Chapter XI: Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree.1

_Source._--_Celtic Magazine_, xiii. 213-8, Gaelic and English from Mr. Kenneth Macleod.

_Parallels._--Mr. Macleod heard another version in which "Gold-tree" (anonymous in this variant) is bewitched to kill her father's horse, dog, and cock. Abroad it is the Grimms' _Schneewitchen_ (No. 53), for the Continental variants of which see Kohler on Gonzenbach, _Sicil. Marchen_, Nos. 2-4, Grimm's notes on 53, and Crane _Ital. Pop. Tales_, 331. No other version is known in the British Isles.

[Footnote 1: Since the first issue Mr. Nutt has made a remarkable discovery with reference to this tale, which connects it with Marie de France's _Lai d'Eliduc_ (c. 1200), and renders it probable that the tale is originally Celtic. Mr. Nutt thinks that the German version may be derived from England.]

_Remarks._--It is unlikely, I should say impossible, that this tale, with the incident of the dormant heroine, should have arisen independently in the Highlands: it is most likely an importation from abroad. Yet in it occurs a most "primitive" incident, the bigamous household of the hero: this is glossed over in Mr. Macleod's other variant. On the "survival" method of investigation this would possibly be used as evidence for polygamy in the Highlands. Yet if, as is probable, the story came from abroad, this trait may have come with it, and only implies polygamy in the original home of the tale.