The Scottish Celtic review

Notes on the Tioainsgeul Mhr. 139worthless person or object in exchange for the steed. Thus, inCampbell, No. 1, the young king is to take no fair woman, butthe "cropped, rough-skinned maid." The bargain, too, is no fairone, as the hero keeps the bridle, which, being shaken, bringsback the steed. This may be compared to Cumphell, No. 4G,where the "Gille Martean" takes the shape of the persons orobjects promised by the hei'o to those who had spared his life, butspeedily returns to his master.In Grimm's No. 68, Der Gaudeif,the hero turns himself into a hound, is sold for a large sum ofmoney by his father, to whom he comes back upon the firstoccasion. Compare, likewise, Der Hasenliirt, Wolf, Deutsche Hausmdrchen,p. 13-i, whore the hero sells the hare, but immediatelyrecalls him with his magic whistle. Of frequent occurrence, too,is the injunction laid on the hero to do the contrary of what he istold. Thus, in Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, Arawn directs Pwyll notto strike Havgan a second time, however much the latter mayentreat him to do so. Cf also Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, pp. 238,239. The calumniated wife story told by the old man presents theclosest analogies with the third incident in the Mabinogi of Pwyll—a fact of great interest, considering the other points of contactalready dwelt upon between the two tales. The opening incidentmay be compared to Joyce, No. 1, The Fate of the Children of Lir,in which the wicked step-mother changes her step-children intoswans. Wolves are animals of equal importance with the latterin folk-literature, and the traditions of their transformation intomen, or vice versa, which in the Middle Ages assumed a peculiarlyghastly shape, are very widespread. Cf. Baring Goidd, CuriousMyths, and Liehrecht Fur VolksJcunde, p. 17. The subject is anobscure and complicated one, upon which little light is thrown byour story. The Persian, Roman, and Teutonic forms of theAryan Expulsion and Return-Formula may be examined withadvantage in this connection, and in particular that portion of theTeutonic Heldensage which deals with the transformation intowolves of Siegmund and Siniiotli.Another point, which may beof gi-eat importance, should be noticed : the transformed sons,unable to take any other i-evenge, come and kill the hens of theirstep-mother. Now it is a common incident in folk-tales that abespelled animal comes by night and ravages the field or theorchard of the hero's or heroine's family (cf , among the countlessvariants, Campbell, No. 41, Grimm, No. CO, and Asbjornsen and.Moe, No. 31), being eventually released from the spells by the