The Scottish Celtic review

—"1-iONotes cm the Tuairisgeul Mbr.hero's action. The bcspelling is not motive in the same way asin our story in any variant that I know. The incident of thethree brothers casting lots which should eat the other may becompared with the well-known ballad of the " sea-faring man(which exists in French as " Le petit navire "). Cf. Folk-LoreRecord, vol. iii., part ii., pp. 253 etss. The very unusual form ofthe calumniated wife story which follows is of the utmost interestowing to close similarity in many details to the Mabinogi ofPwyll, Prince of Dyfcd. There, as here, a gigantic hand comesthrough the roof and carries off, twice running, the new-born foalin the one, the new-born child in the other story. The thirdtime Teirnyon cuts off the monster's arm, taking it off at theelbow, just as the wolf " took the hand off at the shoulder." Inthe Mabinogi nothing further is told re.sijecting the monster, nordoes it actually appear as carrying off Pwyll's child ; the latterdisappears, however, at the same time as Teirnyon's foal, and certainlyby the same agency. The carrying off of St. George, in theEnglish ballad, may perhaps be mentioned in the same connection.The Welsh Gellcrt story may possibly be related to ours,or at all events have been influenced by a similar version of thecalumniated wife. The close agreement between Pwyll and theHighland tale makes it not improbable that a genuine folk-tale,constructed on precisely the same lines as the latter, existed formerlyin Wales. As regards the remaining incidents of the story,the magician and the great Tuarisgeul would seem to be identical(perhaps the old man, too, is the same ?), the familiar cauldron ofrenovation appears, and the horse which the hero wins from themagician, and u]5on which he accomplishes his task, is quite forgotten.As a rule he turns out to be the bespelled brother of theheroinee.g., in the already quoted Petit Louis, Jilleul du roi cleFrance, in the Irish Conn-Ecla (Folk-Lore Record, vol. ii. pp. 180etss), and in the Danish Mons Tro (Folk-Lore Record, vol. iii.,part ii., pp. 214 etss). The same thing happens to the fox, who,in Grimms bl, Der Goldene Vogel, is the helping animal. Forvariants, see Grimm, vol. iii., p. 98.270 Strand, London.Alfred Nutt.[Note.—In the introductory remarks to the tale of the TuairisgeulMbr, in the first number of the Revieiv, there is a misprint ofLamhanaich for Samhanaich, the giants who dwelt in caves bythe sea. It is a common expression to say of any strong offen-