales concerning the Fairy Mythology. We have found Fairyland very
human in its organization. Its inhabitants marry, sometimes among
themselves, sometimes into mankind. They have children born to them; and
they require at such times female assistance. They steal children from
men, and leave their own miserable brats in exchange; they steal women,
and sometimes leave in their stead blocks of wood, animated by magical
art, or sometimes one of themselves. In the former case the animation
does not usually last very long, and the women is then supposed to die.
Their females sometimes in turn become captive to men. Unions thus
formed are, however, not lasting, until the husband has followed the
wife to her own home, and conquered his right to her afresh by some
great adventure. This is not always in the story: presumably, therefore,
not always possible. On the other hand, he who enters Fairyland and
partakes of fairy food is spell-bound: he cannot return--at least for
many years, perhaps for ever--to the land of men. Fairies are grateful
to men for benefits conferred, and resentful for injuries. They never
fail to reward those who do them a kindness; but their gifts usually
have conditions attached, which detract from their value and sometimes
become a source of loss and misery. Nor do they forget to revenge
themselves on those who offend them; and to watch them, when they do not
desire to be manifested, is a mortal offence. Their chief distinction
from men is in their unbounded magical powers, whereof we have had
several illustrations. They make things seem other than they are; they
appear and disappear at will; they make long time seem short, or short
time long; they change their own forms; they cast spells over mortals,
and keep them spell-bound for ages.
All these customs and all these powers are asserted of the Fairies
properly so called. And when we look at the superstitions of other races
than the Celts and Teutons, to which our inquiries have been primarily
directed, we find the same things asserted of all sorts of creatures.
Deities, ancestors, witches, ghosts, as well as animals of every kind,
are endowed by the belief of nations all over the world with powers
precisely similar to those of the Fairies, and with natures and social
organizations corresponding with those of men. These beliefs can only be
referred to the same origin as the fairy superstitions; and all arise
out of the doctrine of spirits, the doctrine of transformations, and the
belief in witchcraft, held by savage tribes.
But here I must, at the risk of some few repetitions, notice a theory on
the subject of the Swan-maiden myth enunciated by Liebrecht. That
distinguished writer, in his book on Folklore, devotes a section to the
consideration of the group which has occupied us in the last two
chapters, and maintains, with his accustomed wealth of allusion and his
accustomed ingenuity, that some at least of the Swan-maidens are nothing
more nor less than ghosts of the departed, rescued from the kingdom of
darkness for a while, but bound to return thither after a short respite
here with those whom they love. Now it is clear that if Swan-maiden
tales are to be resolved into ghost stories, all other supernatural
beings, gods and devils as well as fairies and ghosts, will turn out to
be nothing but spectres of the dead. A summary of his argument, and of
the reasons for rejecting it, will, therefore, not only fill up any
serious gaps in our discussion of the main incidents of the myth in
question; but it will take a wider sweep, and include the whole subject
of the present volume.
His argument, as I understand it, is based, first, on the terms of the
taboo. The object of the taboo, he thinks, is to avoid any remark being
made, any question being asked, any object being presented, which would
remind these spirits of their proper home, and awaken a longing they
cannot withstand to return. There is an old Teutonic legend of a knight
who came in a little boat drawn by a swan to succour and wed a
distressed lady, on whom he laid a charge never to ask whence he came,
or in what country he was born. When she breaks this commandment the
swan reappears and fetches him away. So the nightmare-wife, as we have
seen, in one of the tales vanishes on being asked how she became a
nightmare. Again, the fay of Argouges disappears on the name of Death
being mentioned in her presence. A fair maiden in an Indian tale, who is
found by the hero in the neighbourhood of a fountain, and bears the name
of Bheki (Frog), forbids her husband ever to let her see water. When she
is thirsty and begs him for water, the doom is fulfilled on his bringing
it to her. A similar tale may be added from Ireland, though Liebrecht
does not mention it. A man who lived near Lough Sheelin, in County
Meath, was annoyed by having his corn eaten night after night. So he sat
up to watch; and to his astonishment a number of horses came up out of
the lake driven by a most beautiful woman, whom he seized and induced to
marry him. She made the stipulation that she was never to be allowed to
see the lake again; and for over twenty years she lived happily with
him, till one day she strolled out to look at the haymakers, and caught
sight of the distant water. With a loud cry she flew straight to it, and
vanished beneath the surface.[240]
Liebrecht's next reason is based upon the place where the maiden is
found,--a forest, or a house in the forest. In this connection he refers
to the tavern, or drinking-shop, on the borders of the forest, where
Wild Edric found his bride, and points to a variant of the story, also
given by Walter Map, in which she is said, in so many words, to have
been snatched _from the dead_.[241] The forest, he fancies, is the place
of the dead, the underworld. Lastly, he gives numerous legends of the
Middle Ages,--some of which found their way into the "Decameron," that
great storehouse of floating tales, and other literary works of
imagination, as well as into chronicles,--and instances from more modern
folklore, wherein a mistress or wife dies, or seems to die, and is
buried, yet is afterwards recovered from the tomb, and lives to wed, if
a maiden, and to bear children. He supports these by references to the
vampire superstitions, and to the case of Osiris, who returned after
death to Isis and became the father of Horus. And, following Uhland, he
compares the sleep-thorn, with which Odin pricked the Valkyrie,
Brynhild, and so put her into a magic slumber, to the stake which was
driven into the corpse suspected of being a vampire, to prevent its
rising any more from the grave and troubling the living.
Now it may be admitted that there is much that is plausible, much even
that is true, in this theory. It might be urged in its behalf that (as
we have had more than one occasion in the course of this work to know)
Fairyland is frequently not to be distinguished from the world of the
dead. Time is not known there; and the same consequences of permanent
abode follow upon eating the food of the dead and the food of the
fairies. Further, when living persons are stolen by fairies, mere dead
images are sometimes left in their place. These arguments, and such as
these, might well be added to Liebrecht's; and it would be hard to say
that a formidable case was not made out. And yet the theory fails to
take account of some rather important considerations. Perhaps the
strongest point made--a point insisted on with great power--is that of
the taboo. The case of the lady of Argouges is certainly very striking,
though, taken by itself, it is far from conclusive. It might very well
be that a supernatural being, in remaining here, would be obliged to
submit to mortality, contrary perhaps to its nature; and to remind it of
this might fill it with an irresistible impulse to fly from so horrible
a fate. I do not say this is the explanation, but it is as feasible as
the other. In the Spanish story it was not the utterance of the name of
Death, but of a holy name--the name of Mary--which compelled the wife to
leave her husband. Here she was unquestionably regarded by Spanish
orthodoxy, not as a spirit of the dead, but as a foul fiend, able to
assume what bodily form it would, but bound to none. The prohibition of
inquiry as to the bride's former home may arise not so much from a
desire to avoid the recollection, as from the resentment of impertinent
curiosity, which we have seen arouses excessive annoyance in
supernatural bosoms. The resentment of equally impertinent reproaches,
or a reminiscence of savage etiquette that avoids the direct name, may
account at least as well for other forms of the taboo. Liebrecht
suggests most ingeniously that assault and battery must strike the
unhappy elf still more strongly than reproaches, as a difference between
her present and former condition, and remind her still more
importunately of her earlier home, and that this explains the
prohibition of the "three causeless blows." It may be so, though there
is no hint of this in the stories; and yet her former condition need not
have been that of a ghost of the dead, nor her earlier home the tomb. By
far the greater number of these stories represent the maiden as a
water-nymph; but it is the depths of the earth rather than the water
which are commonly regarded as the dwelling-place of the departed.
