themselves sorcerers, to discover hidden treasures, and corrupted young persons of both sexes to attach themselves to him, and afterwards killed them for the sake of their blood, which was requisite to form his charms and incantations.  These horrid excesses may be believed, when we reflect on the age of ignorance and barbarism in which they were certainly too often practised.  He was at length, for a state crime against the Duke of Brittany, sentenced to be burnt alive in a field at Nantz in 1440, but the Duke, who was present at his execution, so far mitigated the sentence, that he was first strangled, then burnt, and his ashes buried.  Though he was descended from one of the most illustrious families in France, he declared, previous to his death, that all his terrible excesses were owing to his wretched education.

“Blue Beard” was first dramatised at Paris, in 1746, when “Barbe Bleu” was thus announced:—­Pantomime—­representee par la troupe des Comediens Pantomimes, Foir St. Laurent.  It was afterwards dramatised at the Earl of Barrymore’s Theatre, Wargrave, Berks., and in 1791.  After that the subject was produced at Covent Garden Theatre as a Pantomime.

“Beauty and the Beast,” the latter a white bear, is to be found in “Popular Tales from the Norse,” by Mr. Dasent, and in the collection of “Popular Tales from the German” by the Brothers Grimm.  As a ballad the story of “Beauty and the Beast” is a very old one.

“Cinderella” is to be found in the language of every European country.  In ancient Hindu legends it appears; in tales related by the Greek poets it is also to be found.

The story of “Cinderella,” according to the ancient Hindu legends, is that of the Sun and the Dawn.  Cinderella has been likened to Aurora, the Spirit of the Dawn, and the fairy Prince of the legend is the morning Sun, ever closely pursuing her to make her his bride.  The Hindu legend of the lost slipper is that a wealthy Rajah’s beautiful daughter was born with a golden necklace, which contained her soul, and, if the necklace was taken off and worn by someone else, the Princess would die.  The Rajah gave her on her birthday a pair of slippers with ornaments of gold and gems upon them.  The princess went out upon a mountain to gather flowers, and whilst stooping there to pluck the flowers, one of her slippers fell into the forest below.  A Prince, who was hunting, picked up the slipper, and was so charmed with it that he said he would make the wearer his wife.  He made his wish known, but no one came to claim the slipper; at length word was given to the Prince where to find the Rajah’s daughter; and shortly afterwards they were married.  One of the wives of the Prince, being jealous of the Rajah’s daughter, stole the necklace, put it on her own neck, and then the Rajah’s daughter died.  The Prince, afterwards, found out the secret of the necklace, and got it back again, and put it on his dead wife’s neck, and she came to life, and they lived ever afterwards in the greatest harmony.