former. Combined with these are also reminiscences of the beliefs found in the Eddas of the north. [See Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, translation 1883, ii. pp. 564-569; as to Yggdrasil, Bartsch in Germania, iv. p. 312.]
The form of question and answer gave full play to the close definition of the philosopher, the double and hidden meaning of the scholastic and the theologian, or the statement of old belief, whence the transition to the play of wit and words in riddles was easy. Consequently, in the frequent repetition or copying of these dialogues or catechisms, one, or two, or a group of questions which commended themselves might be inserted from another catechism or from a collection of what seem to us riddles. Riddles, proverbs, apoph|thegmes, question-books, dialogues—all contained the popular wisdom, "part of that stock of traditional sayings which prevailed with living power among us from the tenth till the sixteenth century," [Kemble, Salomon and Saturn, p. 286.] and among our French neighbours long survived in the prose form of the popular little book, L'enfant sage à trois ans, etc.
Thus it was, in course of time, that the Christian religious legend and ethics became grafted on to the philosophic dialogue, and it is probable that from a Latin original some English theological rhymer, of the fourteenth or fifteenth century, drew his inspiration for the following poem. The poet must also have used other sources, as we may judge by the study of two portions of the poem. Lines 163-218 describe the substances of which Adam was made, and the effects of the preponderance of different materials on a man's character. This subject is found in many places; in the prose Old English Salomon and Saturn (ques. 8, 9, Kemble, p. 180); in a Latin and Old English ritual of the tenth century, a German poem of the twelfth century, and other instances quoted by J. Grimm; [Teutonic Mythology, Stallybrass's translation (1883), ii. p. 566.] also in three French manuscripts—one a treatise, De Adam et Eve feme, Bib. Nat. Fr. 1553, fol. 286; [Cited by Kemble, Salomon and Saturn, p. 194.] another, Bib. Nat., 4207; the third, MS. A 454, at Rouen, fol. 250, [Bulletin de la Société des Anciens Textes Francais (1883), p. 96.] also on the creation of Adam. These declare that Adam was formed of eight substances (clay, the sea, the sun, clouds, wind, stone, the Holy Spirit, &c.), varying with the writer, but resolving into the four elements. Perhaps a touch of Eddic doctrine here unconsciously found its way into the orthodox theology of the middle ages. For the second portion, lines 511-582: Why do men fast on
