Note 3 — XII.—LEGENDS OF LOCALITY, HOUSEHOLD TALES, &c.

The Icelandic Troll who plays so conspicuous a part in the story of the “Shepherd of Silfrunarstadir”3 possesses attributes closely resembling those with which the Chinese endow the female spirits of the gorges to be found in the vast mountain chains of the Empire. In both cases they are beneficent spirits. The great Yu is said to have been indebted to the being who watches over the Wushan gorge in Szechuan for the power to carry out his labours. The “Wild women” of Germany, who are supposed to frequent the Wunderberg, possess analogous qualities but have no dominion over the powers of nature. The Breton Korrigan, again, bear certain resemblances to supernatural beings believed in by the Chinese. They are described (Keightley, page 432) as short and humpy, with shaggy hair, dark wrinkled faces, little deep-set eyes but bright as carbuncles; and woe to the belated traveller who is forced to join in their fairy revels! Their breath is reported to be deadly. The Chinese legend of the Lin-lu mountain recounts the existence of a mysterious arbour inhabited by a demon and numerous companions who are in reality dogs transformed for the nonce into the semblance of earthly beings. As with the Korrigan, whoever passed the night with them was sure to die. A Sage, possessed of a magic mirror, once put up with these elves, but being warned by the mirror of the quality of his companions, stabbed the nearest, when the rest ran away. Similar stories are told of numerous localities, but this may be taken as a type of the whole.