Moreover, the correspondence I have tried to point out between the
etiquette of various peoples and the taboo,--such, for instance, as the
ban upon a husband's breaking into his wife's seclusion at a delicate
moment in his family history,--would remain, on Liebrecht's theory,
purely accidental. Nor would the theory account for the absence of a
taboo in the lower savagery, nor for the totemistic character of the
lady, nor, least of all, for the peltry which is the most picturesque,
if not the most important, incident in this group of tales.
In fact, the only direct evidence for Liebrecht's contention is the
variant of Wild Edric's legend alluded to by Map. His words are,
speaking of Alnoth, Edric's son, a great benefactor of the see of
Hereford: "The man whose mother vanished into air openly in the sight of
many persons, being indignant at her husband's reproaching her that he
had carried her off by force from among the dead (_quod cam a mortuis
rapuisset_)." Upon this it is to be observed that the expression here
made use of cannot be regarded as one which had accidentally dropped out
of the narrative previously given; but it is an allusion to an
independent and inconsistent version, given in forgetfulness that the
writer had already in another part of his work related the story at
large and with comments. There he had explicitly called Alnoth--the heir
and offspring of a devil (_dæmon_), and had expressed his wonder that
such a person should have given up his whole inheritance (namely, the
manor of Ledbury North, which he made over to the see of Hereford in
gratitude for the miraculous cure of his palsy) to Christ in return for
his restored health, and spent the rest of his life as a pilgrim.
Mediæval writers (especially ecclesiastics) were in a difficulty in
describing fairies. They looked upon them as having an objective
existence; and yet they knew not how to classify them. Fairies were
certainly neither departed saints nor holy angels. Beside these two
kinds of spirits, the only choice left was between devils and ghosts of
the wicked dead, or, at most, of the dead who had no claims to
extraordinary goodness. They did not believe in any other creatures
which could be identified with these mysterious elves. It is no wonder,
therefore, if they were occasionally perplexed, occasionally
inconsistent, sometimes denouncing them as devils, at other times
dismissing them as ghosts.[242]
This is what seems to have happened to Map. In the two chapters
immediately preceding, he has given two legends illustrating each horn
of the dilemma. One of these relates the marriage of Henno
With-the-Teeth, who found a lovely maiden in a grove on the coast of
Normandy. She was sitting alone, apparelled in royal silk, and weeping.
Her beauty and her tears attracted the gallant knight, to whom, in
response to his questions, she told a cock-and-bull story about her
father having brought her, all unwilling as she was, by sea to be
married to the King of France; but having been driven by a storm on the
shore, she said she had landed, and then her father had taken advantage
of a sudden change of wind to sail away, leaving her to her fate. Henno
was an easy conquest: he took her home and married her. Unluckily,
however, he had a mother who had her suspicions. She noticed that her
fair daughter-in-law, though she went often to church, always upon some
trumpery excuse came late, so as to avoid being sprinkled with holy
water, and as regularly left before the consecration of the elements. So
this virtuous old vixen determined to watch one Sunday morning; and she
discovered that after Henno had gone to church, his wife, transformed
into a serpent, entered a bath, and in a little while, issuing upon a
cloth which her maid had spread out for her, she tore it into pieces
with her teeth before resuming human form. The maid afterwards went
through the like performance, her mistress waiting upon her. All this
was in due course confided to Henno, who, in company with a priest,
unexpectedly burst in the next time upon his wife and her servant, and
sprinkled them with holy water. Mistress and maid thereupon with a great
yell bounded out through the roof and disappeared.
Clearly these ladies were devils: no other creatures with self-respect
would be guilty of such transformations and such constant disregard of
the proprieties at church. Ghosts get their turn in Map's other
narrative. It concerns a man whose wife had died. After sorrowing long
for her death, he found her one night in a deep and solitary dale amid a
number of women. With great joy he seized her, and, carrying her off,
lived with her again for many years and had a numerous progeny. Not a
few of her descendants were living when Map wrote, and were known as
_the children of the dead woman_. This, of course, is not a Swan-maiden
story at all. At the end of Chapter V. I have referred to some similar
tales; and what we learned during our discussion of the subject of
Changelings may lead us to suspect that we have here in an imperfect
form a story of the exchange of an adult woman for a lifeless image, and
her recovery from the hands of her ravishers. This is by no means the
same plot as that of the stories recounted by Liebrecht in which the
wife or the betrothed is rescued from the grave. Those stories, at least
in warm climates where burials are hurried, and in rude ages when
medical skill is comparatively undeveloped, are all within the bounds of
possibility. There does not appear in them any trace of
mythology,--hardly even of the supernatural; and he would be a bold man
who would deny that a substratum of fact may not underlie some of them.
To establish their relationship with the group we are now considering,
links of a much more evident character are wanting. The fact that they
are traditional is not of itself sufficient. The fairy of the Forest of
Dean had not revived after death, or supposed death; nor had she been
recovered from supernatural beings who had stolen her away. Map's
account, to whatever his expression _from the dead_ may point, is
inconsistent with either the one or the other. Rather she was stolen
from her own kindred, to become the wife of him who had won her by his
own right arm.
