e Turks, and at Matwa in the Prussian province of
Posen. In the former a girl who is admitted into the cavern is warned
against touching a bell that, as in the Welsh tale, hangs in the
entrance. She cannot resist the temptation to transgress this command,
and is ignominiously ejected. In the latter, an old man buys corn for
the troops. Again, in the Carpathians, as in one of the sagas concerning
the Blanik, a smith is summoned to shoe the steeds. The Rev. W. S.
Lach-Szyrma, in addition to these stories, gave the Folklore Society
some years ago, from a chap-book of Posen, the following abstract of a
legend I have not met with elsewhere: "Once upon a time, in Mazowia,
there were seven victorious leaders. After having won a hundred battles,
finding their beards had grown white, they ordered their soldiers to
build in their honour a very high tower. The soldiers built and built,
but every day part of the tower tumbled down. This lasted a whole year.
The leaders, after supper, assembled at the ruins of the tower. Here, at
the sound of lutes and songs, immediately a tower grew up from the earth
to heaven, and on its seven pinnacles shone the seven helmets of the
seven leaders. Higher and higher they rose, but brighter and brighter
they shone till they appeared as the seven stars in heaven. The soldiers
sank down into graves which had been dug round the tower and fell
asleep. The tower has melted out of view, but on fine nights we still
see the seven helmets of the leaders, and the soldiers are sleeping till
they are wanted."[165]

FOOTNOTES:

[148] "Choice Notes," p. 94.

[149] Curtin, p. 327. See also Kennedy, p. 240, and "F. L. Record," vol.
ii. p. 15, where the late Mr. H. C. Coote quotes the "Transactions of
the Ossianic Society."

[150] Comparetti, vol. i. p. 212. An English version is given by Mr.
Coote, "F. L. Record," vol. ii. p. 12. Madame D'Aulnoy gives a similar
story in her "Histoire d'Hypolite, Comte de Douglas," which seems to be
the original of a tale in verse quoted by Mr. Baring-Gould from
Dodsley's "Poetical Collection." See "F. L. Record," vol. ii. p. 8;
Baring-Gould, p. 547.

[151] Des Michels, p. 38; Kreutzwald, p. 212. See also my article on
"The Forbidden Chamber," "F. L. Journal," vol. iii. p. 193, where the
relations of the Esthonian tale to the myth of the Forbidden Chamber are
discussed.

[152] Dennys, p. 98, "Gent. Mag. Lib." (Eng. Trad. Lore), p. 22; "Revue
des Trad. Pop." vol. iii. p. 5