Matheson Collection > Popular tales of the west Highlands > Volume 1

236 WEST HIGHLAND TALES.
bloody knife in the Queen's possession. An astrologer is con-
sulted, tells that the knife will be found, and it is found in the
Queen's keeping ; and she is to die. The astrologer, who knows
everything, goes off to the old nurse, who comes at once to Eng-
land, and tells the king all that has happened. Tebaldo is
caught, and torn to pieces by four horses, and his flesh given to
rabid dogs.
So end the wicked in many Gaelic tales. "He was torn be-
tween horses, burned amongst fires, and his ashes let fly with the
wind," is the end of one.
The French story, "Peau d' Ane," is in "les Contes des Fees
de Charles Perrault," the wicked father was sent for "Robes,"
" Couleur du temps," " Couleur du soleil," " Couleur de la
Lune," and got them ; and then for a donkey's skin, in which
the lady disguised herself. But then the French story goes off
on another road, for the donkey was precious and magical, and
pieces of gold were found in his stall ; and he belongs to another
class of stories, which have Gaelic relations. (Perrault died
1703).
And so popular tales are woven together in a network which
seems to pervade the world, and to be fastened to everything in
it. Tradition, books, history, and mythology, hang together ;
no sooner has the net been freed from one snag, and a mesh
gained, than another mesh is discovered ; and so, unless many
hands combine, the net and the contents will never be brought
to shore.