The story thus localised in Devonshire belongs, like that of the faithful hound Gelert, the dog of Montargis, and a vast assemblage of similar legends, to the primeval fiction rather perhaps the primæval mythology of the world. It is found scattered throughout different parts of Europe, and may be traced in some of the most ancient collections of. Indian fable, In Europe it has been appropriated by Teutonic races rather than by Celts. The Guelfs (welfes-whelps -the name is really a form of the old German Wulf'), Dukes of Bavaria, who gave their name to the great faction which supported the Popes against the Ghibellines, and from whom the reigning family in England is descended, were so called, it is said, from a calamity which befell a certain Lady Irmentrude, wife of Isenbard of Altorf. She accused one of her women of evil life because she had become the happy mother of three sons at a birth. As a punishment, the lady I herself in the following year was I delivered at once of twelve boys, who, the chronicler is careful to add, were very little.' Her husband was absent; and 'remembering the scandal she had formerly laid on the poor woman,' she determined to save one only of her sons, and to drown the rest. As in the Devonshire story, the children are saved; here by Isenbard, their father, who falls in with them on their way to the river, insists on seeing what is in the basket, makes the bearer confess, and causes the eleven whelps' to be secretly brought up. They are at last confronted with the one whom Irmentrude had retained, and recognised as brothers by the likelihood.' Here the story is placed some way down in the annals of the Bavarian Wulfings (for the house was an ancient one before the 'whelps appeared), and it was no doubt transferred to them from some wider and more national position. Paul Warnefrid, himself a Lombard, has prefixed to his book of Lombard History, written in the latter half of the eighth century, some curious legends, which are evidently the primitive traditions of the race. Among them occurs that of a woman who, having brought forth seven sons, flung them into a fish pond to be drowned. Agilmund, King of the Lombards, passes, and seeing the bodies in the pond, turns them this way and that with his long spear. One of the children, yet living, seizes the king's spear. Agilmund causes him to be taken up, declares that he will become a great man, and gives him the name of Lamissio, because 'in the Lombard tongue a fish pond is named Lama.' 5 missio is one of the Lombard heroes. Many wonders are told of him; and he became himself at last king of the nation. Traces of a former connection between the Lombards and the Saxons have often been noticed; and it is interesting to find this story in the traditions of either people. La Here we must close. Enough has perhaps been written to confirm the suggestion of Kemble-that much curious old English lore might probably be discovered in Devonshire. The mine has still to be thoroughly worked. RICHARD JOHN KING. De Gestis Langobardorum, Lib. I. c. xv. INDEX ΤΟ VOLUME VIII. NEW SERIES. Academy, Royal, 74 A Cutcherry Intrigue, 757 A Policy for Ireland, 273 Clive, Mrs. Archer, 348 Constitution, The English, A Proposed Re- A Proposed Reform of the English Consti- Cutcherry Intrigue, A, 757 tution, by a Colonist, 600 Apuleius, by C. G. Prowett, 464 A Review of Spanish Struggles for Liberty, Ireland at Election Time, 158 Ireland, Gaelic, in 1872, 50 New Birth, The, according to St. Paul, by Nicolas, St., of Trani, by the Rev. S. Odyssey, The Authorship of the, by Francis Of Growing Old, by A. K. H. B. 262 Our Food Supply and the Game Laws, 135 Paris Workmen, The, between the Two Peasantry of the South of England, by a Persia and Central Asia, British Policy in, Irish Orangeism, its Past and its Future, Philosophy of Language, Lectures on Mr. 399 John Stuart Mill, 663 Darwin's, by Professor Max Müller, 1 Jonathan Edwards, by Leslie Stephen, 529 Poetry:- MacConglinny's Vision, Translated by W. Merchant Seamen, British, by Commander Metaphysics, The Relation of, to Literatur Mill, John Stuart, 663 Miracle, Prayer, and Natural Law, 338 Mohammed, Life and Teachings of, by Mr. Darwin's Philosophy of Language, Natural Law, Prayer, and Miracle, 338 The Stone Steps, 172 Prayer, Miracle, and Natural Law, 338 Protestant Restoration in France, The, in Quarrelsome Folk, by A. K. H. B. 728 Reform of the English Constitution, A Pro- Relation of Metaphysics to Literature and Arnold's Literature and Dogma, 114 Mill's Autobiography, 663 Stephen's Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Syed Ameer Ali's Critical Examination The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 529 St. Nicolas of Trani, by the Rev. S. Baring- St. Paul's Cathedral, by Charles L. East- The Functions of Government in India, 207 The Historical Manuscripts Commission, The New Birth, according to St. Paul, by The Protestant Restoration in France, in The Relation of Metaphysics to Literature The Stone Steps, 172 The Story of the Woodhouselee Ghost, 366 Trip into Bosnia, A, by Humphry Sand- with, C.B. 698. Two Queens, Mr. Dixon's History of, 212 Visit to Cashmere, A, by a Captain in her War Game, The Naval, by Commander Workmen of Paris, The, between the Two END OF VOL. VIII. NEW SERIES. SPOTTISWOODE LONDON: PRINTED BY AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE aer 3 |