Part Two

The Folktale from Ireland to India

II – The Complex Tale

3. Supernatural helpers

F. Helpful Horses

Of all helpful animals, none has been so popular with taletellers as the horse. In not fewer than five well-known folk stories he plays a role almost as important as the hero himself.

The most popular of these stories is undoubtedly that known by the Germans as the Goldener Märchen, from the hair of real gold which the hero acquires in the course of his adventures (Type 314). The tale usually begins with telling how the young man came into the service of the devil. Sometimes, in return for the devil's services as godfather, his parents have agreed that the child shall come into his possession on his twenty-first birth day. [49] For whatever reason the bargain has been made (and sometimes even by pure accident), the boy arrives at the devil's house and becomes a servant. The devil gives him the run of the house, but forbids him to enter a certain chamber. As in the Bluebeard story, he breaks the prohibition and sees horrible sights. As a mark of disobedience his hair turns to gold. He placates the devil temporarily and remains in service. He is commanded to take good care of certain horses, but to beat and starve a particular horse which he finds in the stable. The abused horse, who is an enchanted prince, speaks to the youth and warns him to flee.

The boy mounts the magic horse but is followed closely by the devil, who almost overtakes him. At the horse's advice, the boy has provided himself with three magic objects, a stone, a comb, and a flint. When he throws the stone behind him, a mountain rises in the devil's path and delays him. Later the comb produces a forest and the flint a great fire. At last the youth escapes.

He arrives in the neighborhood of the king's court, hides his magic horse, and covers his golden hair with a cloth, pretending to have the scald head. [p. 60]

He is employed as gardener to the king and as such is seen one day by the princess as he combs His" golden hair. She falls in love with him and insists upon marrying him. The king consents, but puts them into the pigsty to live.

Much despised by his haughty brothers-in-law, he goes to his magic horse for help. Whatever the task may be that the hero needs to carry out, the horse brings it about, so that his young master is honored and the brothers-in-law put to shame. In some versions the hero slays a dragon or brings a magic remedy for the king. [50] The usual adventure, however, is participating in a tournament. When the hero leaves for the tournament his horse has the appearance of a broken-down nag, so that when, three days in succession, he and his wonderful steed are the victors, no one recognizes him. By means of various tokens—centers from the captured flags, the point of a sword which his brother-in-law has broken off in his leg, and the hoof marks which the vanquished brothers-in-law have permitted him to place on them—he proves his identity and is accepted by the king as his favorite son-in-law.

This complicated story appears without much variation over a large area and in many versions. It is particularly popular in Germany, Scandinavia, and the Baltic countries. But it is also well represented in Ireland and France, and has been carried by the French to America, where it is told by American Indians in at least fifteen versions, as well as by the Missouri French. Eastward it is popular in Bohemia, Poland, and all parts of Russia, and is told throughout the Caucasus, south Siberia, and the Near East. In south Asia three versions have been reported from India and three from Indonesia. It is also known in diverse parts of Africa.

The tale contains within it one incident which is literally world wide, The Obstacle Flight (Motif D672). [51] Though this incident is a standard part of our tale, it can be used wherever a pursuer needs to be delayed. [52] That tales with this general motive of pursuit are found everywhere is no cause for wonder, but when one finds the obstacle flight with its characteristic form of three or four magic objects which produce mountains, forests, fire, and water in South Africa and in North and South America, not only sporadically but in scores of versions, he is faced with one of the most difficult problems of folklore.

One whole group of tales about the golden-haired hero and his horse (Type 502) is represented by Grimm's tale of The Iron Man (No. 136). A magic man of iron is found in a lake and is confined by the king in a cage. The king's son is playing and lets his ball roll into the cage of the wild man. In exchange for the ball, the boy releases the man from the cage. The wild man thereupon puts the boy on his shoulders and carries him off. He treats [p. 61] the boy well and promises that if he obeys him he will always be the boy's helper. He leaves the boy, but forbids him to put his finger in a certain pool. The boy disobeys, and his finger turns to gold. The third time he disobeys, his hair is turned to gold. The youth binds his hair and the story proceeds as in the Goldener Märchen. There has been no horse in the story up to this point. But when the boy must go to the tournament (or perform his other tasks), the wild man appears and furnishes him with a magic horse. The ending of the two stories is identical.

While this story of the wild man is by no means so popular as the other, it is spread over almost exactly the same territory in Europe, but it hardly goes outside that continent. It has been carried to Siam, to Missouri, and to Brazil. Both of these two tales which we have just treated appeared in literary form as early as the sixteenth century in the work of Straparola. No attempt, however, has been made to investigate the influence of this literary form on the very strong and far-flung oral tradition.

Confined, so far as now appears, to a very limited section of eastern Europe is the story of the hero called "I Don't Know." It is hard to tell whether this should be considered as a distinct tale type (Type 532), or merely as a variety of the Goldener story. The hero is driven from home by a cruel step mother (or, in some versions, he is simply the laziest of three brothers), and, in the course of his adventures, gains possession of a magic horse, who advises him to answer all questions with "I don't know." His peculiar behavior attracts the attention of the princess, who marries him. From this point on the story is the same as in the Goldener tale. Sometimes the hero must make a rescue from a sea monster, but more often he has to help in a war brought on by jealous suitors incensed because the princess has chosen him. In any case, the horse helps him to success.

This seems to be essentially a Russian development which has achieved some popularity in Finland and Hungary. It is known in the Baltic countries, but not popular, and is not found further west.

The tales of helpful horses have a tendency to merge into one another in many of their details, sometimes in the way in which the magic horse is acquired, sometimes in the remarkable deeds accomplished. Nevertheless, the separate tales are unmistakable entities. This confusion of parts is seen with especial clearness in the tale of the Princess on the Glass Mountain (Type 530) . In its best known form the tale is about a poor peasant who has three sons of whom the youngest is considered a good for nothing. Every morning the peasant finds that his meadow has been grazed bare by horses. He sends his sons out to keep watch. The two elder go to sleep, and the grass continues to be eaten down. The youngest remains awake and succeeds in catching the horse. He hides the horse, cares for it, and rides it.

The king offers his daughter in marriage to the man who can ride up to her on top of a glass mountain. Although all suitors have failed to do so, the [p. 62] hero succeeds and receives from the princess at the summit a token which he later presents and by means of which he receives her in marriage. [53]

This story is clearly divided into the two parts mentioned above, the acquisition of the horse and the marvelous deed. Sometimes instead of the watching for the devastating animal, the hero may take care of his flocks at night so as to keep them from wandering over into the possessions of an ogre or troll. The animals do so in spite of his watching, and he overcomes the troll when he goes after the animals. He finds the magic horses among the troll's possessions. This introduction would seem to have been borrowed from the tale of The Dragon Fighter (Type 300). In a third type of introduction the sons must keep watch over the body of their dead father.

