Under this head, we include all those legends which do not readily fall
under our other denominations. Fée and fairy are not synonymous. All
such tales as those of the "Arabian Nights" might come within the
designation of Contes des Fées, but they could hardly be included under
Fairy Tales, though the former may be said to embrace the latter. We
have divided our legends of this kind into two sections:--(A)
Those which have a greater or less similarity to Keltic legends, as
recorded in Campbell's "Tales of the West Highlands," and elsewhere;
(B) Those which we believe to be derived directly from the French.
We have chosen the designation Keltic, because the burning question
concerning the Basques at present is their relation to the Keltic
race. Anything that can throw light upon this will have a certain
interest for a small portion of the scientific world. That these
legends do in some degree resemble the Keltic ones will, we think,
be denied by no one. Whether they have a closer affinity with them
than with the general run of Indo-European mythology may be an open
question. Or, again, whether the Basques have borrowed from the Kelts,
or the Kelts from the Basques, we leave undetermined. One legend here
given, that of "Juan Dekos," has clearly been borrowed from the Gaelic,
and that since the Keltic occupation of the Hebrides. [73] The very
term Keltiberi, as used by the classical writers, shows some contact
of the Kelts with the Basques in ancient times, whether we take Basque
and Iberi to be co-extensive and convertible terms or not. What the
rôle of the "White Mare" is in these tales we do not understand. Can
it be connected with the figure of a horse which appears so frequently
on the so-called Keltiberian coins, or is it a mere variation of the
Sanscrit "Harits, or horses of the sun?" Campbell, Vol. I., p. 63,
says these "were always feminine, as the horses in Gaelic stories are."
It may be, perhaps, as well to mention that we did not see Campbell's
"Tales of the West Highlands" till after these legends had been
written down.
(A.)--TALES LIKE THE KELTIC.