initial probability that that goal was once, very long ago, no doubt, the starting point of those diverging roads.
Postscript.—I would here make certain suggestions which may meet objections raised in the discussion which followed the reading of this paper. A point advanced alike by Mr. Nutt and Mr. Cook was that if the hypothesis of such an origin be granted, the connection of Gawain with this particular group of beliefs and practices can hardly be accidental. My own view is that the tale, based on actual and imperfectly-understood experiences, was cast into story-form by a bard who knew what the incidents connoted, and that the connection of Gawain with the tale is due to one who knew the real character of the material with which he was dealing.
