he origin of popular
fiction, and the transmission of similar tales from age to age, and
from country to country. The mythology of one period would then appear
to pass into the romance of the next century--and that, into the
nursery tale of subsequent ages. Such an investigation, while it went
greatly to diminish our ideas of the richness of human invention,
would also show that these fictions, however wild and childish,
possess such charms for the populace, as enable them to penetrate into
countries unconnected by manners and language, and having no apparent
intercourse to afford the means of transmission. It would carry me far
beyond my bounds to produce instances of this community of fable,
among nations who never borrowed from each other anything
intrinsically worth learning. Indeed, the wide diffusion of popular
fictions may be compared to the facility with which straws and
feathers are dispersed abroad by the wind, while valuable metals
cannot be transported without trouble and labour."

Sir Walter, in appending this observation to a tradition extracted
from "Grahame's Sketches of Scenery in Perthshire" pp. 116-118,
remarks--"that this story, translated by Dr. G. from a Gaelic
tradition, is to be found in the _Otia Imperialia_ of Gervase of
Tilbury."

Now, it is not a little singular, that of the self-same legend we have
also an original edition, received from a Welsh woman, as it is
current in Wales, and "believed to be true in the place where it
happened"--as she averred--but whereabout in Cambria that was she
failed to inform us. Here, then, is her account of a fairy favour:--

"The _accoucheuse_ of a small village in Wales was one night aroused
by a carriage driving furiously through it, and stopping at her door.
A gentleman hastily alighted, entered her humble abode, and, stating
that his lady required her assistance, scarcely allowed the good woman
time to wrap a few garments around her, ere he hurried her into the
carriage, which drove off with both of them, as if coachman and horses
were mad. After the lapse of a few minutes the carriage stopped; the
good woman was taken out, and ushered into a most splendid
mansion--although the midnight darkness was too great to allow of her
noticing its exterior and situation. After the infant was born, being
about to wash and dress it, a box of some kind of ointment was put
into her hands, wherewith she was desired to anoint it all over; and
in doing this she happe