The second part of the tale also displays considerable variety. Instead of to the glass mountain the riding may be to the top of a tall building, three-storied or four-storied. Sometimes the magic horse must jump over a wide excavation or ditch; sometimes, as in the last two stories we have noticed, he helps his master to victory in a tournament; and sometimes he wins a race, it may be with the princess herself.

The tale is well distributed over Europe, particularly northern and eastern, and it is found in the Caucasus and the Near East. One version is reported from Burma. The last word on this tale has certainly not been written. Dr. Boberg's study is far from adequate, since it is based upon less than half of the available material. Her analysis of the story into "oikotypes," each characteristic of a certain linguistic: area, is unconvincing, as Professor Krohn clearly shows. On the other hand, Krohn's conclusion that the tale originated in India and reached Europe at a relatively late period by way of Asia Minor is at least problematical, in view of the fact that only one version has been reported from India.

In the Grimms' tale of Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful (Type 531) the magic horse is assisted by other helpers, animals and giants. In most tales of this type the hero receives a magic key, sometimes from a beggar at his christening. With this key he obtains a marvelous horse which speaks and gives advice. The hero also finds a pen, and from a thankful fish he obtains a fin. Thus equipped, he takes service, along with a companion, at the king's court. At the suggestion of the treacherous companion, he is assigned various dangerous tasks. Among other things the hero is to fetch a beautiful princess for the king. On advice of his horse, he demands as a condition from the king a supply of meat and bread. With this food he obtains help from certain giants and birds, and secures the princess and, later, certain writings of hers. The fish returns his pen which has fallen into the water. On the return to the court, the princess beheads him and then [p. 63] replaces his head to make him handsomer. The king has the same thing done to himself with fatal results. As for the magic horse, he changes himself at last into his proper form as a prince.

As a general thing the quest for the princess in this tale is caused by the sight of a beautiful hair which has been found floating down a stream and which is shown to the king, who will not rest until the faraway princess to whom the hair belongs has been found. This motif, combined with the tasks assigned at the suggestion of a treacherous rival, is very old. It is found in the Egyptian story of The Two Brothers in the thirteenth century B.C. [54] It also occurs frequently in literary tales since that time, for instance in the story of Tristram and Isolt. Nevertheless, the combination into, the tale as we have it does not seem to go back to antiquity, though it must have been developed by the twelfth century after Christ and in several parts of Europe. In its oral form it is distributed with remarkable uniformity over the whole of Europe. It is found in an unbroken line through the Caucasus, the Near East, India, Cambodia, and the Philippines. Five versions have been reported from the Arabic population of Egypt, and three from Central Africa. The French have carried it to Missouri and to the Menomini Indians of Wisconsin; the Spanish to the San Carlos Apache of New Mexico. The story has never been thoroughly investigated, but a superficial view of its distribution suggests that it may have come to Europe from the East, probably from India. The tradition is not always coherent and the tellers of the tale apparently do not always understand the significance of what they are telling. The place of the pen in the story is an example of such confusion, for it is seldom clear why the hero should have a pen and what good it is to serve in the tale.

In one story at least, the horse renders his most efficient service after his death. This tale is best known from the German version of Grimm, The Goose Girl (Type 533). A princess is accompanied on her way to marry a prince by a servant girl. Before setting out, the princess has received from her mother some costly gifts, including the wonderful speaking horse Falada and certain magic objects. On her way the princess becomes thirsty and asks for a drink, but the servant girl makes her get down and drink from the brook. The horse speaks and says, "If your mother knew about this, her heart would break." And the magic objects also speak. Three times the princess stops for water, and finally the servant girl compels her to exchange clothes with her and to swear to keep the matter secret. The servant girl mounts the princess's horse and, when she reaches the palace, claims to be the princess. The heroine herself is made to watch the geese. Meantime, the false princess, fearing that the speaking horse may betray her, has it killed and has its head set up over the castle gate. The little goose girl has miraculous power over animals and over the weather and wind. One day she is combing [p. 64] her hair and the servant boy who is with her sees that it is of gold. He tries to take some of the golden strands from her, but she asks the wind to carry off the boy's hat, so that he runs away after it. In the evening as she drives her geese home, she sees the head of her slaughtered horse. She weeps, and the horse answers, "If your mother knew about this, her heart would break." When all of this happens a second day, the boy goes to the king and tells him what he has seen and heard. The next day the king follows the boy, overhears everything, and learns the true state of affairs. The treacherous servant girl is executed and the princess marries the prince.

In some versions the princess is blinded, and it is later necessary to buy back her eyes from the person who has blinded her. In addition to the speaking horse-head, other means are sometimes employed for bringing the truth to light. Her magic objects may speak, or she may sing a song into a stove which she must take care of.

This tale has not been found in any great multitude of versions. Liungman's study [55] is based upon fourteen variants, all of them European, extending from France to Russia, except a single one among the Kabyle of North Africa. Besides this list, he cites several central African tales with a similar plot but lacking some of the principal characteristics. It is problematical whether all tales in which a servant girl replaces a princess on the way to marry a prince should be thought of as having any organic connection with this story of The Goose Girl.

Liungman's conclusion as to its origin and dissemination is that it seems to have developed somewhere on the upper Danube, but that the German versions have been of greatest influence in its subsequent distribution. This tale has so much in common with several other stories of false brides that it has frequently become confused with them, particularly with The Black and The White Bride (Type 403).

The tales of helpful animals which we have just reviewed are those best known in Europe and western Asia, but there are, of course, many other stories in which animals aid their human masters and mistresses. Some of these are legends, such as that of Llewellyn and His Dog, and some of them are more elaborate folktales much like the European stories we have been studying, but current entirely among some primitive group such as the American Indians. [56] Although scholars of two generations ago tended to find connection between the stories of helpful beasts and the Hindu attitude toward animals, [57] stories with this motif have been found in so many parts of the world as to show that it is a natural development in story-telling which may take place anywhere. [p. 65]

[49] For similar bargains with the devil, see Types 400, 502, 756B, 810.

[50] The dragon slaying belongs properly to Type 300. For the magic remedy, see Type 551.

[51] This motif (or really cluster of motifs) was the last subject to which the distinguished folklorist, Antti Aarne, gave his attention. See his Magische Flucht.

[52] It is almost a regular part of the Hansel and Gretel story (Type 327) and of Type 313, in which the youth's supernatural wife helps him escape.

[53] See Inger Margrethe Boberg, "Prinsessen på Glasbjaerget," Danske Studier, 1928, pp. 16-53. Discussed by Krohn, Übersicht, pp. 96-99. For a later study by Dr. Boberg see Handwörterbuch des deutschen Märchens, II, 627. For a very ancient analogue of the idea of reaching the princess on a height, see p. 274, below.

[54] See p. 275, below.

[55] Två Folkminnesundersokningar.

[56] For Llewellyn and His Dog, see Motif B331.2.

[57] See A. Marx, Griechische Märchen von dankbaren Tieren (Stuttgart, 1889).

