has, however, been shown that this does not occur in early MSS. or editions, and was only added at the end to amuse the children after the service, and was therefore only a translation or adaptation of a current German form of the jingle; (2) M. Basset, in the Revue des Traditions populaires, 1890, t. v. p. 549, has suggested that it is a survival of the old Greek custom at the sacrifice of the Bouphonia for the priest to contend that he had not slain the sacred beast, the axe declares that the handle did it, the handle transfers the guilt further, and so on. This is ingenious, but fails to give any reasonable account of the diffusion of the jingle in countries which have had no historic connection with classical Greece.
XI. GOLD TREE AND SILVER TREE.[1]
Source.—Celtic Magazine, xiii. 213–8, Gaelic and English from Mr. Kenneth Macleod.
Parallels.—Mr. Macleod heard another version in which "Gold Tree" (anonymous in this variant) is bewitched to kill her father's horse, dog, and cock. Abroad it is the Grimm's Schneewitchen (No. 53), for the Continental variants of which see Köhler on Gonzenbach, Sicil. Märchen, Nos. 2–4, Grimm's notes on 53, and Crane, Ital. Pop. Tales, 331. No other version is known in the British Isles.
Remarks.—It is unlikely, I should say impossible, that this tale, with the incident of the dormant heroine, should have arisen independently in the Highlands: it is most likely an importation from abroad. Yet in it occurs a most "primitive" incident, the bigamous household of the hero: this is glossed over in Mr. Macleod's other variant. On the "survival" method of investigation this would possibly be used as evidence for polygamy in the Highlands. Yet if, as is probable, the story came from abroad, this trait may have come with it, and only implies polygamy in the original home of the tale.
XII. KING O'TOOLE AND HIS GOOSE.
Source.—S. Lover's Stories and Legends of the Irish Peasantry.
Remarks.—This is really a moral apologue on the benefits of keeping your word. Yet it is told with such humour and vigour, that the moral glides insensibly into the heart.
- ↑ Since the first issue Mr. Nutt has made a remarkable discovery with reference to this tale, which connects it with Marie de France's Lai d'Eliduc (c. 1200) and renders it probable that the tale is originally Celtic. Mr. Nutt thinks that the German version may be derived from England.
