for five centuries; or did
some early and unconscious folklorist adapt it into literature? The
literary version has the flavour of its priestly influence, which does
not appear in the traditional version; and I make the preliminary
observation that if literature could have so stamped itself upon the
memory of the folk as to have preserved all the essentials of such a
story as this, it must have been due to some academic influence (of
which, however, there is no evidence), and this influence would have
preserved a nearer likeness to literary forms than the peasant's tale
presents to us. But the objection to this theory is best shown by an
analysis of the tale, and by some research into the possible sources
of its origin.

The story presents us with the following essential incidents:--

1. The gift of a well-stocked farm by a father to each of his
children.

2. The surrender of all property during the owner's lifetime.

3. The living of the old father with each of his children.

4. The attempted killing of the old man.

5. The mallet bearing the inscription.

6. The rhyming formula of the inscription.

Mr. Campbell notes the first and third of these incidents in his
original abstract of the story,[87] but of the remaining second,
fourth, fifth, and sixth no note has hitherto been taken.

Of the first incident, the gift of a well-stocked farm by a father to
each of his children, Mr. Campbell says: "This subdivision of land by
tenants is the dress and declaration put on by a class who now tell
this tale." But it also represents an ancient system of swarming off
from the parent household when society was in a tribal stage. The
incident of the tale is exactly reproduced in local custom. In the
island of Skye the possessor of a few acres of land cut them up only a
few years ago into shreds and patches to afford a separate dwelling
for each son and daughter who married.[88] In Kinross, in 1797, the
same practice prevailed. "Among the feuars the parents are in many
instances disposed to relinquish and give up to their children their
landed possessions or the principal part of them, retaining only for
themselves some paltry pendicle or patch of ground."[89] In Ireland
and in Cornwall much the same evidence is forthcoming, and elsewhere I
have taken some pains to show that these local customs are the
isolated survivals in late times of early tribal practices.[90]

We next turn to the second essential incident of the t