Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

HOUSEHOLD STOEIES.
In this class is properly comprised those fictions which,
with some variations, are told at the domestic gather-
ings of Celts, Teutons, and Slavonians, and are more
distinguished by a succession of wild and wonderful
adventures than a carefully-constructed framework. A
dramatic piece exhibiting reflection, and judgment, and
keen perception of character, but few incidents or
surprises, may interest an individual who peruses it by
his fireside, or as he saunters along a sunny river bank
but let him be one of an audience witnessing its per-
formance, and he becomes sensible of an uncomfortable
change. Presence in a crowd produces an uneasy state
of expectation, which requires something startling or
sensational to satisfy it. Thus it was with the hearth-
audiences. It needed but few experiments to put the
first story-tellers on the most effective way of amusing
and interesting the groups gathered round the blaze, who
for the moment felt their mission to consist in being
agreeably excited, not in applying canons of criticism.
B 2
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