Lastly, I have again to rejoice in the co-operation of my friend,
Mr. J. D. Batten, in giving form to the creations of the folk-fancy.
He has endeavoured in his illustrations to retain as much as
possible of Celtic ornamentation; for all details of Celtic
archaeology he has authority. Yet both he and I have striven to give
Celtic things as they appear to, and attract, the English mind,
rather than attempt the hopeless task of representing them as they
are to Celts. The fate of the Celt in the British Empire bids fair
to resemble that of the Greeks among the Romans. "They went forth to
battle, but they always fell," yet the captive Celt has enslaved his
captor in the realm of imagination. The present volume attempts to
begin the pleasant captivity from the earliest years. If it could
succeed in giving a common fund of imaginative wealth to the Celtic
and the Saxon children of these isles, it might do more for a true
union of hearts than all your politics.

JOSEPH JACOBS.



CONTENTS

I. CONNLA AND THE FAIRY MAIDEN

II. GULEESH

III. THE FIELD OF BOLIAUNS

IV. THE HORNED WOMEN