Umm, I've not come across this tale before. Will ask some of my dance friends.

IRISH? Some of my friends who are Irish SET dancers say that much of the Cape Breton Set dances are similar to the stuff they do. They have the opinion that the dances came to both Ireland and Scotland at the same time from the European continent, where it passed down from Gentry to the general populace. Over time the dances mutated so they are no longer exactly the same as each other or their European counterparts.