ur of translating part of his book, under the title of
_Irische Elfenmaerchen_. Among the novelists and tale-writers of the
schools of Miss Edgeworth and Lever folk-tales were occasionally
utilised, as by Carleton in his _Traits and Stories_, by S. Lover in
his _Legends and Stories_, and by G. Griffin in his _Tales of a
Jury-Room_. These all tell their tales in the manner of the stage
Irishman. Chapbooks, _Royal Fairy Tales_ and _Hibernian Tales_, also
contained genuine folk-tales, and attracted Thackeray's attention in
his _Irish Sketch-Book_. The Irish Grimm, however, was Patrick Kennedy,
a Dublin bookseller, who believed in fairies, and in five years (1866-
71) printed about 100 folk- and hero-tales and drolls (classes 2, 3,
and 4 above) in his _Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts_, 1866,
_Fireside Stories of Ireland_, 1870, and _Bardic Stories of Ireland_,
1871; all three are now unfortunately out of print. He tells his
stories neatly and with spirit, and retains much that is _volkstuemlich_
in his diction. He derived his materials from the English-speaking
peasantry of county Wexford, who changed from Gaelic to English while
story-telling was in full vigour, and therefore carried over the
stories with the change of language. Lady Wylde has told many
folk-tales very effectively in her _Ancient Legends of Ireland_, 1887.
More recently two collectors have published stories gathered from
peasants of the West and North who can only speak Gaelic. These are by
an American gentleman named Curtin, _Myths and Folk-Tales of Ireland_,
1890; while Dr. Douglas Hyde has published in _Beside the Fireside_,
1891, spirited English versions of some of the stories he had published
in the original Irish in his _Leabhar Sgeulaighteachta_, Dublin, 1889.
Miss Maclintoch has a large MS. collection, part of which has appeared
in various periodicals; and Messrs. Larminie and D. Fitzgerald are
known to have much story material in their possession.

But beside these more modern collections there exist in old and middle
Irish a large number of hero-tales (class 2) which formed the staple of
the old _ollahms_ or bards. Of these tales of "cattle-liftings,
elopements, battles, voyages, courtships, caves, lakes, feasts, sieges,
and eruptions," a bard of even the fourth class had to know seven
fifties, presumably one for each day of the year. Sir William Temple
knew of a north-country gentleman of Ireland who was sent to sleep
every evening with a