Notes and References 229

Europe, and have been discussed by Mr. Clouston in a special mono-
gtaph in The Book of Noodles, 1889. The “sell” at the end is similar
to that in the “Wise Men of Gotham.” Kennedy (Fireside Stories
of Ireland) gives a similar set of adventures, p. 119 seg.
Remarks.—Mrs. Gale remarks that it was a common superstition
in Ireland, that if a raven hovered over the head of cattle, a withering
blight had been set upon the animals. As birds of carrion they were
supposed to be waiting for the carcases. i

XXXVI. THE FARMER OF LIDDESDALE

Sources.— MacDougal, Watfs and Strays, I11. ix. pp. 216-21.
Paratlets.—Campbell, West Highland Tales, “The Master and the
Man,” iii. 288-92.

                                        

ation of the Plough-
man with the As usual in folk-tales, that personage does
not get the best of the bargain. The rustic Faust evades his contract
by a direct appeal to the higher powers. This is probably character-
istic of Scotch piety.

 

XXXVII. THE GREEK PRINCESS AND THE
YOUNG GARDENER.

Sources.—Kennedy, Fireside Stores, pp. 47-56.

Parallels —Campbell, West Highland Tales, lvi.; Mac Iain Direach,
ii. 344-76. He gives other variants at the end. The story is clearly
that of the Grimms’ “Golden. Bird,” No. 57. They give various
parallels in their notes. Mrs. Hunt refers to an Eskimo version in
Rae’s White Sea Peninsula, called “ Kuobba the Giant and the Devil.”
But the most curious and instructive parallel is that afforded by the
Arthurian Romance of Walewein (ce., Gawain), now only extant in
Dutch, which, as Professor W. P. Re has pointed out in Folk-lore,
v. 121, exactly corresponds to the popular tale, and thus carries it back
in Celtdom to the early twelfth century at the latest.

XXXVIII. THE RUSSET DOG.

Source.—I have made up this Celtic Reynard out of several fables
given by Campbell, West Highland Tales, under the title “ Fables,”
vol. i. pp. 275 seg.; and “The Keg of Butter” and the “ The Fox and
the little Bonnach,” vol. iii. Nos. Ixv. Ixvi.

Parallels—The Fox’s ruse about a truce emong the animals is a