CELTIC FOLKLORE
J. RHŶS
HENRY FROWDE, M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK
CELTIC FOLKLORE
WELSH AND MANX
BY
JOHN RHŶS, M.A., D.Litt.
HON. LL.D. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
PROFESSOR OF CELTIC
PRINCIPAL OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD
VOLUME I
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
MDCCCCI
Oxford
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
BY HORACE HART, M.A.
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
TO ALL THOSE
WHO HAVE IN ANY WAY CONTRIBUTED TO
THE PRODUCTION OF THIS WORK
IT IS RESPECTFULLY
DEDICATED
IN TOKEN OF HIS GRATITUDE
BY
THE AUTHOR
Our modern idioms, with all their straining after the abstract, are but primitive man’s mental tools adapted to the requirements of civilized life, and they often retain traces of the form and shape which the neolithic worker’s chipping and polishing gave them.