I think it is obvious that the writer of our story was familiar with this and other legends in which swan-maids encircled with gold and silver chains appear, and that we may fairly draw the following conclusions from the preceding facts: There existed an Irish folk-tale of a king with two wives, one a water or sea fairy, whose children derive from her the capacity of shape-shifting dependent upon certain talismans; jealousy impels the human wife to tamper with these talismans, and the children are condemned to remain in their animal form. This folk-tale was, probably at some time in the 14th or 15th century, arbitrarily fitted into the _cadre_ of the Tuatha de Danann cycle, and entirely re-fashioned in a spirit of pious edification by a man who was in his way a great and admirable artist. The origin and nature of the story, all the elements of which are genuinely national, assured for it wide and lasting popularity. The evolution of the Irish folk-tale is in no way dependent upon that of the Continental folk-tale of the Seven Swans, but it is possible that the Celtic presentiment of the chain-girdled swans may have influenced it as well as the Swan Knight Romance. XXVIII. JACK THE CUNNING THIEF. _Sources._--Kennedy, _Stories of Ireland_, pp. 38-46; Campbell, _West Highland Tales_, i. 320 _seq._; "The Shifty Lad," Dasent, _Popular Tales from the Norse_, pp. 232-51, "Master Thief." Koehler has a number of variants in his notes on Campbell: _Orient und Occident_, Band ii. Mr. Clouston has a monograph on the subject in his _Popular Tales_, ii. 115-65. A separate treatise on the subject has been given by S. Prato, 1882, _La Leggenda di Rhampsinite_. Both these writers connect the modern folk-tales with Herodotus' story of King Rampsinites. Mr. Knowles in his _Folk-tales of Kashmir_, has a number of adventures of "Sharaf the Thief." The story of "Master Thief" has been heard among the tramps in London workhouses (Mayhew, _London Labour and London Poor_, iii. 119). _Remarks._--Thievery is universally human, and at first sight it might seem that there was no connection between these various versions of the "Master Thief." But the identity of the tricks by which the popular hero-thief gains his ends renders it impossible that they should have been independently invented wherever they are found. XXIX. POWEL, PRINCE OF DYFED. _Source._--Lady Guest's _Mabinogion_, with the names slightly anglicised, and omitting the opening incident. _Parallels._--For the incident of tearing off the hands, _cf._ Morraha; the enchanted hill and maiden occur at the beginning of "Tuairisgeul Mor" in _Scottish Celtic Review_, i. 61, and are fully commented upon by Mr. Nutt, _l.c._ 137. XXX. PADDY O'KELLY AND THE WEASEL. _Sources._--Hyde, _Beside the Fire_, pp. 73-91. _Parallels._--On green hills as the homes of the fairies: see note on "Childe Roland," _English Fairy Tales_, p. 241. The transformation of witches into hares is a frequent _motif_ in folk-lore.