But as the whole connection of the Legend with the Charlemagne Cycle is late, we need not attribute much importance to, indeed, we may at once dismiss their conjecture. These disputes of the pundits cannot destroy the charm of the Legend. Never, even in antiquity, have the claims of friendship been urged with such a passionate emphasis. The very resemblance of the two heroes is symbolic of their similarity of character; the very name of one of them is Friend pure and simple. The world is well lost for friendship’s sake on the one side, on the other nearest and dearest are willingly and literally sacrificed on the altar of friendship. One of the most charming of the _Fioretti_ tells how St. Francis overcame in himself the mediæval dread at the touch of a leper, and washed and tended one of the poor unfortunates. He was but following the example of Amil, who was not deterred by the dreaded sound of the “tartavelle”—the clapper or rattle which announced the approach of the leper {4}—from tending his friend. Here again romance has points of contact with the folk tale. The end of the Grimms’ tale of _Faithful John_ is clearly the same as that of _Amis and Amile_. {5} Once more we are led to believe in some dependence of the Folk-Tale on Romance, or, _vice versa_, since an incident like that of resuscitation by the sacrifice of a child is not likely to occur independently to two different tellers of tales. The tale also contains the curious incident of the unsheathed sword in bed, which, both in romances and folk-tales, is regarded as a complete bar to any divorce court proceedings. It is probable that the sword was considered as a living person, so that the principle _publico_ was applied, and the sword was regarded as a kind of chaperon. {6} It is noteworthy that the incident occurs in _Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp_, which is a late interpolation into the _Arabian Nights_, and may be due there to European influence. But another incident in the romance suggests that it was derived from a folk-tale rather than the reverse. The two bowls of wood given to the heroes at baptism are clearly a modification of that familiar incident in folk-tales, where one of a pair leaves with the other a “Lifetoken” {7} which will sympathetically indicate his state of health. As this has been considerably attenuated in our romance, we are led to the conclusion that it is itself an adaptation of a folk-tale. IV