Cucullin's power-finger is another instance of the life-index or external soul, on which see remarks on Sea-Maiden. Mr. Nutt informs me that parodies of the Irish sagas occur as early as the sixteenth century, and the present tale may be regarded as a specimen.
XIX. FAIR, BROWN, AND TREMBLING.
Source.—Curtin, Myths, &c., of Ireland, 78 seq.
Parallels.—The latter half resembles the second part of the Sea-Maiden (No. xvii.), which see. The earlier portion is a Cinderella tale (on which see the late Mr. Ralston's article in Nineteenth Century, Nov. 1879, and Mr. Lang's treatment in his Perrault). Miss Roalfe Cox is about to publish for the Folk-Lore Society a whole volume of variants of the Cinderella group of stories, which are remarkably well represented in these isles, nearly a dozen different versions being known in England, Ireland, and Scotland.
XX. JACK AND HIS MASTER.
Source.—Kennedy, Fireside Stories of Ireland, 74–80, "Shan an Omadhan and his Master."
Parallels.—It occurs also in Campbell, No. xlv., "Mac a Rusgaich." It is a European droll, the wide occurrence of which—"the loss of temper bet" I should call it—is bibliographised by M. Cosquin, l.c. ii. 50 (cf. notes on No. vi.).
XXI. BETH GELLERT.
Source.—I have paraphrased the well-known poem of Hon. W. R. Spencer, "Beth Gêlert, or the Grave of the Greyhound," first printed privately as a broadsheet in 1800 when it was composed ("August 11, 1800, Dolymalynllyn" is the colophon). It was published in Spencer's Poems 1811, pp. 78–86. These dates, it will be seen, are of importance. Spencer states in a note: "The story of this ballad is traditionary in a village at the foot of Snowdon where Llewellyn the Great had a house. The Greyhound named Gelert was given him by his father-in-law, King John, in the year 1205, and the place to this day is called Beth-Gêlert, or the grave of Gelert." As a matter of fact, no trace of the tradition in connection with Bedd Gellert can be found before Spencer's time. It is not mentioned in Leland's Itinerary, ed. Hearne, v. p. 37 ("Beth Kellarth"), in Pennant's Tour (1770), ii. 176, or in Bingley's
