gained over another in the march of mind. The relics of such a
system were much more abundant half-a-century ago, and many a tale of
love and violence, garnished with the machinery of that _mythos_, might
have been gleaned from the unwritten learning of the people. Who would
expect to find amongst the rudest of the Irish peasantry--whose
ancestors never knew the use of letters, and by whom, even down to
living generations, the English tongue has not been spoken--a number of
fictions, amongst the rest the tale of Cupid and Psyche--closely
corresponding to that of the Greeks?[7] Who that has been a child does
not recollect the untiring delight with which he listened to those
ingenious arithmetical progressions, reduced to poetry, called "_The
House that Jack built_," and the perils of "_The Old Woman with the
Pig_?" Few even of those in riper years would suspect their Eastern
origin. In the _Sepher Haggadah_ there is an ancient parabolical hymn,
in the Chaldee language, sung by the Jews at the feast of the Passover,
and commemorative of the principal events in the history of that people.
For the following literal translation we are indebted to Dr Henderson,
the celebrated orientalist:--

"1. _A kid, a kid_ my father bought,
For two pieces of money.
A kid, a kid.

"2. Then came _the cat_, and ate the kid,
That my father bought,
For two pieces of money.
A kid, a kid.

"3. Then came _the dog_, and bit the cat,
That ate the kid,
That my father bought,
For two pieces of money.
A kid, a kid.

"4. Then came _the staff_, and beat the dog,
That bit the cat,
That ate the kid,
That my father bought,
For two pieces of money.
A kid, a kid.

"5. Then came _the fire_, and burnt the staff,
That beat the dog,
That bit the cat,
That ate the kid,
That my father bought,
For two pieces of money.
A kid, a kid.

"6. Then came _the water_, and quenched the fire,
That burnt the staff,
That beat the dog,
That bit the cat,
That ate the kid,
That my father bought,
For two pieces of money.