But the most remarkable addition that has recently been made to Gaelic prose literature is Mr J. F. Campbell’s collection of “Sgeulachdan” or ancient Highland tales. It was long known that a large amount of this kind of literature existed in the Highlands; that it formed the treasure of the reciter, a character recognised and appreciated in every small community; and that it was the staple fireside amusement of many a winter evening. Specimens of this literature appeared occasionally in print, and one of great interest, and remarkably well given, called _Spiorad na h-aoise_, “The Spirit of Age,” appears in _Leabhar nan Cnoc_, the collection already spoken of. Mr Campbell set himself to collect this literature from the traditions of the people, and he has embodied the result in four goodly volumes, which every lover of the language and literature of the Celt must prize. Many coadjutors aided Mr Campbell in his undertaking, and he was happy in finding, as has been already said, in Mr Hector M’Lean, teacher, Islay, a most efficient collector and transcriber of the tales. These tales were known among the Highlanders as “Sgeulachdan” Tales, or “Ursgeulan” Noble Tales, the latter having reference usually to stories of the Fingalian heroes. They are chiefly “Folk lore” of the kinds which are now known to pervade the world amongst a certain class as their oral literature. The Tales themselves are of various degrees of merit, and are manifestly derived from various sources. Some of them took their origin in the fertile imagination of the Celt, while others are obviously of classical origin, and are an adaptation of ancient Greek and Latin stories to the taste of the Celt of Scotland. Mr Campbell, in his disquisitions accompanying the tales, which are often as amusing and instructive as the tales themselves, traces numerous bonds of connection between them and similar legends common to almost all the European nations. He shows where they meet and where they diverge, and makes it very clear that most of them must have had a common origin. It has been maintained that many of these legends were brought to Scotland by returning Crusaders; that they were often the amusement of the camp among these soldiers of the ancient Church; and that, related among hearers of all nations, they became dispersed among those nations, and that thus Scotland came to obtain and to retain her share of them.