[From Poems from Manxland,1868]

INTRODUCTION.

LIKE every other nation, the Isle of Mann has its Legends, Myths, and Mysteries.

What fossils are to the geologist, customs and creeds are to the historian.

Popular tales, songs, and superstitions are not altogether profitless; like the fingers of a clock, they point to the time of day. Turns and modes of thought, that else had set in darkness, are by them preserved, and reflected, even as objects sunk below the horizon are, occasionally, brought again into view by atmospheric refraction.

Fables are facts in as far as they mirror the minds of our ancestors.

That man should have solemnly believed in the existence of fairies, spectres, and every variety of superstition, but testifies to the vivid impression physical and mental phenomena made upon his mind. Placed in a world of marvels, he questioned the marvellous-questioned, until dark diviners, interpreters, arose bewildered and bewildering, yet striving after the light-striving to solve the enigma of LIFE -striving to fling from the soul the burden of an unexplained mystery.

Divest our popular superstitions of the grotesque garb thrown over them by the misconception and exaggeration of the illiterate, and we shall find in them embodied fancies graceful as the Grecian.

When Paganism fell, its myths and mysteries perished not amid its ruins,-as preserved by the POET they are interesting relics of a dead creed.

Of you who smile at the simple faith of the mountain rustic, we ask-Does no familiar- spirit,* no spectre from the past, fling its shadow over your homes, and colour your meditations?

It almost seems as if poor human nature could only open one eye at a time !

Our tales of fairies and phantoms are but the glamour of set or setting creeds.

A friend tells me that, when a boy, he was acquainted with a blind old man who used to wander up and down the Island, to sing at the fire-sides of his countrymen. This old, blind singer often asked him °' to write his songs down," and my friend regrets that he allowed such an opportunity of collecting Manx legendary lore to pass.

The Kings of Mann had always their Court minstrels. Where are the good old Manx songs these minstrels sang?

* Like Socrates, certain Manx Sages affected to have a Familiar-spirit, and this spirit or demon they sometimes bequeathed in their will as an heir-loom to their descendants.