300, 313, 314, 327, 400, 403, 502, 530, 531, 532, 533, 551, 756B, 810

B331.2, D672

Part Two

The Folktale from Ireland to India

II – The Complex Tale

8. Good and bad relatives

B. Substituted Bride

Though the story of the substituted bride [149] sometimes concerns the treachery of a servant girl [150] or some other rival of the heroine, its most characteristic form is that in which a sister or stepsister, usually aided by her mother, takes a wife's place without the knowledge of the husband and banishes the wife. This substitution by the sister occurs in two of the most widely known of folktales, The Black and the White Bride (Type 403) and Little Brother and Little Sister (Type 450). Because of their similarity the tales have influenced each other so that although the plot is clear enough for the most characteristic forms of each, many versions lie on the border line between the two.

A very common opening for The Black and the White Bride is the Kind and Unkind motif (Q2). The stepdaughter, hated by her stepmother, is sent to perform an impossible task, usually the gathering of strawberries in the middle of winter. She is kind to the dwarfs [151] she meets and in gratitude they bestow on her the gift of great beauty and the power of dropping gold or jewels from her mouth. The woman's own daughter is unkind under these conditions and is cursed with hideousness and made to drop toads from her mouth. In some versions the help does not come from dwarfs but from a witch, or even from the Lord. The heroine is seen in all her beauty by a king (prince), who marries her. After the marriage the stepmother plots against her and, on the birth of her child, throws her and the child into the water. The woman's own ugly daughter is substituted for the bride without detection. The heroine is transformed to a goose (or other animal). The child is cared for by animals or sometimes is kept in the court. [152] The mother, in her form as fowl or animal, comes to the king's court three times, frequently in order to suckle her child. On the third appearance the king awakes [153] and succeeds in disenchanting her by cutting her finger and drawing [p. 118] blood, or by holding her while she changes form. At the end always occurs the reinstatement of the true bride and the punishment of the villains.

In a considerable number of the variants, a brother takes a prominent part in the story. He is in the service of the king, who sees a picture of his beautiful sister. Sometimes the girl is summoned to the court and a substitution takes place on the way, where the girl is thrown overboard from a ship. The tale with this introduction (Type 403A) would seem to be influenced by the story of Little Brother and Little Sister, and the episode of the picture is at least similar to the introduction to Faithful John (Type 516). In a form of the tale very popular in Estonia (Type 403C), but apparently not known elsewhere, the husband recognizes the deception and throws the false bride under a bridge. From the girl's navel grows a reed in which her mother recognizes her own daughter.

Much more frequently the tale appears without the brother, with the quest for strawberries, the helpful dwarfs, the substituted bride, and the eventual recovery and reinstatement (Type 403B, or simply Type 403) . It is this form that is known over a large part of the world. Not only are several hundred versions found in all parts of Europe, but it has gone to almost every part of central and southern Africa, and to widely scattered tribes of North American Indians. It is told in India and the Philippines and has been carried by the French to Canada, by the Spanish to Mexico, by Cape Verde Islanders to Massachusetts, and by Negroes to Jamaica. Among both the Africans and the American Indians there exist tales with somewhat similar plots, so that some confusion has arisen by those who have discussed these borrowed stories. [154] In spite of many points in common, the most reasonable explanation of these primitive tales is an independent development from particular centers on the two continents.

In some ways the story of Little Brother and Little Sister (Type 450) may be thought of as a mere variant of the tale just discussed. The brother and sister are turned out into the woods by their stepmother, who is a witch. The experience of the children in the woods is vaguely reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel (Type 327). The boy is overcome with thirst and, in spite of the warning of his sister, drinks from a small pool of water. This pool has been enchanted by the stepmother, so that the boy is turned into a roe. The sister remains with the enchanted boy in the forest. She is eventually seen by a king, who marries her. [155] The tale now proceeds with the substitution of the stepsister in the young wife's place, the disenchantment of the wife, punishment of the impostor, and eventual disenchantment of the brother.

The relation of this story to The Black and the White Bride is obvious, [p. 119] especially to Type 403A, but the tradition seems to be very well recognized in just this form, so that the tale must be considered as more than a mere variant of that story. It was told in Italy as early as the seventeenth century, since it appears in Basile's Pentamerone (1634-36). It is well represented today in Italy, the Balkans, Russia, the Baltic countries, and Germany. It also appears in the Near East, and as far away as India. Several versions have been reported from North Africa and three from central Africa. It does not appear to have been brought to the New World.

Though both of these tales of substituted brides are very popular in oral folklore, neither seems to have entered into the earlier literary collections of tales. Only in Basile are they found, and they have all the appearance of being oral Italian stories which he has reworked. A thorough investigation of these two tales should prove very interesting because of the seeming independence from the literary tradition, the close relation of detail between the two stories, and the wide geographical range of the versions.

The motif of the substituted bride also forms the central action of two stories, closely related to each other, in which the impostor is not a sister, but merely a rival. One of these tales, The Princess Confined in the Mound (Type 870), seems to be essentially Scandinavian, for the versions are plentiful in all the Scandinavian countries, including Iceland. It also occurs, though not frequently, in the folklore of Finland and Germany. [156]

Because of her faithfulness to her betrothed, a princess, along with her maid, is confined by her father in an underground prison or mound. After many years, she escapes and takes service as a maid in the king's castle, where she finds that her lover is about to be married. The woman who is to be the bride forces the heroine to take her place at the wedding. This may be because she wishes to conceal her pregnancy or merely because of her hideousness. The heroine has agreed not to reveal the truth to the prince, but on the way to the church she does reveal it by some subterfuge. Sometimes she talks to her horse, or to the bridge they are crossing, or to the church door, and thus reminds the prince of his first love. That evening when the bride, who has resumed her own clothes, comes to the prince, she is unable to recall the conversation which has taken place on the way to church, and she must always consult with the maid. When the prince asks to see the necklace which he had given her immediately after the wedding, the truth comes to light. He drives her away, and marries his faithful sweetheart.

The Little Goose Girl (Type 870A) [157] is very much like this tale. A little girl who is herding geese accosts a prince who is passing by and tells him that she is going to be married to him. She hears of his approaching wedding and [p. 120] attends. As in the other story, the bride persuades her to act as substitute. But the substitution takes place in the marriage bed, since the prince has a magic stone by his bed that indicates the bride's chastity. The recognition the next day is brought about by means of the ornaments which he has given his bed partner.

This second story as a folktale is confined to the Scandinavian peninsula. But it appears also in ballad form not only in Scandinavia, but also in France and in Scotland. In the latter country, at least eight versions have been recorded.

[149] For the literature of the subject and an analysis of the various forms in which the motif appears, see Motif K1911 and all its subdivisions. The definitive treatment is P. Arfert's Motif von der unterschobenen Brant.

[150] The servant girl as substitute bride we have already met in The Goose Girl (Type 533) and in The Three Oranges (Type 408).

[151] We shall find these same helpful dwarfs taking care of little Snow White (Type 709).

