96 Collectanea.
28. Vintinov crave e na fumma A fan trenta bestie. Twenty-nine goats and one woman Make thirty beasts.
To the last proverb women rei)ly : —
29. L" oni, r asu e 1' pitu a s' asmiu.
A man, an ass, and a turkey are the same.
E. Canziani.
County Clare Folk-Tales and Myths, I.
In continuation of A Folklore Survey of County Clare} I now present a collection of quasi-historic tales and traces of tales, ranging from mythical times to the early eighteenth century. Few counties can boast such a rich and unbroken series, and, although I dare not assert that all the tales have been passed from mouth to mouth " without book," — and indeed hold an opposite view in certain cases, — it is probable that many were so transmitted. In some examples it may be instructive to compare the tradition with written history. I have arranged the tales in chronological order, and tried to eliminate all clearly derived from books in recent years. I shall, however, show how modern books on King Brian have veneered the purer tradition of 1890 near Killaloe, and record the oldest written tales about* the district. There is no reason to believe that the local accounts of De Clare's wars, the Armada, or the great Civil War of 1641-51, go back to any other than a remote traditional source.- The tales of the saints were probably drawn, long ago, from the actual legenda read in the churches. The wild stories of gods and heroes probably came down orally from incredibly remote periods.^
^ Vols, xxi., xxii., and xxiii. Map, vol. x\i., I'l. xi.
-The tales have, however, been touched up and remodelled since 1892.
'•* I do not refer to the euhemerized tales of the Tuatha De Danann, of which the recension dates probably little, if at all, before the Norse wars, and far later than the introduction of Christianity.
