a thousand years. I have selected as a specimen of this class the
Story of Deirdre, collected among the Scotch peasantry a few years
ago, into which I have been able to insert a passage taken from an
Irish vellum of the twelfth century. I could have more than filled
this volume with similar oral traditions about Finn (the Fingal of
Macpherson's "Ossian"). But the story of Finn, as told by the Gaelic
peasantry of to-day, deserves a volume by itself, while the
adventures of the Ultonian hero, Cuchulain, could easily fill
another.

I have endeavoured to include in this volume the best and most
typical stories told by the chief masters of the Celtic folk-tale,
Campbell, Kennedy, Hyde, and Curtin, and to these I have added the
best tales scattered elsewhere. By this means I hope I have put
together a volume, containing both the best, and the best known
folk-tales of the Celts. I have only been enabled to do this by the
courtesy of those who owned the copyright of these stories. Lady
Wilde has kindly granted me the use of her effective version of "The
Horned Women;" and I have specially to thank Messrs. Macmillan for
right to use Kennedy's "Legendary Fictions," and Messrs. Sampson Low
& Co., for the use of Mr. Curtin's Tales.

In making my selection, and in all doubtful points of treatment, I
have had resource to the wide knowledge of my friend Mr. Alfred Nutt
in all branches of Celtic folk-lore. If this volume does anything to
represent to English children the vision and colour, the magic and
charm, of the Celtic folk-imagination, this is due in large measure
to the care with which Mr. Nutt has watched its inception and
progress. With him by my side I could venture into regions where the
non-Celt wanders at his own risk.