But a single instance, and that instance either inconsistent with the
analogous traditions, or unable to supply a cogent or consistent
explanation of them, is not a very safe basis for a theory. What is it
worth when it is inconsistent even with the theory itself? Indeed, if
it were consistent with the theory, we might match it with another
instance wholly irreconcilable. Mikáilo Ivanovitch in the Russian ballad
marries a Swan-maiden, who, unlike some of the ladies just mentioned,
insists upon being first baptized into the Christian faith. She makes
the stipulation that when the one of them dies the other shall go living
into the grave with the dead, and there abide for three months. She
herself dies. Mikáilo enters the grave with her, and there conquers a
dragon which comes to feast on the dead bodies. The dragon is compelled
to fetch the waters of life and death, by means of which the hero brings
his dead love back to life. Marya, the White Swan, however, proved
herself so ungrateful that after awhile she took another husband, and
twice she acted the part of Delilah to Mikáilo. The third time she tried
it he was compelled in self-defence to put an end to her wiles by
cutting off her head. This is honest, downright death. There is no
mistaking it. But then it is impossible that Marya, the White Swan, was
a mere ghost filched from the dead and eager to return. Yet the story of
Marya is equally a Swan-maiden story, and is just as good to build a
theory on as Map's variant of Wild Edric.[243]
In replying, however, to the arguments of so learned and acute a writer
as Liebrecht, it is not enough to point out these distinctions and
inconsistencies: it is not enough to show that the terms of the taboo do
not warrant the construction he has put upon them, nor that he has
failed to account for very significant incidents. If he has mistaken the
meaning of the legends, we should be able to make clear the source of
his error. It arises, I hold, from an imperfect apprehension of the
archaic philosophy underlying the narratives. Liebrecht's comparisons
are, with one exception, limited to European variants. His premises were
thus too narrow to admit of his making valid deductions. Perhaps even
yet we are hardly in a position to do this; but at all events the
sources of possible error are diminished by the wider area we are able
to survey, and from the evidence of which we reason. We have compared
the stories, both mediæval and modern, mentioned by Liebrecht, with
_märchen_ and sagas told among nations outside European influence in
various degrees of civilization, down to the savagery of Kaffirs and
Dyaks. We have succeeded in classifying their differences, and in spite
of them we have found all the tales in substantial agreement. They are
all built on the same general plan; the same backbone of thought runs
through them; and between them all there is no greater divergence than
that which in the physical realm separates mammal from bird, or bird
from reptile. It is inevitable to conclude that even the most recently
discovered folk-tale of them has come to us from a distant period when
our forefathers were in the same rude state as Dyaks and South Sea
Islanders. No actual adventure of Wild Edric or Raymond of Lusignan gave
rise to these stories. English patriot and Burgundian Count were only
the names whereon they fastened,--the mountains which towered above the
plain and gathered about their heads the vapours already floating in the
atmosphere. We must therefore go back far beyond the Middle Ages to
learn in what manner we are to understand these stories,--back to the
state of savagery whence the inhabitants of Europe had long emerged when
Map and Gervase wrote, but of which the relics linger among us even yet.
The necessarily meagre exposition of some of the most salient
characteristics of savage thought with which we started has been
illustrated and its outlines filled in to some extent in the course of
the subsequent discussions. I need not, therefore, do more than draw
attention as briefly as possible to those characteristics that are
relevant here. First and foremost, we have found some of the
Swan-maiden tales boldly professing to account for the worship of
totems; and so thoroughly does totemism appear to be ingrained in the
myth that there is some reason for thinking that here we have a clue to
the myth's origin and meaning. But the intellect to which totemism is a
credible theory draws no line of demarcation between humanity and the
life and consciousness it recognizes in the whole encircling universe.
To it, accordingly, a story of union between a man and a fish, a swan or
a serpent, involves no difficulty. When advancing knowledge, and with
knowledge repulsion from such a story, begins to threaten it, another
belief advances to its defence. For nothing is easier to creatures as
clever as the lower animals than a change of form. They can, whenever
they please, assume the appearance of man or woman: it is as natural to
them as the shape under which they are usually seen. Again, the life
that swarms about the savage philosopher does not always manifest itself
visibly. It is often unseen. The world is filled with spirits, of whom
some have inhabited human bodies, others have not. To the savage they
are all alike; for those who have not hitherto inhabited human bodies
may do so at will, or may inhabit other bodies, either animal or
vegetable, and those who have once done so may do so again.
All these--Totemism, the equality and essential identity of nature
between man and all other objects in the universe, the doctrine of
Transformation, the doctrine of Spirits--are phases of savage thought,
every one of which has been incorporated in the myth of the
Swan-maidens, and every one of which, except one special and very
limited development of the doctrine of Spirits, is ignored in
Liebrecht's theory. The theory is, indeed, an admirable illustration of
the danger of reasoning without a sufficiently wide area of induction.
Liebrecht's mistake on the present occasion was twofold: he only dealt
with one or, at most, two types of the myth; and he ignored the savage
variants. Had he taken into consideration other types--such as Hasan,
the Marquis of the Sun, the Star's Daughter;--had he been aware of the
savage variants all over the world, he would not have formed a theory so
inconsistent with the facts, and so little fitted to solve the problems
propounded, not merely by the phenomena of the Swan-maiden group, but by
those of other tales in which supernatural beings intervene.
In reasoning by induction, the greater the number of facts taken into
account, the greater the probability of sound reasoning; and therefore
the greater the number of facts a theory will explain, the more likely
it is to be true. Had Liebrecht's theory touched only the Swan-maiden
group, it would have been more convenient to discuss it in the last
chapter. But inasmuch as its truth would involve much wider issues, it
seemed better to reserve it to be dealt with here. For if the theory be
valid for Melusina, the Lady of the Van Pool, and other water-nymphs, it
is valid also for the "water-woman" who, in a Transylvanian story, dwelt
in a lake in the forest between Mehburg and Reps. She had two sons,
whose father was a man, and the younger of whom became king of that
land. But when the Saxon immigration took place the incomers cut down
the wood; the lake dried up, and as it dried up, the lives of the
water-spirit and her son gradually sank lower and lower, and at last
were extinguished with the extinction of the lake.[244] Now I will
venture to say that this story is to be explained satisfactorily on no
theory yet broached, unless it be the theory that we have in it a
survival of the savage doctrine of Spirits. Least of all it is to be
explained by any adaptation of what I may call the Ghost
theory,--namely, that the water-spirit and her son were already the
spirits of dead human beings.
