[8] Thorp’s Northern Mythology, vol. ii. pp. 20–2.
[9] Though of course mere similarity of sound may lead one absurdly astray; as if any one were to say that the old fables of rubbing a ring to produce the ‘Slave of the ring’ was the origin of the modern substitute of ringing to summon a servant!
[10] Again, Mr. Cox (Mythology of the Aryan Nations, vol. ii. p. 221 et seq.) says, ‘the Maruts or storm winds who attend on Indra ... became the fearful Ogres in the traditions of Northern Europe ... they are the children of Rudra, worshipped as the destroyer and reproducer and ... like Hermes, as the robber, the cheat, the deceiver, the master thief.’
[11] Etruscan Researches, p. 376 and note.
[12] Stöber, Sagen des Elsasses, p. 30.
[13] Cities of Etruria, vol. ii. p. 65–8.
[14] Selvan, at all events, is a word which, Mr. Isaac Taylor observes, is of frequent occurrence in Etruscan inscriptions (Et. Res. pp. 394–5), and its signification has not yet been fixed. And may not Gannes have some relation with Kan or Khan (p. 322)?
[15] It is very disappointing that he has translated the great bulk of his vast collection of fiabe (‘fiaba’ in North Italian answers to the ‘favola’ of Rome) so utterly into German that, though we find all our old friends among them, all the distinctive expressions are translated away, and they are rendered valueless for all but mere childish amusement. Thus it is interesting to find in Wälsch-Tirol a diabolical counterpart of the Roman story of ‘Pret’ Olivo,’ but it would have rendered it infinitely more interesting had the collector told us what was the word which he translates by ‘Teufel,’ for it is the rarest thing in the world for an Italian to bring the personified ‘Diavolo’ or ‘Demonio’ into any light story. In the same way it is interesting to find all the other tales with which we are familiar turn up here, but the real use of printing them at length would have been to point out their characteristics. What was the Italian used for the words rendered in the German by ‘Witch?’ Was it ‘Gannes’ or ‘strega?’ or for ‘Giant’ and ‘Wild man:’ was it ‘l’om salvadegh’ or ‘salvan’ or ‘orco?’ I cannot think it was ‘gigante.’ But all is left to conjecture. Among the few bits of Italian he does give are two or three ‘tags’ to stories, among them the one I met so continually in Rome ‘Larga la foglia’—(it was still ‘foglia’ and not ‘voglia’) word for word.
[16] Dr. Steub, in his Herbsttagen in Tirol, shows that the Beatrick may be identified with Dietrich von Bern.
[17] Though nothing would seem simpler than to suppose the word derived from the Euganean inhabitants who left their name to Val Sugana.