" Those who like to compare the stories which they find in
various places will not fail to note its likeness to Hans Christian
Andersen's "Big Claus and Little Claus." The story of the monk and the
bird, in Chapter IX., Mr. Yeats reproduces from Croker, though not
from the work of his which has already been mentioned. I could not
resist the temptation to better the story, as I thought, by the
addition of an incident from a German version of it, and everybody
will remember the beautiful form in which it appears in Longfellow's
"The Golden Legend." From Mr. Yeats's "The Celtic Twilight" I have the
little story of the conversation between the diver and the conger, in
Chapter II. It is a pleasure to refer to two such fine and scholarly
works as Dr. Douglas Hyde's "Beside the Fire" and William Larminie's
"West Irish Folk-Tales and Romances." From the former of these I have
borrowed the substance of the story of Guleesh na Guss Dhu, in Chapter
IV., and from the latter that of the ghost and his wives, in Chapter
VII.
Having thus confessed my indebtedness, it would seem that my next duty
was to pay it.
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