5 NOVEMBER 1892, Page 11

Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts. Collected and narrated by

Patrick Kennedy. (Macmillan.)—The folk-lore of the Celtic inhabitants of Ireland, and the legends of the heroic period of the country, make together the subject of Mr. Kennedy's book. Changelings, fairy princes and princesses, and other creatures, kinsfolk of the " lubberfiends " of English fancy, are among the personages in the first and second parts of the book. Then we have stories of witchcraft, sorcery, ghosts, &c., and, finally, the tales of Fion of Cumbail, and other legendary heroes. It is an interesting volume, which the students of folk-lore and kindred topics will find valuable. Many of the tales are, of course, variants of stories found elsewhere; some are, or seem to be, peculiar to the locality;

and there is, of course, a peculiar Irish character in the setting of most of them. Irish fairies, like Irish saints, have an unmis- takable peculiarity of their own.