e list of parallels attached to Mr. Lang's
variant in _Revue Celtique_, iii. 374; and Mr. Lang, in his _Custom and
Myth_ ("A far travelled Tale"), has given a number of parallels from
savage sources. And strangest of all, the story is practically the same
as the classical myth of Jason and Medea.

_Remarks_.--Mr. Nutt, in his discussion of the tale (MacInnes, _Tales_
441), makes the interesting suggestion that the obstacles to pursuit,
the forest, the mountain, and the river, exactly represent the boundary
of the old Teutonic Hades, so that the story was originally one of the
Descent to Hell. Altogether it seems likely that it is one of the
oldest folk-tales in existence, and belonged to the story-store of the
original Aryans, whoever they were, was passed by them with their
language on to the Hellenes and perhaps to the Indians, was developed
in its modern form in Scandinavia (where its best representative "The
Master Maid" of Asbjoernsen is still found), was passed by them to the
Celts and possibly was transmitted by these latter to other parts of
Europe, perhaps by early Irish monks (see notes on "Sea-Maiden"). The
spread in the Buddhistic world, and thence to the South Seas and
Madagascar, would be secondary from India. I hope to have another
occasion for dealing with this most interesting of all folk-tales in
the detail it deserves.

XXV. BREWERY OF EGGSHELLS.

_Source_.--From the _Cambrian Quarterly Magazine_, 1830, vol. ii. p.
86; it is stated to be literally translated from the Welsh.

_Parallels_.--Another variant from Glamorganshire is given in Y
Cymmrodor, vi. 209. Croker has the story under the title I have given
the Welsh one in his _Fairy Legends_, 41. Mr. Hartland, in his _Science
of Fairy Tales_, 113-6, gives the European parallels.

XXVI. LAD WITH THE GOAT SKIN.

_Source_.--Kennedy, _Legendary Fictions_, pp. 23-31. The Adventures of
"Gilla na Chreck an Gour'."

_Parallels_.--"The Lad with the Skin Coverings" is a popular Celtic
figure, _cf._ MacDougall's Third Tale, MacInnes' Second, and a
reference in Campbell, iii. 147. According to Mr. Nutt (_Holy Grail_,
134), he is the original of Parzival. But the adventures in these tales
are not the "cure by laughing" incident which forms the centre of our
tale, and is Indo-European in extent (_cf._ references in _English
Fairy Tales_, notes to No. xxvii.). "The smith who made hell too hot
for him is Sisyphus," says Mr. Lang (Introd. to Grimm