rallels._--Jacques de Vitry _Exempla_, ed. Prof. Crane, No. xiii.,
and references given in notes, p. 139. It occurs in Swift and in modern
Italian folk-lore.

_Remarks._--The _Exempla_ were anecdotes, witty and otherwise, used by
the monks in their sermons to season their discourse. Often they must
have been derived from the folk of the period, and at first sight it
might seem that we had found still extant among the folk the story that
had been the original of Jacques de Vitry's _Exemplum_. But the
theological basis of the story shows clearly that it was originally a
monkish invention and came thence among the folk.

LXVIII. THE CHILDREN IN THE WOOD

_Source._--Percy, _Reliques_. The ballad form of the story has become
such a nursery classic that I had not the heart to "prose" it. As Mr.
Allingham remarks, it is the best of the ballads of the pedestrian
order.

_Parallels._--The second of R. Yarrington's _Two Lamentable Tragedies_,
1601, has the same plot as the ballad. Several chap-books have been made
out of it, some of them enumerated by Halliwell's _Popular Histories_
(Percy Soc.) No. 18. From one of these I am in the fortunate position of
giving the names of the _dramatis personae_ of this domestic tragedy.
Androgus was the wicked uncle, Pisaurus his brother who married Eugenia,
and their children in the wood were Cassander and little Kate. The
ruffians were appropriately named Rawbones and Woudkill. According to a
writer in _3 Notes and Queries_, ix., 144, the traditional burial-place
of the children is pointed out in Norfolk. The ballad was known before
Percy, as it is mentioned in the _Spectator_, Nos. 80 and 179.

_Remarks_.--The only "fairy" touch--but what a touch!--the pall of
leaves collected by the robins.

LXIX. THE HOBYAHS

_Source._--_American Folk-Lore Journal_, iii., 173, contributed by Mr.
S.V. Proudfit as current in a family deriving from Perth.

_Remarks._--But for the assurance of the tale itself that Hobyahs are no
more, Mr. Batten's portraits of them would have convinced me that they
were the bogles or spirits of the comma bacillus. Mr. Proudfit remarks
that the cry "Look me" was very impressive.

LXX. A POTTLE O' BRAINS

_Source._--Contributed by Mrs. Balfour to _Folk-Lore_, II.

_Parallels._--The fool's wife is clearly related to the Clever Lass of
"Gobborn Seer," where see Notes.

_Remarks._--The fool is obviously of the same family as he of the "Coat
o' Clay" (No. lix.)