were on her lips. She spent her days very lonely for another twelvemonth, when a beautiful little girl was sent to her. Then she thought to herself she'd have a sharp eye about her this time; so she never would allow a window to be more than a few inches open.

"But all her care was in vain. Another evening when they were all so happy and the prince dandling the baby, a beautiful greyhound bitch stood before them, took the child out of the father's hand, and was out of the door before you could wink. This time she shouted, and ran out of the room, but there were some of the servants in the next room, and all declared that neither child nor dog passed out. She felt, she could not tell how, to her husband, but still she kept command over herself, and didn't once reproach him.

"When the third child was born she would hardly allow a window or door to be left open for a moment; but she wasn't the nearer to keep the child to herself. They were sitting one evening by the fire, when a lady appeared standing by them. She opened her eyes in a great fright, and stared at her, and while she was doing so, the appearance wrapped a shawl round the baby that was sitting in its father's lap, and either sunk through the ground with it, or went up through the wide chimney. This time the mother kept her bed for a month.

I

My dear,' said she to her husband, when she was beginning to recover, think I'd feel better if I was after seeing my father, and mother, and sisters once more. If you give me leave to go home for a few days, I'd be glad.' 'Very well,' said he, 'I will do that; and whenever you feel inclined to return, only mention your wish when you lie down at night. The next morning when she awoke, she found herself in her own old chamber in her father's palace. She rung the bell, and in a short time she had her mother, and father, and her married sisters about her, and they laughed till they cried for joy at finding her safe back again.

"So in time she told them all that had happened to her, and they didn't know what to advise her to do. She was as fond of her husband as ever, and said she was sure that he couldn't help letting the children go; but still she was afraid beyond the world to have another child to be torn from her. Well, the mother and sisters consulted a wise woman that used to bring eggs to the castle, for they had great confidence in her wisdom. She said the only plan was to secure the bear's skin that the prince was obliged to put on every morning and get it burned, and then he couldn't help being a man night and day, and then the enchantment would be at an end.

"So they all persuaded her to do that, and she promised she would; and after eight days she felt so great a longing to see

her husband again, that she made the wish the same night, and when she woke three hours after, she was in her husband's palace, and himself was watching over her. There was great great joy on both sides, and they were very happy for many days.

"Now she began to reflect how she never felt her husband leaving her of a morning: and how she never found him neglecting to give her a sweet drink out of a gold cup just as she was going to bed.

"So one night she contrived not to drink any of it, though she pretended to do so; and she was wakeful enough in the morning, and saw her husband passing out through a pannel in the wainscot, though she kept her eyelids nearly closed. The next night she got a few drops of the sleepy posset, that she saved the evening before, put into her husband's night drink, and that made him sleep sound enough. She got up after midnight, passed through the pannel, and found a beautiful brown bear's hide hanging in an alcove. She stole back and went down to the parlour fire, and put the hide into the middle of it, and never took eyes off of it till it was all fine ashes. She then lay down by her husband, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and fell asleep.

"If she was to live a hundred years she'd never forget how she wakened next morning, and found her husband looking down on her with misery, and anger in his face. Unhappy woman,' said he, you have separated us for ever! Why hadn't you patience for five years? I am now obliged, whether I like or no, to go a three days' journey to the witch's castle, and live with her daughter. The skin that was my guard you have burned it, and the eggwife that gave you the counsel was the witch herself. I won't reproach you: your punishment will be severe enough without it. Farewell for ever!'

"He kissed her for the last time, and was off the next minute walking as fast as he could. She shouted after him, and then seeing there was no use, she dressed herself, and pursued him. He never stopped, nor stayed, nor looked back, and still she kept him in sight; and when he was on the hill she was in the hollow, and when he was in the hollow she was on the hill. Her life was almost leaving her, when just as the sun was setting, he turned up a bohyeen (lane), and went into a little house. She crawled up after him, and when she got inside, there she saw a beautiful little boy on his knees, and he kissing and hugging him. 'Here, my poor darling,' says he, 'is your eldest child, and there,' says he, pointing to a nice middle-aged woman that was looking on with a smile on her face, is the eagle that carried him away.' She forgot all her sorrows in a moment, hugging her child, and laughing and crying over him. The Vanithee washed their feet, and rubbed them with an ointment that took

all the soreness out of their bones, and made them as fresh as a daisy. Next morning just before sunrise he was up, and prepared to be off. 'Here,' said he to her, is a thing which may be of use to you. It's a scissors, and whatever stuff you cut with it, will be turned into rich silk. The moment the sun rises I'll lose all memory of yourself and the children; but I'll get it at sunset again; farewell.' But he wasn't far till she was in sight of him again, leaving her boy behind. It was the same to day as yesterday: their shadows went before them in the morning, and followed them in the evening. He never stopped, and she never stopped, and as the sun was setting, he turned up another lane, and there they found their little daughter. It was all joy and comfort again till morning, and then the third day's journey commenced.

