are rarely repeated. The facts here collected lead
inevitably to the conclusion that the Tell myth was known, in its
general features, to our Aryan ancestors, before ever they left their
primitive dwelling-place in Central Asia.

It may, indeed, be urged that some one of these wonderful marksmen may
really have existed and have performed the feat recorded in the legend;
and that his true story, carried about by hearsay tradition from one
country to another and from age to age, may have formed the theme for
all the variations above mentioned, just as the fables of La Fontaine
were patterned after those of AEsop and Phaedrus, and just as many of
Chaucer's tales were consciously adopted from Boccaccio. No doubt there
has been a good deal of borrowing and lending among the legends of
different peoples, as well as among the words of different languages;
and possibly even some picturesque fragment of early history may have
now and then been carried about the world in this manner. But as the
philologist can with almost unerring certainty distinguish between the
native and the imported words in any Aryan language, by examining their
phonetic peculiarities, so the student of popular traditions, though
working with far less perfect instruments, can safely assert, with
reference to a vast number of legends, that they cannot have been
obtained by any process of conscious borrowing. The difficulties
inseparable from any such hypothesis will become more and more apparent
as we proceed to examine a few other stories current in different
portions of the Aryan domain.

As the Swiss must give up his Tell, so must the Welshman be deprived of
his brave dog Gellert, over whose cruel fate I confess to having shed
more tears than I should regard as well bestowed upon the misfortunes
of many a human hero of romance. Every one knows how the dear old brute
killed the wolf which had come to devour Llewellyn's child, and how the
prince, returning home and finding the cradle upset and the dog's mouth
dripping blood, hastily slew his benefactor, before the cry of the child
from behind the cradle and the sight of the wolf's body had rectified
his error. To this day the visitor to Snowdon is told the touching
story, and shown the place, called Beth-Gellert, [3] where the dog's
grave is still to be seen. Nevertheless, the story occurs in the
fireside lore of nearly every Aryan people. Under the Gellert-form it
started in the Panchatantra, a collection