Leaving this one example of the value of Liebrecht's theory, as applied
to water-spirits, to stand for all, I turn to another order of beings
with supernatural powers referred to several times in the foregoing
pages: I mean Witches. I adduced in Chapter X. a Tirolese tale, a
variant of the Melusina type, wherein the wife was a witch. It will have
been obvious to every reader that the tale is simply that of Cupid and
Psyche with the parts reversed; and I might urge that Cupid and the
witch were beings of precisely the same nature. Waiving this for the
moment, however, no one will deny that the witch takes the place of the
Swan-maiden, or fairy, in other stories of the group. But perhaps it may
be suggested that the name _witch_ (_Angana_, _Hexe_) has got into the
story by accident; and that not a witch in our sense of the word, but a
ghost from the dead, is really meant. There might be something to be
said for this if there were any substantial distinction to be made
between ghosts and witches and fairies. In the tales and superstitions
discussed in the present volume we have found no distinction. Whether it
be child-stealing, transformation, midnight meetings, possession and
gift of enchanted objects, spell-binding, or whatever function, or
habit, or power be predicted of one, it will be found to be common to
the three. I conclude, therefore, that they are all three of the same
nature. This is what a consideration of the superstitions of savages
would lead me to expect. The belief in fairies, ghosts, and witches is a
survival of those superstitions. It is, of course, not found in equal
coherence, equal strength of all its parts, equal logic (if I may so
express it) everywhere. We must not be surprised if, as it is gradually
penetrated by the growing forces of civilization, it becomes
fragmentary, and the attributes of these various orders of supernatural
beings begin to be differentiated. They are never completely so; and the
proof of this is that what is at one place, at one time, or by one
people, ascribed to one order, is at another place, at another time, or
by another people, ascribed to another order. The nature of the
classical deities was identical too; and hence Cupid and the witch of
the Tirolese tale are the masculine and feminine counterparts of the
same conception.
Lastly, a few words must be expended on a totally different theory
lately put forward by Mr. MacRitchie. This theory is not altogether a
new one; it has been before the world for many years. But Mr. MacRitchie
has, first in "The Archæological Review," and since then more
elaborately in a separate book, entitled "The Testimony of Tradition,"
worked it out and fortified it with an array of arguments philological,
historical, topographical, and traditional. He claims to have
established that the fairies of the Celtic and Teutonic races are
neither more nor less than the prehistoric tribes whom they conquered
and drove back, and whose lands they now possess. He identifies these
mysterious beings with the Picts of Scotland, the Feinne of the Scottish
Highlands and of Ireland, and the Finns and Lapps of Scandinavia. And he
suggests that the Eskimo, the Ainos, and I know not what other dwarfish
races, are relics of the same people; while Santa Klaus, the patron
saint of children, is only a tradition of the wealthy and beneficent
character borne by this ill-used folk. Primarily his arguments are
concerned with Scotland and Ireland. He builds much on the howes or
barrows, called in Scotland Picts' houses, which in both countries bear
the reputation of being the haunt of fairies or dwarfs, and some of
which seem to have been in fact dwelling-places. He quotes Dr. Karl
Blind to show that Finns intermarried with the Shetlanders, and that
they were believed to come over in the form of seals, casting aside
their sealskins when they landed. In this connection he relates how the
Finn women were captured by taking possession of their sealskins,
without which they could not get away from their captors. He also shows
that illimitable riches and magical powers were ascribed to the Picts
and to the Finns, and that the Lapps were pre-eminent in witchcraft.
I shall leave it to Celtic scholars to deal with Mr. MacRitchie's
remarkable etymologies and with his historical arguments, confining
myself to one or two observations on the traditional aspect of the
theory. Now I should be the last to undervalue any traces of history to
be found in tradition. I have elsewhere drawn attention to the
importance of the study of this element in folk-tales;[245] and I am
quite ready to admit that nothing is more likely than the transfer to
the mythical beings of Celtic superstition of some features derived from
alien races. Savages and barbarians are in the habit of imputing to
strangers and foes in greatly extended measure the might of witchcraft
they claim for themselves. And the wider the differences between
themselves and the foreigners, the more mysterious to them are the
habits and appearance of the latter, and the more powerful do they
believe them. All this might account for many details that we are told
concerning the dwarfs, the Picts, the Finns, or by whatever other names
the elvish race may have been known to Scots and Irishmen. But further
than this I cannot go with Mr. MacRitchie. I hold his error, like that
of Liebrecht already discussed, to be founded on too narrow an
induction. This volume will have been written in vain, as it appears
that for Mr. MacRitchie the vastly more important works of Dr. Tylor and
Mr. Andrew Lang have been written in vain, unless I have made it clear
that the myths of nations all over the world follow one general law and
display common characteristics. I am not astonished to find the Shetland
tale of marriage with a seal-woman reproduced on the Gold Coast and
among the Dyaks of Borneo. But Mr. MacRitchie ought to be very much
astonished; for he can hardly show that the historical Finns were known
in these out-of-the-way places. It seems to me natural to find that in
Scotland and Ireland fairies dwelt in barrows, and in Annam and Arabia
in hills and rocks; and that both in this country and in the far East
they inveigled unhappy mortals into their dwellings and kept them for
generations--nay, for centuries. That the Shoshone of California should
dread their infants being changed by the Ninumbees, or dwarfs, in the
same way as the Celts of the British Islands, and the Teutons too,
dreaded their infants being changed, does not seem at all incredible to
me. That to eat the food of the dead in New Zealand prevents a living
man from returning to the land of the living, just as Persephone was
retained in Hades by partaking of the pomegranate, and just as to eat
the food of fairies hinders the Manx or the Hebrew adventurer from
rejoining his friends on the surface of the earth, is in no way
perplexing to me. But all these things, and they might be multiplied
indefinitely, must be very perplexing to Mr. MacRitchie, if he be not
prepared to prove that Annamites and Arabs, Hebrews and Shoshone, New
Zealanders and classical Greeks alike, were acquainted with the Picts
and the Finns, and alike celebrated them in their traditions.
The truth Mr. MacRitchie does not reckon with is, that no theory will
explain the nature and origin of the fairy superstitions which does not
also explain the nature and origin of every other supernatural being
worshipped or dreaded by uncivilized mankind throughout the world. And
until he shall address himself to this task, however ingenious his
guesses, however amusing his philology, however delightfully wild his
literary and historical arguments, he will not succeed in convincing any
serious student.
Here then we must pause. Obvious are the differences between the nations
of mankind: differences of physical conformation,--that is to say, of
race; divergences of mental and moral development,--that is to say, of
civilization. Hitherto the task attempted by folklore has been to show
that underlying all these differences there is a broad foundation of
common agreement; that distinctions of race do not extend to mental and
moral constitution; that the highest nation on the ladder of culture has
climbed from the same rung on which the lowest are yet standing; and
that the absurd and incongruous customs and institutions and the equally
absurd and impossible stories and beliefs found imbedded in the
civilization of the more advanced nations are explicable, and explicable
only, as relics of the phases wherethrough those nations have passed
from the depths of savagery.
