In the _Gilla Dacar_ I have modified the second half of the story rather freely.

It appears to have been originally an example of a well-known class of folk-tales dealing with the subject of the Rescue of Fairyland.

The same motive occurs in the famous tale called _The Sickbed of Cuchulain_.

The idea is that some fairy potentate, whose realm is invaded and oppressed, entices a mortal champion to come to his aid and rewards him with magical gifts.

But the eighteenth century narrator whose MS.