These prevail in Scotland, and are identical with sacrifices by the blacks amongst whom Speke and Grant travelled--so Grant told me. Anything to do with serpents has special interest because of the extent of ancient serpent worship, for which see Ferguson’s great book on Tree and Serpent Worship in India and elsewhere. The connection between tree and well worship in India and in Scotland generally, and generally in the old world, is well worth investigation; also anything that is like the Vedic forms of religion, at which you can get by reading Wilson’s Translation of the Rigveda Sanhitâ, and the works of Max Muller. Anything belonging specially to the sea is interesting. The Aryans are supposed to have been natives of Central Asia, to whom the sea must have been a great mystery. Now it is a fact that all the Aryan nations have curious beliefs and ceremonies and practices about going to sea, _e.g._--you must not whistle at sea; you must not name a mouse _Luds_ in Argyll but _Biast tighe_; you must not say the shore names for _fine_ or _low_ when at sea, but use sea terms; all that is curious and very hard to get at. Even to me they will not confess their creed in the supernatural. I have a great lot of stuff that might be useful to you, and I shall be glad to serve you, because there is a certain narrow-minded spirit abroad to which reference is made in the paper which I send herewith. It is highly probable that I may be out in the west in spring or summer. Yours very truly, J. F. CAMPBELL. The following letter refers to the longest and most complex tale orally preserved in the Highlands, ‘The Leeching of Kian’s Leg.’ The version which Islay mentions is still unprinted. It is preserved with a portion of his MSS. in the Advocate’s Library at Edinburgh, and a summary of its contents has been published by me in _Folk-Lore_, Vol. I., p. 369. Mr. Campbell’s fragmentary version was printed and translated by him, ‘Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 1888.’ Another fragmentary version, collected by the Rev. D. MacInnes, will be found in Vol. II. of this series. The oldest known MS. version, alluded to in this letter, has been edited and translated by Mr. Standish Hayes O’Grady in _Silva Gadelica_, from a 15th century MS. A re-telling of the story, based upon all the versions, will be found in Mr. Jacob’s _More Celtic Fairy Tales_.--A. N. May, 4, 71. NIDDRY LODGE, KENSINGTON. MY DEAR SIR, I sent you a _Times_ review of Clerk’s Ossian the other day to amuse you; also a paper with an account of fighting in Paris, where I was at Easter.