amily have been connected with
this parish for over two hundred years, and who has given me great
assistance. He says: My father was born at Startley in 1784, and
remained there until about 1840. Both he and my grandfather were deeply
imbued with old folklore. I well remember them constantly speaking of
the firm belief handed down to them of the heathen burial places at
Seagry, and of the supposed ruins of a church and some religious house
at Seagry. I think the discoveries made (on the very spot mentioned by
tradition) in August, 1882, are abundant proof that after the lapse of
more than nine centuries actual verification of the carefully
transmitted tradition has at last been found."--_Bath Herald_, 1st
September, 1883. If references to other examples were needed I should
like to note Sir William Wilde's illustration as to "how far the
legend, the fairy tale, the local tradition, or the popular
superstition may have been derived from absolute historic
fact."--_Lough Corrib_, 121, 123.

[51] _Echoes from the Counties_ (1880), p. 30.

[52] Grierson, _The Silent Trade_ (1903).

[53] Pearson's _Chances of Death_, ii. 90. The reader should consult
Dr. Pearson's entire study on this subject, chapters ix. and x., which
may be compared with Mr. MacCulloch's _Childhood of Fiction_, 5-15, and
more particularly with Mr. Hartland's _Science of Fairy Tales_.

[54] In 1881 I read a paper before the Folklore Society on "Some
Incidents in the story of the Three Noodles by means of reference to
facts," _Folklore Record_, iv. 211, and in 1883 I published in the
_Antiquary_, two papers on "Notes on Incidents in Folk-tales," based
upon the same idea.

[55] Introduction, p. lxix.

[56] Introduction, p. lxxvii.

[57] Page 12.

[58] _Ibid._, p. 26.

[59] _Ibid._, p. 5.

[60] _Tales of the Highlands_, i. p. 251.

[61] Kennedy, _loc. cit._, p. 77.

[62] _Ibid._, p. 90.

[63] See Beda, _Hist. Ecclesia_, lib. i. cap. 25.

[64] See vol. i. p. 253.

[65] Miss Frere's _Old Deccan Days_, p. 279.

[66] AElian, _Var. Hist._, lib. xiii. cap. xxxiii.

[67] _Folklore Record_, vol. iv. p. 57.

[68] _Asiatic Researches_, xvii. p. 502.

[69] _Folklore Record_, vol. iii. p. 284.

[70] Campbell's _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_, i. 308.

[71] Joyce, _Old Celtic Romances_, 38, 75, 153, 177, 270. In the _Silva
Gadelica_, by Mr. Standish O'Grady, the assembly is described sitting
in a circle, vol. ii. p. 159, and Tara is also