[152] As to the treatment of the child, there is sometimes confusion with the tale of The Three Golden Sons (Type 707).

[153] For the awakening of the husband from a magic sleep on the third appearance of his wife who has sometimes purchased the privilege of sleeping with him, see Motifs D1971 and D1978.4 with all the references there given. In addition, it sometimes appears in Cupid and Psyche (Type 425) and in The Three Oranges (Type 408).

[154] For these North American Indian tales, see Thompson, Tales of the North American Indians, p. 350, notes 262 to 265. Many of these contain the incident of the return by the dead mother to suckle the child. See p. 362, below.

[155] This incident occurs not only in this tale, and The Black and the White Bride, but also in Our Lady's Child (Type 710).

[156] See Liungman, Två Folkminnesundersökningar. The tale seems certainly of Scandinavian origin.

[157] The tale has been studied in great detail and with a very elaborate set of maps by Waldemar Liungman (Prinsessan i Jordkulan). He favors Denmark as the place of origin.

327, 403, 403A, 403B, 403C, 408, 425, 450, 516, 533, 707, 709, 710, 870, 870A

D1971, D1978.4 K1911

Part Two

The Folktale from Ireland to India

II – The Complex Tale

8. Good and bad relatives

C. Banished Wife or Maiden

The same hostile forces which frequently bring about the replacement of the true bride by the false are often responsible for the invention of slanders or for other machinations which result in the banishment of an innocent wife or maiden. Four popular and widely distributed tales have this central motivation, and still others have developed in particular areas. [158] This theme of the banished wife was popular in the literature of the Middle Ages, and sometimes appeared in forms very close to those found in oral tradition today. [159]

Most closely related to the tragic story of Constance, as Chaucer has made it known to the literary world, are The Maiden Without Hands (Type 706) and The Three Golden Sons (Type 707). These two tales have in common the motif of the wife who is accused of giving birth to animals or monsters. The Maiden Without Hands always begins by telling how the heroine has her hands cut off and is abandoned to her fate. The reasons for this cruel punishment differ widely as the tale is followed from one area to another. It may be because she refuses to marry her father, [160] or because her father has sold her to the devil (S211), or because, in spite of his commands, she has persisted in praying, or because of the jealousies and slanders of her mother-in-law or sister-in-law. Whether she is abandoned in the woods or on the sea, she is observed by a king [161] who takes her home and marries her in spite of her mutilation. For the second time, she is cast forth with her newborn children [p. 121] because one of her relatives has changed a letter announcing their birth, so as to make the message announce the birth of monsters. This central incident will be familiar to all readers of The Man of Law's Tale. The way in which the heroine has her hands restored and is eventually reunited to her husband is handled with considerable variety, both in written and oral versions. Sometimes also, as in Chaucer, there is reduplication of the banishment.

The literary treatment of this general theme begins as early as the year 1200 in southern England. Between that time and the seventeenth century it received not fewer than seventeen distinct literary handlings, [162] including those in Chaucer and Gower and in the romance of Emare. With slight variations, it appears in the Thousand and One Nights from which it has entered the Arabic oral tradition. Basile tells the story in his Pentamerone and it forms the subject of a special group of south Slavic folksongs. [163] Whatever may be the relation of the oral tale to the well-known literary treatments, there can be no doubt as to the popularity of the theme among unlettered story tellers. Few collections of any extent in all of Europe from Ireland to eastern Russia fail to have this story. It is known in the Near East and in central Africa, but has not been noted in the tales of India or lands beyond. In America it has not only been taken over by the Micmac and Wyandot Indians but has been carried by the French to Missouri and by Cape Verde Islanders to Massachusetts. It has reached Brazil and Chile in South America. The oral tale is so popular and so widely distributed that it deserves more study than it has yet received.

Even more popular is the other tale of the calumniated wife, The Three Golden Sons (Type 707) . Though no adequate investigation has been given to this story, it is clear that it is one of the eight or ten best known plots in the world. A cursory examination of easily available reference works shows 414 versions, an indication that a thorough search might bring to light several hundred more. These are found in practically every European tale collection. In Asia they have been reported from almost every quarter of Siberia, from the Near East, and from India. It is well established in all parts of Africa. In America three traditions are represented: the French among the French Canadians and the Thompson River Indians, the Portuguese in Brazil and among the Cape Verde Islanders in Massachusetts, and the Spanish among the Tepecano Indians of Mexico and in the white tradition of Chile. [164] It does not seem to have a long literary history, since the oldest version appeared in the sixteenth [p. 122] century in Straparola's Nights. In the early eighteenth, Madame d'Aulnoy and Galland both published it, the former using a tale based upon Straparola and the latter reporting one which he had heard in Arabic. The story would seem to belong almost entirely to folklore rather than to literature. Its distribution would suggest European origin, though a thorough study might conceivably show that the dissemination was in the other direction.

Over the entire area the story appears with considerable uniformity. As in The Maiden Without Hands, the king marries a girl whom he happens to meet. Here, however, we usually have three girls who make their boasts as to what would happen if they should marry the king. The king over hears the youngest of the girls say that if she were the queen she would bear triplets with golden hair, a chain around their necks, and a star on their foreheads. After the king has taken her as wife her sisters plot against her. They substitute a dog for the newborn children and accuse the wife of giving birth to the dog. The children are thrown into a stream, but they are rescued, sometimes by a miller or a fisherman. The wife is imprisoned, [165] or banished. After the children have grown up, the eldest one sets out on a quest. The reason for his undertaking the quest varies much in the different versions. He may go out to try to find his father or to seek the speaking bird, the singing tree, and the water of life. [166] On his quest the eldest brother fails and is transformed into a marble column. The second brother has the same experience, and it remains for the youngest (sometimes a sister) to rescue them. The kindness and consideration of the latter secures the help of an old woman, and eventually the disenchantment of the brothers and the possession of the magic bird and the magic objects. When all have returned from the quest, the king's attention is attracted by means of the magic objects, and the bird of truth reveals to him the whole story. The children and wife are restored and the sisters-in-law punished.

Another tale which has many points in common with The Maiden Without Hands (Type 706) is Our Lady's Child (Type 710). [167] In one way or another the heroine of this story secures the ill will of some powerful person. In some forms of the tale she is under the special protection of the Blessed Virgin, whose enmity she incurs by falsely denying that she has looked into a forbidden room. As a punishment, the girl loses her power of speech. In other variants, instead of Our Lady, the opponent is a witch or some naturally malevolent woman; occasionally even a man appears in this role. In any event, the maiden becomes the wife of the king. But when she gives birth [p. 123] to children, she is punished by having them stolen one by one. Only when she finally acknowledges her guilt are they returned to her.

