be great probability that originally all folk-tales of a serious character
were interspersed with rhyme, and took therefore the form of the
_cante-fable_. It is indeed unlikely that the ballad itself began as
continuous verse, and the _cante-fable_ is probably the protoplasm
out of which both ballad and folk-tale have been differentiated, the
ballad by omitting the narrative prose, the folk-tale by expanding it.
In "Childe Rowland" we have the nearest example to such protoplasm,
and it is not difficult to see how it could have been shortened into
a ballad or reduced to a prose folk-tale pure and simple.

The subject-matter of "Childe Rowland" has also claims on our
attention especially with regard to recent views on the true nature
and origin of elves, trolls, and fairies. I refer to the recently
published work of Mr. D. MacRitchie, "The Testimony of Tradition"
(Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner & Co.)--_i.e._, of tradition about
the fairies and the rest. Briefly put, Mr. MacRitchie's view is that
the elves, trolls, and fairies represented in popular tradition are
really the mound-dwellers, whose remains have been discovered in some
abundance in the form of green hillocks, which have been artificially
raised over a long and low passage leading to a central chamber open
to the sky. Mr. MacRitchie shows that in several instances traditions
about trolls or "good people" have attached themselves to mounds,
which have afterwards on investigation turned out to be evidently the
former residence of men of smaller build than the mortals of to-day.
He goes on further to identify these with the Picts--fairies are
called "Pechs" in Scotland--and other early races, but with these
ethnological equations we need not much concern ourselves. It is
otherwise with the mound-traditions and their relation, if not to
fairy tales in general, to tales _about_ fairies, trolls, elves,
etc. These are very few in number, and generally bear the character of