If it be admitted in general terms that the evidence collected and
marshalled up to the present time has established among sure scientific
facts so much of the past of humanity, this achievement is but the
beginning of toil. A wide field has been opened to the student for the
collection and arrangement of details, before the true meaning of many a
strange custom and stranger tale will be thoroughly understood. I have
tried to do something of the kind in the foregoing pages. But beyond
this there is the more delicate investigation of the ethnic element in
folklore. Can we assign to the various races their special shares in the
development of a common tradition? Can we show what direction each race
took, and how and why it modified the general inheritance?
On the other hand, it is not asserted that the status of savagery was
the primitive condition of men. Of course it may have been. But if not,
there is work to be done in endeavouring to ascertain what lies behind
it. The questions started from this point wander across the border of
folklore into pure psychology; but it is a psychology based not upon
introspection and analysis of the mind of the civilized man, developed
under the complex influences that have been acting and reacting during
untold years of upward struggling, always arduous and often cruel, but a
psychology which must be painfully reconstructed from the simplest and
most archaic phenomena disclosed by anthropological research. Who can
say what light may not thus be thrown as well on the destiny as on the
origin of mankind?
FOOTNOTES:
[240] Liebrecht, p. 54; "F. L. Journal," vol. vii. p. 312.
[241] Map, Dist. iv. c. 10.
[242] The sect of the Cabalists, indeed, believed in the existence of
spirits of nature, embodiments or representatives of the four elements,
which they called respectively gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and ondines.
To this strange sect some of the savage opinions on the subject of
spirits seem to have been transmitted in a philosophical form from
classical antiquity. They taught that it was possible for the
philosopher by austerity and study to rise to intercourse with these
elemental spirits, and even to obtain them in marriage. But the orthodox
regarded the Cabalists as magicians and their spirits as foul incubi.
See Lecky, "History of Rationalism," vol. i. p. 46.
[243] Hapgood, p. 214.
[244] Müller, p. 33.
[245] "Folklore," vol. i. pp. 113, 116.
APPENDIX.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST OF SOME OF THE WORKS REFERRED TO IN THE FOREGOING
PAGES.
_Aberd. Eistedd._ See _Trans. Aberd. Eistedd_.
ALPENBURG. See Von Alpenburg.
AMÉLINEAU. Contes et Romans del' Égypte Chrétienne par E. Amélineau. 2
vols. Paris, 1888.
_Amer. F. L._ See _Journal Amer. F. L_.
_Am Urds-Brunnen._ Am Urds-Brunnen. Mittheilungen für Freunde
volksthümlich-wissenschaftlicher Kunde. 6 vols. [The first two volumes
entitled _Am Urds-Brunnen_, _Organ des Vereins für Verbreitung
volksthümlich-wissenschaftlicher Kunde_.] Rendsburg, 1881-89.
_Antiquary._ The Antiquary, a Magazine devoted to the study of the Past.
22 vols. London, 1880-90, still proceeding.
_Archivio._ Archivio per lo studio delle Tradizioni Popolari Rivista
Trimestrale diretta da G. Pitré e S. Salomone-Marino. 9 vols. Palermo,
1882-90, still proceeding.
_Arch. Rev._ The Archæological Review. 4 vols. London, 1888-90.
ARNAUDIN. Contes Populaires recueillis dans la Grande Lande le Born les
Petites Landes et le Marensin par Félix Arnaudin. Paris, 1887.
AUBREY, _Miscellanies._ Miscellanies upon various subjects. By John
Aubrey, F.R.S. 4th edition. London, 1857.
---- _Remaines._ Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme. By John Aubrey,
R.S.S. 1686-87. Edited and annotated by James Britten, F.L.S. London,
1881. (Folk-Lore Society.)
_Bahar-Danush._ Bahar-Danush; or Garden of Knowledge. An Oriental
Romance. Translated from the Persic of Einaiut Oollah. By Jonathan
Scott. 3 vols. Shrewsbury, 1799.
BARING-GOULD. Curious Myths of the Middle Ages. By S. Baring-Gould, M.A.
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BARTSCH. Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Mecklenburg. Gesammelt und
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BASSET. Contes Populaires Berbères recueillis, traduits et annotés par
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BIRLINGER, _Aus Schwaben._ Aus Schwaben Sagen, Legenden, Aberglauben,
Sitten, Rechtsbräuche, Ortsneckereien, Lieder, Kinderreime Neue Sammlung
von Anton Birlinger. 2 vols. Wiesbaden, 1874.
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_Border Minstrelsy._ Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border: consisting of
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N.D.
BRAGA. Ethnographia Portugueza. O Povo Portuguez nos seus Costumes,
Crenças e Tradições por Theophilo Braga. 2 vols. Lisboa, 1886.
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origin of our vulgar Customs, Ceremonies, and Superstitions. By John
Brand, M.A., F. and Sec. S.A. Arranged and revised, with additions by
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BRAUNS. Japanische Märchen und Sagen gesammelt und herausgegeben von
David Brauns. Leipzig, 1885.
BRAY. See Mrs. Bray.
BRETT. The Indian Tribes of Guiana: their condition and habits. By the
Rev. W. H. Brett. London, 1868.
---- _Legends and Myths._ Legends and Myths of the Aboriginal Indians of
British Guiana. Collected and edited by the Rev. William Henry Brett, B.
D. London, N.D.
_Brython._ See _Y Brython_.
BURTON, _Nights._ A plain and literal translation of the Arabian Nights'
Entertainments, now entitled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a
Night, with introduction, explanatory notes, &c. by Richard F. Burton.
10 vols. Privately printed. 1885.
---- _Suppl. Nights._ Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand
Nights and a Night with notes anthropological and explanatory by Richard
F. Burton. 6 vols. Privately printed. 1886-88.
BUSK, _Sagas._ Sagas from the Far East; or Kalmouk and Mongolian
Traditionary Tales. With historical preface and explanatory notes by the
author of Patrañas, &c. [Miss R. H. Busk]. London, 1873.
CAMPBELL. Popular Tales of the West Highlands orally collected with a
translation by J. F. Campbell. 4 vols. Edinburgh, 1860-62.
CAMPBELL, Lord A. See Lord A. Campbell.
CARNOY. Littérature Orale de la Picardie par E. Henry Carnoy. Paris,
1883.
CASTRÉN, _Altaischen Völker._ M. Alexander Castrén's Ethnologische
Vorlesungen über die Altaischen Völker nebst Samojedischen Märchen und
Tartarischen Heldensagen. Herausgegeben von Anton Schiefner. St.
Petersburg, 1857.
CAVALLIUS. Schwedische Volkssagen und Märchen. Nach mündlicher
Ueberlieferung gesammelt und herausgegeben von Gunnar Olof Hyltén
Cavallius und George Stephens. Mit Varianten und kritischen Anmerkungen.