This tale shows so much variation from the time it appeared in Straparola in the sixteenth century and a hundred years later in Basile that its history might be difficult to work out. It shows frequent contamination with other tales, especially The Maiden Without Hands, and the uncertainty of whether we are dealing with a pious legend of the Blessed Virgin or with a story of a cruel witch has introduced many inconsistencies into the tradition. It is known in all parts of Europe, the Near East, North Africa, and Jamaica, but seems nowhere to have achieved great popularity. On the whole, the witch as the foster mother seems to be better known than the Blessed Virgin. The central incident of the loss of the children, as well as the marriage of the king to a girl who has been mutilated or disabled, makes understandable the confusion of this tale with the two just discussed.

Before leaving the tales of slandered wives, mention should be made of a story which has been reported only from the Scandinavian peninsula, Born from a Fish (Type 705). As in the tale of The Two Brothers (Type 303), a man catches a magic fish which he is to feed to his wife. Instead, he eats it himself and becomes pregnant. A girl child is cut out of his knee. The child is carried off by birds and lives in a bird-nest. The story now proceeds like others of this group: she is seen by the king who marries her; her children are stolen away and she is driven forth. The ending is unusual. The king, realizing his mistake, seeks for his banished wife. She is found by means of a riddle which could apply only to her: a fish was my father, a man was my mother.

The main action of the four tales which we have just examined—the discovery of the persecuted maiden in the woods or a tree, her marriage to the king, the slander concerning the birth of her children, the loss of the children, the abandonment of the queen, the eventual discovery of the truth, and the reunion of the family—is so uniform that there has been much transfer from one tale to the other, if, indeed, they are all essentially different stories. In the brief summary of the plots, a number of widespread motifs, found now in one and now in another, have escaped our notice. Among these are the casting off of the wife and child in an open boat (S431.1) and the accusation of murder supported by the evidence of a bloody knife left in the queen's bed (K2155.1.1). [168]

The banished girl in our European folktales is frequently a young maiden, like Snow White. [169] The motivation in this story (Type 709) [170] is the jealousy of the stepmother who learns from her speaking mirror that Snow White is [p. 124] even more beautiful than she. The hunter who has been ordered to kill her substitutes an animal's heart and lets her go. [171] Or sometimes she is sent directly to the house of dwarfs or robbers where the stepmother expects her to be killed. She is kindly received by the dwarfs, who adopt her as a sister. The stepmother learns Snow White's whereabouts from her magic mirror and succeeds, often after several trials, in poisoning the girl. Sometimes this is by means of poisoned lace and a poisoned comb; finally, after the dwarfs have revived her from her first two poisonings, the stepmother succeeds by means of an apple. The dwarfs lay the maiden out in a glass coffin. A prince sees her and orders his men to carry the coffin. They stumble and thus dis lodge the apple, so that the girl revives. She marries the prince, who sees to it that the stepmother is given a horrible punishment. The version just outlined is essentially that given by Grimm. The tale appears without great variation over a considerable area—from Ireland to Asia Minor and well down into central Africa. Except for one Portuguese version in Brazil, it does not seem to have come to America. The story appears in two variations in Basile's Pentamerone, and it is likely that the oral tradition has been greatly influenced by this literary treatment. Böklen also shows that there has been extraordinary borrowing from other tales with similar motifs. There are also many resemblances to older mythical stories, but how significant these are in the actual history of the tale may be doubted. In spite of Böklen's detailed analysis of the stories, he has made little attempt to reach conclusions about its origin and history.

In the last few years this story has come to the attention of millions of children and adults through the remarkable treatment in the cinema version of Walt Disney. This was based directly upon the Grimm text.

Much less well known than Snow White is the tale of The Wonder Child (Type 708). It seems to be most popular in Scandinavia, though there are scattered versions as far away as Hungary and Brittany. Through the magic power of a witch stepmother, sometimes merely by a curse and sometimes by being fed a magic apple—a princess gives birth to a monster son. She is driven forth into the forest or abandoned in a boat on the sea. The monster son develops miraculous powers. He helps his mother in her work of spinning at a castle. He accompanies a prince in search of a bride, or on a hunt. When they are cast in prison together, the boy promises to rescue the prince if the latter will marry his mother. Though the prince imagines that the mother must be a monster also, he consents. He rejoices to find her like other people. At the wedding, the monster is disenchanted when his mother calls him her son. In some versions the disenchantment occurs when his head is cut off. [p. 125]

A study of this last tale might show some very interesting results. Though its area of distribution is relatively small and though it is nowhere especially popular, the tale seems well enough recognized to constitute a real tradition. No literary versions have been noticed, so that we are apparently dealing with something which is essentially, if not entirely, oral.

[158] The whole subject of the outcast child, including both banished daughters and banished sons, has been discussed in some detail by E. S. Hartland (Folk-Lore Journal, IV, 308). He makes the following divisions: (1) the King Lear type, dealing with the adventures of the king's three daughters; (2) the value of salt type, concerned only with the adventures of the youngest daughter; (3) the Joseph type, in which a boy or girl is banished because of dreams of future greatness. The fourth and fifth types record the career of an only son who has fallen without reasonable cause under his father's anger. Of these types, the third will be discussed in section IX, p. 138, below. The fourth and fifth are represented by Types 671 and 517.

[159] An excellent discussion of this whole cycle of literary tales is found in Margaret Schlauch's Chaucer's Constance and Accused Queens (New York, 1927).

[160] An incident which we shall find in Type 510B.

[161] See Motif N711 and all its subdivisions for references to other tales in which this incident appears.

[162] For a listing of these, see Bolte-Polívka, I, 298ff. The whole tale has been studied by Däumling (Studie über den Typus des Mädchens ohne Hände, München, 1912) and the Comte du Puymaigre (Revue d'histoire des religions, Sept.-Oct., 1884; summarized in Mélusine, II, 309).

[163] For these, see Bolte-Polívka, I, 306.

[164] For a study of the Chilean versions of the tale, see Rodolfo Lenz, "Un Grupo de Consejas Chilenas, Estudio de Novelistica comparada" (Santiago, 1912); see also Espinosa, Journal of American Folklore, XXVII, 230.

[165] In some versions the wife may be thrown into a stream and transformed, as in The Black and the White Bride (Type 403).

[166] In connection with the quest, the story frequently shows the influence of The Three Hairs from the Devil's Beard (Type 461).

[167] The oldest known version of this story, that in Straparola's Nights, is a thorough amalgamation of the two tales.

[168] For other motifs belonging here, see cross references assembled at Motifs S400, S410, and S431.

[169] Aside from Snow White and The Maiden Without Hands, we shall find Cap o' Rushes and others of the Cinderella cycle being cast out. See also Motif S301 with all its references.

[170] See Böklen, Sneewittchenstudien.

[171] The compassionate executioner appears in a number of stories from the time of Joseph on down; see Motif K512 with all its subdivisions. We have already met it in the tale of The Three Languages (Type 671).

