. Balfour originally to _Longman's
Magazine_, and thence to _Folk-Lore_, Sept., 1890.

_Remarks._--A rustic apologue, which is scarcely more than a prolonged
pun on "Coat o' Clay." Mrs. Balfour's telling redeems it from the usual
dulness of folk-tales with a moral or a double meaning.

LX. THE THREE COWS

_Source._--Contributed to Henderson, _l.c._, pp. 321-2, by the Rev. S.
Baring-Gould.

_Parallels._--The incident "Bones together" occurs in _Rushen Coatie_
(_infra_, No. lxx.), and has been discussed by the Grimms, i., 399, and
by Prof. Koehler, _Or. und Occ._, ii., 680.

LXI. THE BLINDED GIANT

_Source._--Henderson's _Folk-Lore of Northern Counties_. See also
_Folk-Lore_.

_Parallels._--Polyphemus in the Odyssey and the Celtic parallels in
_Celtic Fairy Tales_, No. v., "Conall Yellowclaw." The same incident
occurs in one of Sindbad's voyages.

_Remarks._--Here we have another instance of the localisation of a
well-known myth. There can be little doubt that the version is
ultimately to be traced back to the Odyssey. The one-eyed giant, the
barred door, the escape through the blinded giant's legs in the skin of
a slaughtered animal, are a series of incidents that could not have
arisen independently and casually. Yet till lately the mill stood to
prove if the narrator lied, and every circumstance of local
particularity seemed to vouch for the autochthonous character of the
myth. The incident is an instructive one, and I have therefore included
it in this volume, though it is little more than an anecdote in its
present shape.

LXII. SCRAPEFOOT

_Source._--Collected by Mr. Batten from Mrs. H., who heard it from her
mother over forty years ago.

_Parallels._--It is clearly a variant of Southey's _Three Bears_ (No.
xviii.).

_Remarks._--This remarkable variant raises the question whether Southey
did anything more than transform Scrapefoot into his naughty old woman,
who in her turn has been transformed by popular tradition into the
naughty girl Silver-hair. Mr. Nutt ingeniously suggests that Southey
heard the story told of an old vixen, and mistook the rustic name of a
female fox for the metaphorical application to women of fox-like temper.
Mrs. H.'s version to my mind has all the marks of priority. It is
throughout an animal tale, the touch at the end of the shaking the paws
and the name Scrapefoot are too _volkstuemlich_ to have been conscious
variations on Southey's tale. In introducing the story in