[Footnote 10: Mr. Hunter had previously instituted a similar argument in the case of Adam Bell, and doubtless the reasoning might be extended to Will Scathlock and Little John. With a little more rummaging of old account-books we shall be enabled to "comprehend all vagrom men." It is a pity that the Sheriff of Nottingham could not have availed himself of the services of our "detective."] [Footnote 11: See Wright's _Essays,_ ii. 207. "The name of Witikind, the famous opponent of Charlemagne, who always fled before his sight, concealed himself in the forests, and returned again in his absence, is no more than _uitu chint,_ in Old High Dutch, and signifies the _son of the wood,_ an appellation which he could never have received at his birth, since it denotes an exile or outlaw. Indeed, the name Witikind, though such a person seems to have existed, appears to be the representative of all the defenders of his country against the invaders."] [Footnote 12: Thus, in Kent, the Hobby-Horse is called _hooden,_ i.e. wooden. It is curious that Orlando, in _As You Like It,_ (who represents the outlaw Gamelyn in the _Tale of Gamelyn,_ a tale which clearly belongs to the cycle of Robin Hood,) should be the son of Sir Rowland de Bois. Robin de Bois (says a writer in _Notes and Queries,_ vi. 597) occurs in one of Sue's novels "as a well-known mythical character, whose name is employed by French mothers to frighten their children."] [Footnote 13: Kuhn, in Haupt's _Zeitschrift fuer deutsches Alterthum,_ v. 472. The idea of a northern myth will of course excite the alarm of all sensible, patriotic Englishmen, (e.g. Mr. Hunter, at page 3 of his tract,) and the bare suggestion of Woden will be received, in the same quarters, with an explosion of scorn. And yet we find the famous shot of Elgill, one of the mythical personages of the Scandinavians, (and perhaps to be regarded as one of the forms of Woden,) attributed in the ballad of _Adam Bel_ to William of Cloudesly, who may be considered as Robin Hood under another name.] [Footnote: 14. Unless importance is to be attached to the consideration that May is the Virgin's month.] [Footnote 15: As in Tollett's window.] [Footnote 16: In Lord Hailes's _Extracts from the Book of the Universal Kirk._] [Footnote 17: More openly exhibited in the mock battle between Summer and Winter celebrated by the Scandinavians in honor of May, a custom still retained in the Isle of Man, where the month is every year ushered in with a contest between the Queen of Summer and the Queen of Winter. (Brand's _Antiquities,_ by Ellis, i. 222, 257.) A similar ceremony in Germany, occurring at Christmas, is noticed by Kuhn, p. 478.]