326 A Century of Science 



swan maidens, the giant who had no heart in his 

 body, the cloak of darkness, the sword of light, the 

 magic steed which overtakes the wind before and 

 outstrips the wind behind ; the pot of plenty, from 

 which one may eat forever, and the cup that is 

 never drained ; the hero who performs impossible 

 tasks, and wooes maidens whose beauty hardly re- 

 lieves their treacherous cruelty : " I must tell you 

 now that three hundred king's sons, lacking one, 

 have come to ask for my daughter, and in the 

 garden behind my castle are three hundred iron 

 spikes, and every spike of them but one is covered 

 with the head of a king's son who could n't do 

 what my daughter wanted of him, and I 'm greatly 

 in dread that your own head will be put on the one 

 spike that is left uncovered." The princess in this 

 story Shaking - Head is such a wretch, not 

 a bit better than Queen Labe in the " Arabian 

 Nights," that one marvels at the hero for marrying 

 her at last, instead of slicing off her head with his 

 two-handed sword of darkness, and placing it on 

 the three-hundredth spike. But moral as well as 

 physical probabilities are often overstrained in this 

 deliciously riotous realm of folk-lore. 



Along with much material that is common to 

 the Aryan world there is some that is peculiar to 

 Ireland, while the Irish atmosphere is over every- 