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CERTEUX ET CARNOY. Contributions au Folk-Lore des Arabes. L'Algérie
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First vol. only published. Paris, 1884.
CHAMBERS. Popular Rhymes of Scotland. Robert Chambers. London, 1870.
CHILD. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads edited by Francis James
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It announced "about 8 parts": only six of these (making three volumes)
have been issued to date.]
_Choice Notes._ Choice Notes from "Notes and Queries." Folk Lore.
London, 1859.
COMPARETTI. Novelline Popolari Italiane pubblicate ed illustrate da
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_Corpus Poet. Bor._ Corpus Poeticum Boreale. The Poetry of the Old
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Oxford, 1883.
COSQUIN. Emmanuel Cosquin. Contes Populaires de Lorraine comparés avec
les Contes des autres Provinces de France et des Pays Étrangers. 2 vols.
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_Count Lucanor._ Count Lucanor; or The Fifty Pleasant Stories of
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CROMEK. Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song with Historical and
Traditional Notices relative to the Manners and Customs of the
Peasantry, now first published by R. H. Cromek, F.A.S. Ed. London, 1810.
Reprint: Paisley, 1880.
CURTIN. Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland by Jeremiah Curtin. London, 1890.
_Cymmrodor._ See _Y Cymmrodor_.
_Cymru Fu._ "Cymru Fu"; yn cynwys Hanesion, Traddodiadau, yn nghyda
Chwedlau a Dammegion Cymreig (oddiar lafar gwlad a gweithiau y prif
awduron). Wrexham, N.D. [Preface dated October 1862.]
_Cymru Fu N. and Q._ Cymru Fu: Notes and Queries relating to the past
History of Wales and the Border Countries. 2 vols. Cardiff, 1887-90,
still proceeding.
DAVIES, _Mythology._ The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids by
Edward Davies, author of Celtic Researches. London, 1809.
DAY. Folk-Tales of Bengal by the Rev. Lal Behari Day. London, 1883.
DE GUBERNATIS, _Novelline._ Le Novelline di Santo Stefano raccolte da
Angelo De Gubernatis. Torino, 1869.
---- _Usi Natal._ A. De Gubernatis. Storia comparata degli Usi Natalizi
in Italia e presso gli altri-popoli Indo-Europei. Milano, 1878.
---- _Zool. Myth._ Zoological Mythology or The Legends of Animals by
Angelo De Gubernatis. 2 vols. London, 1872.
DENNYS. The Folk-Lore of China, and its affinities with that of the
Aryan and Semitic Races. By N. B. Dennys, Ph.D., F.R.G.S. London, 1876.
DES MICHELS. Contes Plaisants Annamites traduits en Français pour la
première fois par Abel Des Michels. Paris, 1888.
DORMAN. The Origin of Primitive Superstitions and their Development,
&c., among the Aborigines of America. By Rushton M. Dorman.
Philadelphia, 1881.
DORSA. La Tradizione Greco-Latina negli usi e nelle credenze popolari
della Calabria citeriore per Vincenzo Dorsa. 2a edizione. Cozenza, 1884.
_Early Trav._ Early Travels in Palestine, edited by Thomas Wright Esq.,
M.A., F.S.A., &c. London, 1848.
ELLIS. The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa. Their
religion, manners, customs, laws, language, &c. By A. B. Ellis. London,
1887.
FARRER. Primitive Manners and Customs. By James A. Farrer. London, 1879.
_F. L. Españ._ Folk-Lore Español. Biblioteca de las Tradiciones
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_Folk-Lore._ Folk-Lore, a quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition,
Institution, and Custom. London, 1890, still proceeding. [Organ of the
Folk-Lore Society.]
_F. L. Journal._ The Folk-Lore Journal. 7 vols. London, 1883-89. [Organ
of the Folk-Lore Society.]
_F. L. Record._ The Folk-Lore Record. 5 vols. N.D. [1878-82. Organ of
the Folk-Lore Society.]
FLEURY. Littérature Orale de la Basse-Normandie (Hague et Val-de-Saire)
par Jean Fleury. Paris, 1883.
GARNETT. The Women of Turkey and their Folklore by Lucy M. J. Garnett.
The Christian Women. London, 1890.
_Gent. Mag. Lib._ The Gentleman's Magazine Library: being a classified
collection of the chief contents of the Gentleman's Magazine from 1731
to 1868. Edited by George Lawrence Gomme, F.S.A. 11 vols. London,
1883-90, still proceeding. [Vols. not numbered, but distinguished by the
title of their contents.]
GERV. TILB. Des Gervasius von Tilbury Otia Imperialia. In einer Auswahl
neu herausgegeben und mit Anmerkungen begleitet von Felix Liebrecht.
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_Gesta Romanorum._ Gesta Romanorum translated from the Latin by the Rev.
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GIRALD. CAMBR. The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales,
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GRINNELL. Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk Tales with notes on the Origin,
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HAHN. See Von Hahn.
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_Kalewala._ Kalewala, des National-Epos der Finnen, nach der zweiten
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_Llyvyr Coch._ See _Y Llyvyr Coch_.
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INDEX.
Actæon, 71
Afghan legend, 183
Alsatian tales, 213, 216
American Indians, Tales of North, 268, 271, 314, 315
Ananci tale, 294
Animism, 25
Annamite tales, 200, 323
Arabian Nights Entertainments, 50, 69, 79, 84, 255, 260, 267
Arab tales (_see_ Arabian Nights Entertainments), 202, 300, 316, 319
Ardshi-Bordshi, 81
Arthur, King, 205, 207, 211, 212, 234
Art of Story-telling, 1, 5, 20.