303, 403, 461, 510B, 517, 671, 705, 706, 707, 708, 709, 710

K512, K2155.1.1, S211, S431.1, N711, S301, S400, S410, S431

Part Two

The Folktale from Ireland to India

II – The Complex Tale

12. Origin and history of the complex tales

Not every complex tale known to story-tellers of the area we are considering has found a place in the discussion just concluded. But practically all of those omitted are of very limited distribution. [283] With each tale the main facts about its history and its occurrences in oral tradition have been indicated wherever conclusions seemed possible. While discussing each tale, I have had before me a summary of the scholarship which has been devoted to it and a complete list of oral versions insofar as the extensive reference books and regional surveys now available made this possible. Frequently the mere bringing together of this material was sufficient to compel conclusions about the tale which do not seem likely to need revision. But when all tales with such clear-cut histories have been considered, there remain a large number which present problems sufficient to occupy the attention of scholars for many a decade to come.

Of these complex tales, along with a few closely related simple anecdotes, we have examined somewhat over two hundred. The order in which they have been taken up has been determined by their subject matter. And that means that tales about the same kinds of characters or incidents have been brought together, often when there was no organic relationship between them and when they had little if anything in common in their origin and history. When so much remains dark about the beginnings and about the vicissitudes of so large a number of our folktales, no complete account of them can be based upon historical categories.

Nevertheless, in a very tentative way it may be of interest to see which of our tales have a history that can be proclaimed with some confidence, which of them show great probabilities of proper solution, and which of them still present difficult problems.

That many of our European and Asiatic folktales go back to a literary source is as clear as any fact of scholarship can be made. There would thus seem to be no reason to doubt that an Oriental literary text is responsible for the subsequent development of a considerable number of tales which have received oral currency in Europe and sometime in the Orient. In the older Buddhistic sources [284] are found: Death's Messengers (Type 335); Six Go Through the Whole World (Type 513A); The Three Snake Leaves (Type 612); [p. 177] The Two Travelers (Type 613); The Animal Languages (Type 670); "Think Carefully Before You Begin a Task" (Type 910C); The Brave Tailor (Type 1640); and Doctor Know-All (Type 1641). In the Ocean of Story, a Sanskrit collection brought together in the twelfth century but based upon much older material, there appear, as probable originals of the European oral tradition, versions of: Wise Through Experience (Type 910A); The Servant's Good Counsels (Type 910B); and Faithful John (Type 516). From other collections of literary tales originating in India appear to come: The Bridge to the Other World (Type 471); The Four Skillful Brothers (Type 653); The Wise Brothers (Type 655); and One Beggar Trusts God, the Other the King (Type 841). From various literary sources in India the incidents which make up two of our related tales have been taken and unified at some point before they entered into the oral tradition of the west. [285] These two are : The Son of the King and of the Smith (Type 920); and The King and the Peasant's Son (Type 921). Whatever may be the ultimate source of the stories in the Thousand and One Nights, several of our old folktales are found in that work in much the form in which these stories first reached European taletellers. Among these tales appearing in the Arabian Nights are: Siddhi Numan (Type 449*); Aladdin (Type 561); Open Sesame (Type 676); Luck and Wealth (Type 736); Hatch-penny (Type 745); Oft Proved Fidelity (Type 881); The Treasure of the Hanging Man (Type 910D); and The Forty Thieves (Type 954). Finally, of these tales of Oriental origin, may be mentioned one which appears in the Persian collection, The Thousand and One Days. This is The Prophecy (Type 930).

Similarly, an ultimate origin in European literature seems unmistakable for a dozen or more of the stories current today, whether locally or over the complete European-Asiatic area. Three of the tales which we have noticed certainly go back to Greek literature: Oedipus (Type 931) to Sophocles; Rhampsinitus (Type 950) to Herodotus; and The Wolf and the Kids (Type 123) to the Aesop collection. A fourteenth century Latin poem, the Asinarius, is responsible for the very few oral versions of The Ass (Type 430). Folktales have borrowed very freely from saints' legends: certainly Pride Is Punished (Type 836) is a mere oral treatment of the legend of Polycarp. The great collections of illustrative tales which in the Middle Ages went under the name of Exempla contained a considerable number of folktales. Frequently it is impossible to tell whether they may be reworkings of oral tradition, but sometimes it is quite evident that the oral tale is taken directly from the literary collection. This is clearly true of: Friends in Life and Death (Type 470); The Boy Who Learned Many Things (Type 517); The Three Languages (Type 671); The Angel and the Hermit (Type 759); and Who Ate the Lamb's Heart (Type 785). At least two tales seem to have been learned from the work of the German Meistersinger: The Faithful Wife (Type 888); and [p. 178] The Pound of Flesh (Type 890). Of course, both of these tales were used by Shakespeare, and that fact has doubtless been of influence on their subsequent popularity. Many stories have undoubtedly originated among the people of Italy, and it is sometimes difficult to know whether a tale recounted by those great writers of novelle beginning with Boccaccio was learned from the people or was invented by the author. For at least three of our folktales such literary invention by the novella writer seems the most reasonable hypothesis. The Wager on the Wife's Chastity (Type 882) is in Boccaccio's Decameron; The Luck-Bringing Shirt (Type 844) in the Pecorone of Ser Giovanni; and The Taming of the Shrew (Type 901) in the Nights of Straparola. The Pentamerone of Giambattista Basile of the early seventeenth century is almost completely made up of oral folktales, though transformed into an extraordinary literary style. But it is probable that he invented several tales by freely combining traditional material. Such seems to be the situation with The Forsaken Fiancée (Type 884). Finally, at least one tale given currency by the Grimms, The Two Girls, the Bear, and the Dwarf (Type 426), comes directly from a German literary collection of stories which appeared in 1818.

The fact that one may cite a literary form of a story, even a very old version, is by no means proof that we have arrived at the source of the tradition. Nothing is better authenticated in the study of traditional narrative than the fact that the literary telling of a tale may represent merely one of hundreds of examples of the story in question and have for the history of the tradition no more significance than any other one of the hundreds of variants at hand. Apuleius's telling of Cupid and Psyche and the author of Tobit's version of The Grateful Dead Man tale appear both to be rather late and somewhat, aberrant forms of much older oral tales. With this warning in mind, the careful student should be slow in arriving at the conclusion that a stated literary document is the fountainhead of a particular narrative tradition. For those tales which we have just listed, the actual dependence on the literary source has seemed well established. In addition to these, there are a considerable number for which there is a well-known early literary form to which the weight of evidence would point probably, but not quite certainly, as the actual source. Some of these tales have been very popular among story-tellers, and have spread over two or more continents, and some have had only a very limited acceptance among the people. The degree of popularity and the geographical extent of the distribution is a fact which must be taken into consideration with every tale when we are trying to judge the question of its ultimate literary or oral invention. For this reason, in listing the tales with probable literary sources, it is helpful to indicate briefly what type of oral distribution each has.