"But before he started he gave her a comb, and told her that whenever she used it, pearls and diamonds would fall from her hair. Still he had his full memory from sunset to sunrise; but from sunrise to sunset he travelled on under the charm, and never threw his eye behind. This night they came to where the youngest baby was, and the next morning just before sunrise, the prince spoke to her for the last time. Here, my poor wife,' said he, 'is a little hand-reel, with gold thread that has no end, and the half of our marriage ring. If you can ever get to my bed, and put your half ring to mine I will recollect you. There is a wood yonder; and the moment I enter it, I will forget everthing that ever happened between us, just as if I was born yesterday. Farewell, dear wife and child for ever." Just then the sun rose, and away he walked towards the wood. She saw it open before him, and close after him; and when she came up, she could no more get in than she could break through a stone wall. She wrung her hands, and shed tears, but then she recollected herself, and cried out: Wood, I charge you by my three magic gifts-the scissors, the comb, and the reel, to let me through;' and it opened, and she went along a walk till she came in sight of a palace, and a lawn, and a woodman's cottage in the edge of the wood where it came nearest the palace.

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abroad, and every one that saw him remarked how silent and sorrowful he went about, like a person that was searching for some lost thing.

"The servants and conceited folk at the big house began to take notice of the beautiful young woman at the lodge, and to annoy her with their impudent addresses. The head-footman was the most troublesome, and at last she invited him to come take tea with her. Oh, how rejoiced he was, and how he bragged of it in the servants' hall! Well, the evening came, and the footman walked into the lodge, and' was shown to her sitting-room; for the lodge-keeper and his wife stood in great awe of her, and gave her two nice rooms to herself. Well, he sat down as stiff as a ramrod, and was talking in a grand style about the great doings at the castle, while she was getting the tea and toast ready. 'Oh,' says she to him, 'would you put your hand out at the window, and cut me off a sprig or two of honeysuckle?' He got up in great glee, and put out his hand and head; and said she, by the virtue of my magic gifts, let a pair of horns spring out of your head, and serenade the lodge. Just as she wished, so it was. They sprung from the front of each ear, and tore round the walls till they met at the back. Oh, the poor wretch! and how he bawled, and roared! and the servants that he used to be boasting to, were soon flocking from the castle, and grinning, and huzzaing, and beating tunes on tongs, and shovels, and pans; and he cursing and swearing, and the eyes ready to start out of his head, and he so black in the face, and kicking out his legs behind like mad.

"At last she pitied his case, and removed the charm, and the horns dropped down on the ground, and he would have killed her on the spot, only he was as weak as water, and his fellow-servants came in, and carried him up to the big house.

"Well, some way or other, the story came to the ears of the prince, and he strolled down that way. She had only the dress of a country-woman on her as she sat sewing at the window, but that did not hide her beauty, and he was greatly puzzled and disturbed, after he had a good look at her features, just as a body is perplexed to know whether something happened to him when he was young, or if he only dreamed it. Well, the witch's daughter heard about it too, and she came to see the strange girl; and what did she find her doing, but cutting out the pattern of a gown from brown paper; and as she cut away, the paper became the richest silk she ever saw. The lady looked on with very covetous eyes, and, says she, 'What would you be satisfied to take for that scissors.' take nothing,' says she, but leave to spend one night in the prince's chamber, and I'll swear that we'll be as innocent of any

'I'll

erime next morning as we were in the evening.' Well the proud lady fired up, and was going to say something dreadful; but the scissors kept on cutting, and the silk growing richer and richer every inch. So she agreed, and made her take a great oath to keep her promise.

"When night came on she was let into her husband's chamber, and the door was locked. But, when she came in a tremble, and sat by the bed side, the prince was in such a dead sleep, that all she did couldn't awake him. She sung this verse to him, sighing and sobbing, and kept singing it the night long, and it was all in vain :

"Four long years I was married to thee;

Three sweet babes I bore to thee; Brown Bear of Norway, won't you turn to me?'

"At the first dawn, the proud lady was in the chamber, and led her away, and the footman of the horns put out his tongue at her as she was quitting the palace.

"So there was no luck so far; but the next day the prince passed by again, and looked at her, and saluted her kindly, as a prince might a farmer's daughter, and passed on; and soon the witch's daughter came by, and found her combing her hair, and pearls and diamonds dropping from it.

"Well, another bargain was made, and the princess spent another night of sorrow, and she left the castle at daybreak, and the footman was at his post, and enjoyed his revenge.

"The third day the prince went by, and stopped to talk with the strange woman. He asked her could he do anything to serve her, and she said he might. She asked him did he ever wake at night. He said that he was rather wakeful than otherwise; but that during the last two nights, he was listening to a sweet song in his dreams, and could not wake, and that the voice was one that he must have known and loved in some other world long ago. Says she, 'Did you drink any sleepy potion either of these evenings before you went to bed?' I did,' said he. The two evenings my wife gave me something to drink, but I don't know whether it was a sleepy posset or not.' 'Well, prince,' said she, as you say you would wish to oblige me, you can do it by not tasting any drink this afternoon.' will not,' says he, and then he went on his walk.

I

"Well, the great lady was soon after the prince, and found the stranger using her

hand-reel, and winding threads of gold off

it, and the third bargain was made.