In Western Highlands, 5;
Brittany, 7;
Portugal, Brazil, Gascony, Wales, England, 8;
France, Sicily, 9;
Panjab, 11;
Cashmere, New Zealand, Polynesia, Greenland, 12;
among the Malagasy, Ahts, Indian tribes of Guiana, 13;
in India, 14;
among the Algonkins, ancient Germans, Anglo-Saxons, ancient Welsh, 15;
Arabs, Guslars, 16;
Swahilis, 17;
Eskimo, 12, 19
Ascension Day, 90
Aubrey, John, 148, 244
Bahar Danush, 260
Ballafletcher, Cup of, 156
Bantik. _See_ Celebes
Bards, Welsh, 15
Baptism, superstitions concerning, 94, 101
Barrows, haunted, 141, 142, 146, 231
Basque tale, 293
Berchta, Dame, 70, 90
Blanik mountain, 184, 219, 220
Blood relationship among savages, 47
Bohemian tales, 56, 119, 175, 184, 219, 245, 251, 260, 294
Bona Dea, 84, 87
Bornoese tales, 300, 311, 324
Breton tales, 61, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 116, 138, 174, 190, 192, 293
Briar Rose, 247
Buddhist influence on tales, 295, _et seqq._
Bulgarian tales. _See_ Slavonic
Burmese tale, 267, 297
Burton, Sir Richard F. (_see_ Arabian Nights Entertainments), 16
Cabalists, the, a mediæval sect, 341
Carinthian tales, 173, 240
Cashmere, tales from. _See_ Indian
Celebes Islands, tale from, 267, 297
Changelings, 93, _et seqq._
Chinese superstitions, 97, 98
Chinese tales, 177, 178, 299, 300
Christening. _See_ Baptism
Christmas, 141, 142, 157, 159
Coals turned to gold, 49
Cologne, Three Kings of, 149, 150
Coptic tale, 181
Corpus Christi Day, 89
Corsican tale, 274
Cosquin, Emmanuel, 267, 297
Coventry, _See_ Godiva
Cretan tales, _See_ Greek
Cyclades, tale from, _See_ Greek
Danish superstitions, 96, 99, 231
Danish tales, 40, 44, 50, 56, 67, 103, 114, 130, 131, 140, 141, 144,
151, 185, 213, 294
Dardistan, tale from, 49
Davies, Rev. Edward, 136
Dean, Forest of, _See_ Forest
Death, savage belief on, 27
Derceto, a Phoenician goddess, 324
Devil, the, 42, 47, 69, 263, 280
Diana, 71
Diedrich, 213, 233
Dobocz, the robber chief, 218, 233
Dracs of the Rhone, 65, 100
Duffus, story of Lord, 148
Dyak, _See_ Bornoese
Edenhall, _See_ Luck
Edgehill, Battle of, 235
Edric the Wild, 302, 338, 340
Eggshells, changelings detected by, 153, _et seqq._, 125
Elidorus, tale of, 135
English superstitions, 96, 100, 205
English tales, 59, 61, 63, 64, 66, 68, 69, 106, 116, 124, 126, 139, 145,
146, 147, 178, 189, 211, 234, 244
Epimenides, tale of, 183
Eskimo tales, 137, 262
Esthonian tales, 201, 273, 280
Etiquette of various nations, 309, 321
Ezra, 182
Fairy Births and Human Midwives, 37, _et seqq._, 59, _et seqq._
Fairyland, 43, 47, 161, 196, 222
Fairy Tales, definition of, 3;
divisions of, 22;
principles of explanation of, 32
Feather-robe, 258, 267, 268, 298, 300, 301
Females, kinship through, _See_ Kinship
Finnish tales, 259, 329
Fire, superstitions respecting, 96, 97
Forest of Dean, 78
Folktale (_See_ Art of Story-telling), connection with folk-song, 14;
how to be reported, 21
Frazer J. G., 31, 249, 252
Frederick Barbarossa, 172, 213
French superstitions, 96
French tales (_See_ Breton), 42, 47, 65, 114, 119, 272, 293, 324, 342
Frog, Fairy as, _See_ Toad.
Gaelic tales, _See_ Scottish
Gerald, Earl, 210, 233
German superstitions, 95, 96, 99, 108, 140, 143, 279, 281
German tales (_See_ Alsatian, Pomeranian, Rügen, Swabian, Transylvanian),
48, 103, 113, 114, 118, 124, 126, 130, 137, 138, 139, 140, 142, 143,
149, 152, 172, 177, 185, 188, 192, 212, 214, 215, 216, 217, 238, 240,
241, 242, 243, 244, 259, 281, 327
Gervase of Tilbury, 65, 100, 145, 212, 234, 272, 284
Giraldus Cambrensis, 135
Gloucestershire (_See_ Forest of Dean, St. Briavels), 145
Godiva, legend of Lady, 71, _et seqq._
Gold Coast, custom at, 86
Gold Coast, tales of, 313, 324
Gold, fairy, turns to dross, 50
Grateful animals, _See_ Buddhist
Gratitude, fairy, 48, 218, 312, 316
Greek superstitions, 99, 100
Greek tales, 55, 82, 242, 267, 269, 290, 317
Grey, Sir George, 12, 285
Grimm, 120, 140, 212, 213, 216, 233
Guiana, tales from, 261, 289, 297, 299, 324
Guernsey, tales from, 62, 66, 114
Hades, food of, must not be eaten, 43, 44, 45, 47
Harold II., King, 72, 205
Hasan of Bassorah, tale of, 255, 291
Hebrew tale, 41, 55
Helpful beasts, _See_ Buddhist
Herla, King, tale of, 178, 234
Hero, the Hidden, the Sleeping, 205 _et seqq._, 228, 235
Hertha, a German goddess, 71, 89, 90
Hindoo customs, tales, _See_ Indian
Highland tales, _See_ Scottish
Holle, Dame, 215, 236
Icelandic tales, 113, 193
Imagination among savages, 2, 33
Im Thurn, Everard, 13, 230
Indian customs, 84
Indian tales, 82, 227, 268, 296, 317, 318, 338
Iolo Morganwg, 207
Irish superstitions, 96, 121, 123, 210, 211
Irish tales, 50, 52, 63, 107, 116, 118, 122, 128, 196, 198, 202, 210,
211, 259, 314, 324, 338
Iron, dislike of supernatural beings to, 50, 97, 126, 164, 306
Irving, Washington, 177, 181
Italian superstitions, 99
Italian tales (_see_ Corsican, Sicilian, Tirolese), 199, 293
Japanese tales, 174, 178, 194, 273, 301
Jewish tales, _See_ Hebrew
Jeremiah the prophet, 181 [TN: out of alphabetical order]
Kaffir tale, 328
Kan Püdäi, 42
Kathá-sarit-ságara, 318
Keats, 313
Kinship through females, 228, _et seqq._
Kirk Malew, Cup of, 155
Koran, _See_ Mohammed
Kurdish tale, 262, 292
Kurroglú, the robber-poet, 80
Kyffhäuser, 172, 214, 215, 229
Lady Wilde, _See_ Wilde