At least related to the old Greek story of The Cranes of Ibycus is the tale The Sun Brings All to Light (Type 960; oral: Spain to Russia). From saints' [p. 179] legends at least two oral tales appear to have been taken: Hospitality Rewarded (Type750B; oral: scattered thinly over most of Europe); and Christ and the Smith (Type 753; oral: all Europe, especially the Baltic states). Certainly influenced by some of the legends of the popes, if not directly borrowed from them, is The Dream (Type 725; oral: moderately popular in eastern Europe and the Baltic states). In addition to the folktales which we are sure have come from books of Exempla, there are several where such an origin seems likely: The King and the Robber (Type 951A; oral: Germany and the Baltic states, sporadic in Hungary and Russia); The Old Robber Relates Three Adventures (Type 953; oral: thinly scattered, Ireland to Roumania); and "We Three; For Money" (Type 1697; oral: thinly scattered over all Europe). The influence of the chivalric romance in general is seen in The Bride Won in a Tournament (Type 508) which was told in Straparola's Nights and received frequent literary treatment in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, but has been collected orally only in three versions in Lithuania.

The rich prose literature of medieval Iceland has in it many folktale elements, most of which doubtless go back to popular tradition. But this may not have been true in all cases: an Icelandic prose tale of 1339 seems to lie back of the oral tale Godfather Death (Type 332; oral: Iceland to Palestine, especially the Baltic states, but not Russia). A medieval chronicle of 1175 probably forms the beginning of the tradition later carried on through French and German jestbooks and at least one English play, and connected with the name of a famous Lord Mayor of London. This is Whittington's Cat (Type 1651; oral: scattered from western Europe to Indonesia, especially popular in Finland).

The jestbooks of the Renaissance contain a number of folktales. In many cases, these were taken from older literary collections, or indeed from oral tradition. But occasionally they seem to have served as a real source for tales which now belong to the folk. Such would seem to be true of The Wishes (Type 750A; oral: popular throughout Europe, sporadic in China); The Tailor in Heaven (Type 800; oral: scattered thinly over Europe, sporadic among Buryat of Siberia); The Devil as Advocate (Type 821; oral: all Europe, especially Baltic, moderately popular); Sleeping Beauty (Type 410; oral: scattered thinly over Europe, one-third of versions Italian, based on Basile); and The Three Brothers (Type 654; oral: confined to Europe).

A German literary tale of the thirteenth century may well be the beginning of The Frog King (Type 440; oral: Germany to Russia only). The habit of writing literary folktales was carried on into the eighteenth century, both in France and in Germany. Many of these tales never assumed any oral popularity. On the other hand, The Girls Who Married Animals (Type 552), although concocted by Musäus at the end of the eighteenth century of authentic oral material, combined with an analogous tale in Basile, has since entered into the stream of oral tradition in the form he then designed. Its [p. 180] oral distribution shows the greatest inconsistency and indicates frequent direct use of the literary source.

For all the tales mentioned thus far in this summary there seems a strong probability of ultimate literary origin. But it cannot be too frequently repeated that the fact of the appearance of a tale in some literary document is no proof that it did not originate among the people. Oral tales have been a very fruitful source For literary story-tellers everywhere. It thus happens that frequently the literary appearance of a story only represents one of many hundreds of versions and is, of course, less important in the history of the tale than the oral variant from which the story was borrowed. It is not always easy to tell when a story belongs primarily to oral tradition and frequently the problem of priority is quite unsolvable. But a very considerable number of tales appearing in literary collections show such a preponderance of oral variants, as well as other indications of popular origin, that their literary appearance would seem to be purely incidental. There can be little doubt that they are all essentially oral, both in origin and in history.

Several such oral tales have found a place in Oriental literary collections. In the Hindu fable collection, the Panchatantra, occurs a good part of the tale of Luck and Intelligence (Type 945); it also occurs in recent literary form in India, but has a vigorous life in popular tradition of India and the Near East, and sporadically as far afield as Germany and the Philippines. In the Ocean of Story, as well as in the Thousand and One Nights, occur fragments of Devils Fight over Magic Objects (Type 518; oral: all Europe, western Asia, and North Africa) and of The Prince's Wings (Type 575; oral: sparingly over north and eastern Europe). In the Ocean of Story, likewise, there is an analogue of The Girl as Helper in the Hero's Flight (Type 313). This story does not otherwise appear in central Asia but is one of the most popular of all oral folktales in Europe and America; it is no wonder that it has been retold by such story-tellers as Straparola and Basile. Two tales popular in the tradition of the Near East appear in the Persian Tuti Nameh: The Grateful Animals (Type 554; oral: Europe and Asia, especially Baltic countries) and The Magic Bird-heart (Type 567; oral: eastern and southern Europe, and Persia; origin probably in Persian tradition). In an Arabic history of the ninth century appears an abbreviated version of The King and the Abbot (Type 922), though Walter Anderson has shown that the tradition is certainly oral, in spite of frequent literary treatments in Europe. Likewise, the occurrence of the story of The Monster in the Bridal Chamber (Type 507B) in the apocryphal Book of Tobit does not carry the implication that this version is the source of the tradition: it is obviously a late and considerably modified form of the story, which appears to have developed orally in the Near East.

Much more frequently have oral tales found a place in one or more European collections of literary stories. In another place more specific mention [p. 181] is made of popular tales embedded in the Greek or Latin classics. [286] Sometimes these retellings represent rather faithfully what must have been the plot of one of our oral tales at the time and place it was heard, though there may be radical adaptation to literary form or fashion. Such is true of the retelling of the tale of Polyphemus (Type 1137) by Homer, of Cupid and Psyche (Type 425) by Apuleius, and of Perseus and Andromeda (a version of Type 300? ) by various writers of myths.

It is sometimes difficult to tell whether such a classical story as that of Perseus is really a version of a folktale now current in Europe. There is little doubt, however, that the appearance of the story of The Dragon-Slayer (Type 300) in connection with that of The Two Brothers (Type 303) in Icelandic saga does represent an actual version of an oral tale, apparently originating in France, and now known by almost every taleteller in the world. In Icelandic saga there also appears a version of The Clever Peasant Girl (Type 875), though this does not represent its source, which is certainly oral and central European. The learning of animal speech by eating the flesh of a serpent occurs in a German and Baltic oral tale (Type 673) and also in the Siegfried story, but this is the only parallel, and the resemblance may not indicate actual relationship.

In other literary forms of the Middle Ages there occasionally appear oral tales. Geoffrey of Monmouth, in telling the story of King Lear, includes the incident of Love Like Salt (Type 923), widely known, not only through Shakespeare's treatment, but also as a part of the Cinderella cycle (Type 510). The chivalric romances, likewise, contain much that must have been taken directly from the people. Marie de France thus tells the tale of The Prince as Bird (Type 432), which, though certainly oral, has been frequently retold by both medieval and Renaissance writers. In some versions of the Tristram story occur elements of The Clever Horse (Type 531; oral: western Europe to the Philippines, origin probably India), and in an Icelandic saga of the fourteenth century there is a much clearer version. In the Fortunatus romance, which occurs in many forms, there is found a version of The Three Magic Objects and the Wonderful Fruits (Type 566), essentially west European folk tradition. The Gesta Romanorum, and later, Hans Sachs, have versions of The Three Doctors (Type 660), a tradition well known from Ireland to Russia. Despite the fact that the French and German fabliaux are usually literary in content, at least two oral tales are used in such collections: The Hero Catches the Princess with Her Own Words (Type 853) and King Thrushbeard (Type 900).

