[13] Much more is made of the sword in the Gaelic tales. In them it is always a magic or a mystic weapon.
[14] This episode of the fight with the seven-headed beast is introduced in the same way in the Gaelic—“The Sea-Maiden,” pp. 76, 77. Cf. also “Rouge Etin,” in Brueyre.
[15] In the Gaelic the charcoal-burner is a general.
[16] This takes place not on the wedding night, but some time after in the “Sea-Maiden,” p. 82. The wife at prayers and the husband standing by indifferent is but too true a picture, we fear.
[17] The “Sea-Maiden,” p. 82—“Go not, go not,” said she, “there never went man to this castle that returned.” See below.
[18] Basque, “as must needs be.”
[19] We were also told, in Basque, “The Powerful Lantern,” which was the story of Aladdin’s lamp, with only one incident omitted. The present is much more like the Gaelic, but there (Campbell, Vol. II., 297–9) it is a lady who gives the snuff-box, which says, “Eege gu djeege,” on being opened. Campbell’s note is:—“The explanation of these sounds was, that it was ‘as if they were asking.’ The sounds mean nothing, that I know of, in any language.” “Que quieres?” is pure Spanish—“What dost thou want?”
[20] Cf. MacCraw’s variation in Campbell, note, Vol. II., p. 301, for the rest of the story.
[21] “Power” in these tales, in the Basque, seems always to mean “magic power,” some wonder-working gift or charm.
[22] In Campbell’s versions it is “the realm of the king under the waves,” or “the realm of the rats;” but a voyage has to be made to that, and a rat takes the place of the servant in stealing the box again for the hero. “The Deccan Tales” mention the Red Sea.