Lapp superstitions, 108
Lapp tales, 38, 57, 173, 329
Liebrecht, Felix, 79;
his Ghost Theory, 337
Lithuanian superstitions, 96
Lithuanian tales, 104, 120, 220, 221
Li Kì, a Chinese classic, 321
Loo Choo Islands, tale from, 318
Longfellow, 187
Luck of Edenhall, 153
Luther on Changelings, 109, 124
Luxemburg, 240, 253, 324
Luzel, F. M., 7, 190
Mabinogion, 188
MacRitchie, David, his Finn Theory, 349, _et seqq._
Mahábhárata, 317
Magyar tale, 260
Malagasy tale, 287
Malory, Sir Thomas, 205
Manx superstitions, 108, 210
Manx tales, 41, 106, 117, 155
Maori customs, 290
Maori tales, 45, 274, 285, 288, 289, 317, 319
Map, Walter, 178, 234, 302, 338, 340, 341
Marko, Prince, _or_ King, tale of, 218
Marquis of the Sun, tale of, 264, 291, 293
Marriage settlements, Indian, 321, 322
Maundeville, Sir John, 111, 239
Meddygon Myddfai, 325
Melusina, 240, 253, 272, 273, 321, 324, 327
Merlin, 209
Messia, the Sicilian story-teller, 9
Metamorphosis, 26, 31
Midsummer Day, _See_ St. John's Day
Midwives, adventures of, _See_ Fairy Births
Minstrel in Middle Ages, 15
Mohammed, 182, 224
Mohel, adventure of a, 41, 55
Moravian tale, 274
Morgan the Fay, 43, 204
Morris, William, 239, 260, 261
Mother-right, _See_ Kinship
Myddfai, Physicians of, _See_ Meddygon
Names, Savage feeling about, 309
Napoleon I., 206
Nereids, 55, 99, 242, 267, 317, 325
Netherlands, tale from, 188
New Guinea, tale from, 322
New Year's Eve and Night, 69, 248
New Zealand, _See_ Maori
Nightmare, the, 278, _et seqq._
Norwegian tales. _See_ Scandinavian
Odin, _See_ Woden
Ogier the Dane, _See_ Olger
Ointment, Magical, 59, _et seqq._
Oisin, 196, 198
Oldenburg Horn, 149
Olger the Dane, 43, 204, 213
Omens, 30
Osburg, foundress of nunnery at Coventry, 90
Ossian, _See_ Oisin
Ovid, 71
Owen Glendower, 209
Owen Lawgoch, 209
Parsees, _See_ Sad Dar
Peeping Tom, _See_ Godiva
Peleus, _See_ Thetis
Perrault, 247
Pitré, Dr., 9, 53, 192
Pliny, 86, 183
Pomeranian tales, 48, 51, 141, 217, 237, 242, 243, 251, 262, 281
Polynesian tales, 44, 45, 267, 319, 324
Portuguese superstition, 206
Portuguese tale, 181
Princess, the Enchanted, 237, _et seqq._, 262
Proserpine, 43, 48
Revenge, Fairy, 52, 59, _et seqq._, 65, _et seqq._
Rhys, Professor, 37, 64, 66, 110, 163, 164, 188, 231, 325, 330
Rip van Winkle, 177
Robberies from Fairyland, 135, _et seqq._
Roger of Wendover, _See_ Godiva
Roman superstition, 96
Russian tales, 119, 259, 265, 294, 298, 344
Rügen, Island of, tales from, 71, 89, 127, 152, 236
Sad Dar, a sacred book of Parsees, 96
Samoyede tale, 268
Savage ideas, 22;
evidence of, 32
Savages, imagination among, 2
Saxo Grammaticus, 44
Scandinavian tales (_see_ Icelandic,
Danish), 38, 115, 142, 150, 155, 217, 258, 281, 294, 318
Scottish superstitions, 94, 95, 96, 127, 133
Scottish tales, 55, 61, 98, 105, 111, 112, 118, 120, 121, 122, 125, 127,
130, 131, 132, 144, 148, 165, 166, 167, 180, 186, 241, 266, 293, 312
Sebastian, Don, 206
Sébillot, Paul, 67
Seven Sleepers, the, 182
Siberian tales, 42, 169
Sicilian superstitions, 100, 111
Sicilian tales, 53, 192, 212, 299
Siegfried, _or_ Sigurd, 212, 247
Sikes, Wirt, 64, 123, 137, 165, 278
Simrock, Karl, 101, 116
Slavonic superstitions, 206, 279
Slavonic tales (_see_ Bohemian, Russian, Lithuanian), 218, 266, 267,
298, 312
Southam, procession at, 85
Southey, 187
Spanish superstitions, 100, 205
Spanish tales, 187, 226, 264, 294, 315, 325, 339
Spirits, doctrine of, 25, 42
St. Augustine, 100, 235
St. Briavels, custom at, 78, 87
Stephens, Professor Dr. Geo., 150
St. John's Day, 214, 236, 238, 248
Story-telling, Art of, _See_ Art
Stoymir, the Knight, 220, 233
Swabian tales, 39, 52, 147, 244, 245, 253
Swan-maidens, 202, 255, _et seqq._, 283, _et seqq._, 337
Swedish tales, _See_ Scandinavian
Swiss tale, 49
Taboo, 270, 302, 304, 305, 306, 309, 311, 312, 318, 320, 337
Tacitus, 15, 71, 89
Tam Lin, ballad of, 242
Tawhaki and Tango-tango, tale of, 285, _et seqq._
Thetis, 242, 317, 329
Thomas of Erceldoune, 43, 102, 103
Time, supernatural lapse of, 161, _et seqq._, 196, _et seqq._, 222,
_et seqq._
Tini-rau, tale of, 286, _et seqq._
Tir na n 'Og, _See_ Oisin
Tirolese tales, 70, 184, 274, 293, 315, 325, 329, 348
Toad or frog, fairy as (_see_ Princess), 51, 52, 53, 338
Totemism, 27, 324, 331, 346
Tradition, definition of, 34
Traditions, variable value of, 4, 24
Transformations, doctrine of, 26, 31
Transylvanian tales, 52, 176, 189, 246, 258, 347
Ulrich von Rosenberg, 220, 233
Van Pool, Lady of the, 274, 325, 330
Vikramâditya, 81
Vitra, 38
Wäinämöinen, 45
Waldron, Geo., 41, 108, 156
Wastin of Wastiniog, tale of, 302
Welsh superstitions, 110, 126, 207, 209
Welsh tales, 37, 62, 63, 103, 113, 115, 122, 123, 126, 128, 135, 136,
162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 187, 188, 207, 209, 225, 269, 274,
294, 301, 302, 304, 305, 317, 325, 327, 330
Wenzel, King, 184, 219
Western Highlands, story-telling in, 5
Weyland Smith, 318
Wilde, Lady, 102, 128
Wild Edric, _See_ Edric
Wild Hunt, the, 233, 234, 236
William of Newbury, 146
Witchcraft, 29
Witches, 99, 143, 173, 336, 348
Woden, 212, 233, 247, 339
Yatsh, _or_ demon, wedding, 49
York, custom at, 90
Yorkshire, 189, 211
Zoroaster, 96
UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHILWORTH AND LONDON.