h ended in
the eric-fine being imposed upon the three children of Turenn, the
accomplishment of which forms the basis of the fairy-tale which
follows (p. 54). Then, in another place in the same tale, when the
brothers are on their adventurous journey, fulfilling their eric-fine,
they come to the house of the King of Sigar; and it "happened that the
king was holding a fair-meeting on the broad, level green before the
palace."

In another story the hero Maildun asks the island queen how she passes
her life, and the reply is, "The good king who formerly ruled over
this island was my husband. He died after a long reign, and as he left
no son, I now reign, the sole ruler of the island. And every day I go
to the Great Plain, to administer justice and to decide causes among
my people."

The beginning of another story is--"Once upon a time, a noble, warlike
king ruled over Lochlann, whose name was Colga of the Hard Weapons. On
a certain occasion, this king held a meeting of his chief people, on
the broad, green plain before his palace of Berva. And when they were
all gathered together, he spoke to them in a loud, clear voice, from
where he sat high on his throne; and he asked them whether they found
any fault with the manner in which he ruled them, and whether they
knew of anything deserving of blame in him as their sovereign lord and
king. They replied, as if with the voice of one man, that they found
no fault of any kind."

The last example is also a valuable one. A dispute has occurred
respecting the enchanted horse, the Gilla Dacker, and "a meeting was
called on the green to hear the award." Speeches are made and the
awards are given.[71]

I think it will be admitted that the folk-tales of Britain refer back
in such cases to the organisation of the tribe in early times, and the
only possible conclusion to be drawn from this fact is that they too
belong to early times and that they have brought with them to modern
days these valuable fragments of history which are hardly to be
discovered in any other historical document.

We have thus shown that the folk-tale contains many fragmentary
details of ancient social conditions, and further that it contains
more than mere details in the larger place it assigns to important
features of tribal institutions. It now remains to see whether apart
from incident the very structure and heart of the folk-tale is founded
upon conceptions of life. I will take as an example the well-know