XLVIII. THE BLACK BULL OF NORROWAY
, much Anglicised in language, but otherwise unaltered.
Folk-Lore
Arcadia
, 1548. The “sale of bed” incident at the end has been bibliographised by Miss Cox in her volume of variants of
Nix Nought Nothing
L. THE THREE FEATHERS
Pop. Tales and Fictions
fabliau
capable de tout
Celtic Fairy Tales
LI. SIR GAMMER VANS
Suffolk Notes and Queries
Lugenmarchen
cf.
, p. 263.
LII. TOM HICKATHRIFT
c.
Funerall Monuments
Icenia
Imbanking
Norfolk
LIII. THE HEDLEY KOW
Italian Popular Tales, p. 373.
LIV. GOBBORN SEER
Lest, like the simple Arab in the tale,
I grow perplext, O God! ’twixt ME and THEE,
If I—this Spirit that inspires me whence?
If THOU—then what this sensual impotence?
In other words, M. Bourget’s
If I—the pumpkin why on YOU?
If YOU—then where am I, and WHO?
LVI. TATTERCOATS
Cinderella
episodes in common with stories of the Cinderella type.
King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
LVII. THE WEE BANNOCK
. I have attempted an impossibility, I fear, in trying to anglicise, but the fun of the original tempted me. There still remain several technical trade terms requiring elucidation. I owe the following to the kindness of the Rev. Mr. Todd Martin, of Belfast.
tow cards
Heckling
or rushes.
= spoon;
LVIII. JOHNNY GLOKE
sub voce.
LX. THE THREE COWS
Celtic Fairy Tales, No. v., “Conall Yellowclaw.” The same incident occurs in one of Sindbad’s voyages.
Remarks.—Here we have another instance of the localisation of a well-known myth. There can be little doubt that the version is ultimately to be traced back to the Odyssey. The one-eyed giant, the barred door, the escape through the blinded giant’s legs in the skin of a slaughtered animal, are a series of incidents that could not have arisen independently and casually. Yet till lately the mill stood to prove if the narrator lied, and every circumstance of local particularity seemed to vouch for the autochthonous character of the myth. The incident is an instructive one, and I have therefore included it in this volume, though it is little more than an anecdote in its present shape.