The Shwe-hmu,or Burmese Tax-Gatherer.

This article started life as an address to The Folklore Society at a conference on “The Sea in Legend and Tradition,” held in Great Yarmouth in September 2009. My invitation to speak there arose from my co-authorship of The Lore of Scotland (Random House, 2009) with the late Jennifer Westwood. One story I had researched was a nineteenth-century Mull legend, “MacLean of Duart and the Spanish Princess,” a tale with a more complex history than could be covered within the format of the book. What follows is a synthesis of material from various sources, drawing together the legendary and historical elements of the saga.