"That evening the prince was lying on his bed at twilight, and his mind much disturbed; and the door opened, and in his princess walked, and down she sat by his bed-side, and sung:—

"Four long years I was married to thee; Three sweet babes I bore to thee; Brown Bear of Norway, won't you turn to me?'

"Brown Bear of Norway!' said he: 'I don't understand you.' 'Don't you remember, prince, that I was your wedded wife for four years?' 'I do not,' said he, 'but I'm sure I wish it was so.' 'Don't you remember our three babes, that are still alive?' 'Show me them. My mind is all a heap of confusion.' 'Look for the half neck, and fit it to this.' He did so, and of our marriage ring, that hangs at your

the same moment the charm was broken. His full memory came back on him, and he flung his arms round his wife's neck, and both began to shed tears.

"Well, there was a great cry outside, and the castle walls were heard splitting and cracking. Every one in the castle was alarmed, and made their way out. The prince and princess went with the rest, and by the tinre all were safe on the lawn,

down came the building, and made the ground tremble for miles round. No one ever saw the witch and her daughter afterwards. It was not long till the prince and princess had their children with them, and then they set out for their own palace. The kings of Ireland, and of Munster, and Ulster, and their wives, soon came to visit them, and may every one that deserves it be as happy as the Brown Bear of Norway and his family."

In the Leadbeater Papers will be found another version of the concluding legend of this paper. We have read it very lately, and are under the impression of its differing in locality and circumstance from our own issue of it, but how far we know no more than if it never had come beneath our eyes. Our memory is most faithful as to what interested us in 1815, but most treacherous in recollections of what we heard or read in the early part of 1862. What we heard from Mrs. Kelly in 1810, or thereabouts, is here given to the reader most conscientiously. It is a curious instance of old circumstances being attached to the fortunes of a new man, such as Earl Garrett must be considered when thought of in comparison with Siegfried, the dragon slayer, or Osgur, grandson of Fionn.

Such legends belong to a race which has been obliged to give way, partially, at least, to a rougher and less James IV. of imaginative people. Scotland survived Flodden, and will appear when his country wants him.

of which Diedrick of Berne (Theodric of Verona), and Charlemagne, and his nephew, Roland, are the central figures. It would appear from comparison that the Grecian and Roman Mythology, and the sacred books of the Hindoos, and the Iceland Eddas, and the collections quoted, contain a large mass of invented fiction or tradition, derived from a common source, and varied according to climate, social usages, natural features of localities, and spirit of government.

It is not at all easy to form any sure opinion on the mythology of the people among whom the fireside stories, or the Celtic traditions proper, have originated. According as a change in the religious belief of a people was effected, the peculiar religious flavour of the fictions evaporated, and was succeeded by something characteristic of the new faith.

However, as time wore on, and early religious fervour was lost, the devotional element became powerless, and the mere action of the pieces remained untouched. Many expressions in our surviving fictions are meaningless to us, but were once very significative, and probably illustrated some mythological point, which is now and probably will be ever unknown. By a careful comparison of all our fictional remains, something may be done. The Song of the Fairies, in the Lusmore's Rath, was meaningless till illustrated by the Breton Version.

In conclusion, we exhort every person who takes interest in the oral literary lore of the people, to collect whatever has been left among living uneducated men and women. A few years later and it will inevitably be lost.

IN answer to a question, who was the most brilliant and powerful being of the eighteenth century? the voices of the civilized world, joining in a mingled chorus of applause and antipathy, would, doubtless, reply-Voltaire. Considering the magnitude of his labours and their potent effects, he still remains the greatest literary man of Europe and the world. His activity equalled his powers, he was one of the few whom the Germans call world men, one of the few universal spirits who have extended the empire of their intellect over every domain of thought. Actuated from his earliest boyhood with an aspiring ambition to trace his name on all the literary monuments of the age, he was the first who gave the literary character a status in Europe. Before his day, men of letters were either patronized by classes or the pensioners of courts; the independent intellect of Voltaire aspired to a larger constituency-that of nations-of humanity.

His long life of eighty-four years was passed in creation and contest; theatres became the forts of this warrior of ideas; and with the artillery of

the printing press of Europe marshalled by his genius, he marched to battle, frequently to victory, always to renown. In this long war waged against Catholicism and despotism, he achieved a new kingship, that of public opinion; and with this power under his control, he shook thrones, severed the chains of centuries, dissipated the clouds of the past, and emancipated the souls of humanity with laughter and light. If the armies and fleets of a great power are a majestic sight, the hundred volumes of Voltaire, which were instrumental in destroying so many errors of the age, and which opened a brightening vista for humanity, are one still greater.

Those works, the product of his life, genius, and talents, resemble a gigantic tree, but it is a tree of good and evil it has produced an immense harvest of healthy fruit, but it also casts its upas shadow. The Dramas and Discourses in Verse stand side by side with "La Pucelle;" the treatise on Toleration," and those defences of Sirven, Le Barre, Lally, in which he championed the cause of humanity, beside the Philosophical Dictionary. What is infamous in Vol