Chapter XXVI: Lad with the Goat-Skin

_Source._--Kennedy, _Legendary Fictions_, pp. 23-31. The Adventures of "Gilla na Chreck an Gour'."

_Parallels._--"The Lad With the Skin Coverings" is a popular Celtic figure, _cf._ MacDougall's Third Tale, MacInnes's Second, and a reference in Campbell, iii., 147. According to Mr. Nutt (_Holy Grail_, 134), he is the original of Parzival. But the adventures in these tales are not the "cure by laughing" incident which forms the centre of our tale, and is Indo-European in extent (_cf._ references in _English Fairy Tales_, notes to No. xxvii.). "The smith who made hell too hot for him is Sisyphus," says Mr. Lang (Introd. to Grimm, p. xiii); in Ireland he is Billy Dawson (Carleton, _Three Wishes_). In the Finn-Saga, Conan harries hell, as readers of _Waverley_ may remember "'Claw for claw, and devil take the shortest nails,' as Conan said to the Devil" (_cf._ Campbell, _The Fians_, 73, and notes, 283). Red-haired men in Ireland and elsewhere are always rogues (see Mr. Nutt's references, MacInnes's _Tales_, 477; to which add the case in "Lough Neagh," Yeats, _Irish Folk Tales_, p. 210).

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Folk and Fairy Tales from Many Lands

ENGLISH FOLK AND FAIRY TALES . Joseph Jacobs _Illustrated by John D. Batten_

MORE ENGLISH FOLK AND FAIRY TALES . Joseph Jacobs _Illustrated by John D. Batten_

CELTIC FOLK AND FAIRY TALES . Joseph Jacobs _Illustrated by John D. Batten_

EUROPEAN FOLK AND FAIRY TALES . Joseph Jacobs _Illustrated by John D. Batten_

INDIAN FOLK AND FAIRY TALES . Joseph Jacobs _Illustrated by John D. Batten_

THE BOOK OF WONDER VOYAGES . Joseph Jacobs _Illustrated by John D. Batten_

JOHNNY-CAKE . Joseph Jacobs _Illustrated by Emma L. Brock_

CHIMNEY CORNER FAIRY TALES . Veronica S. Hutchinson, Editor

CANDLELIGHT STORIES . Veronica S. Hutchinson, Editor

CHIMNEY CORNER STORIES . Veronica S. Hutchinson, Editor

FIRESIDE STORIES . Veronica S. Hutchinson, Editor

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