Though the jestbooks which were in vogue during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries normally consist of very simple anecdotes, occasionally they included a complex folk story, like Hansel and Gretel (Type 327A); Master Pfriem (Type 801); One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes (Type 511); The [p. 182] Student from Paradise (Type 1540); or The Three Lucky Brothers (Type 1650). The latter story also appears in a collection of novelle. These prose tale collections, beginning as early as Boccaccio's Decameron, sometimes contain stories which the author had heard, though they are usually much changed in style from what must have been the oral original. Such is true of The Smith Outwits the Devil (Type 330), and of Six Go Through the Whole World (Type 513). The latter tale appears in many other literary collections, both Oriental and European.

For the history of the folktale, two collections in the novella tradition are especially important. Insofar as they contain folktales, they are either purely oral stories or else tales of literary origin which had already become a part of the folklore of Italy. Many of these oral tales have their first literary appearance in these collections. In the Pleasant Nights of Straparola in the sixteenth century are versions of: The Magician and His Pupil (Type 325; apparently of oral origin in India); The Youth Who Wanted to Learn What Fear Is (Type 326); The Youth Transformed to a Horse (Type 314; one of the most popular of oral tales); Cap o' Rushes (Type 510B); The Three Golden Sons (Type 707); Our Lady's Child (Type 710); The Cat Castle (Type 545A); Puss in Boots (Type 545B); and The Lazy Boy (Type 675).

An even longer list of oral tales is found for the first time in the Pentamerone of Basile, 1634-36. Among them are: The Maiden in the Tower (Type 310); The Black and the White Bride (Type 403); The Three Oranges (Type 408); Little Brother and Little Sister (Type 450); The Maiden Who Seeks her Brothers (Type 451); The Spinning-Woman by the Spring (Type 480); The Three Old Women Helpers (Type 501); Dung-beetle (Type 559); The Magic Ring (Type 560); The Louse-Skin (Type 621); The Carnation (Type 652); Snow-White (Type 709); and The Good Bargain (Type 1642).

The folktale collection of Charles Perrault which appeared in 1697 is hardly to be considered as literary at all, but rather as a group of fairly faithful versions of oral tales. The later French collections of Madame D'Aulnoy, on the other hand, were definitely literary, and seldom contained any real folktales which had not already appeared in writers like Straparola or Basile. Exceptions are The Mouse as Bride (Type 402) and The Shift of Sex (Type 514).

Such are the principal collections of literary tales which have given us versions of oral stories. To complete the list, one would have to make several miscellaneous additions. The King and the Abbot (Type 922) appears in a German poem of the thirteenth century and frequently thereafter; the oral tradition of how Peter's Mother Falls from Heaven (Type 804) is given in a fifteenth century German poem; The Monster's Bride (Type 507A) appears in a sixteenth century English comedy; Bearskin (Type 361) is [p. 183] retold by Grimmelshausen in 1670; and Demi-coq (Type 715) is given a French name because of his appearance in a French story written in 1759.

Such is the list of those tales which, although they have appeared in one or more literary collections, seem quite certainly to be oral, both in origin and in history. Sometimes their subsequent popularity has been greatly increased by the fact that they have been charmingly retold by Basile or Perrault. Otherwise, their history is in no essential respect different from that large group of stories to which we shall now turn. These belong to the folklore of Europe and Asia, and have never had the fortune to appeal to any literary story teller. We know them only in oral form and can therefore speak with almost complete certainty of their origin among the people. Here belong some of the most interesting of all folktales.

Most of the European stories which originated in the Orient either go back to literary sources in the East or else, in spite of their origin in popular Oriental tradition, have received literary treatment in Asia or in Europe. Such tales, of literary origin or handling, have just been discussed. There remain a few which seem to have developed orally in Asia and to have reached Europe entirely by word of mouth. Such is true of Three Hairs from the Devil's Beard (Type 461), very often told in connection with the tale of The Prophecy (Type 930). The latter story is Oriental, but is found in early Buddhistic material. [287] The widely diffused tale of The Little Red Bull (Type 511*), while showing relation to several well-known European stories, probably comes from Oriental folk tradition.

By far the largest number of purely oral European and Asiatic tales seem quite certainly to have developed in Europe. The great majority of these are confined to the European continent, but some of them are worldwide in their distribution. Examples of the latter are The Dragon-Slayer (Type 300), John the Bear (Type 301), and The Two Brothers (Type 303). [288] Some European oral tales have traveled far into the Orient: Bluebeard (Type 311); The Journey to God to Receive Reward (Type 460A); The Journey in Search of Fortune (Type 460B); The Wild Man (Type 502); The Speaking Horsehead (Type 533); and The Profitable Exchange (Type 1655). Others have gone no further than the Near East: The Princess Transformed into Deer (Type 401); The Princess on the Glass Mountain (Type 530); Strong John (Type 650); The Juniper Tree (Type 720); and The Greater Sinner (Type 756C).

A considerable number of oral stories have received very wide distribution over the entire European continent but, except for purely sporadic occurrences, they do not appear elsewhere. To this list belong: The Hunter (Type 304); [p. 184] The Dwarf and the Giant (Type 327B); Hiding from the Devil (Type 329); The House in the Wood (Type 431); The Water of Life (Type 551); The Fisher and His Wife (Type 555); The Rabbit-herd (Type 570); The Self-righteous Hermit (Type 756A); The Devil's Contract (Type 756B); The Singing Bone (Type 780); The Peasant in Heaven (Type 802); The Birthmarks of the Princess (Type 850); The Golden Ram (Type 854); The King and the Soldier (Type 952); The Robber Bridegroom (Type 955) and The Clever Maiden Alone at Home Kills the Robbers (Type 956B).

The stories just listed are well represented in all parts of Europe, so that without special investigation it is not easy to say just where the story has developed. With a large number of tales, however, we find that, in spite of occurrences over the entire continent, their area of great popularity is clearly limited, sometimes to a single country, more often to a group of neighboring peoples. Such tales with occurrences primarily in eastern Europe are: The Princess in the Shroud (Type 307); The Faithless Sister (Type 315); and The Prince and the Arm Bands (Type 590). These last two are closely related and seem to have their center in Roumania.

General European tales most popular in eastern and northern Europe are: The Danced-Out Shoes (Type 306); Lenore (Type 365); The Helpful Horse (Type 532); and The Snares of the Evil One (Type 810).

Especially characteristic of Scandinavia and the Baltic states are: The Boy Steals the Giant's Treasure (Type 328, the English story of Jack the Giant Killer); Bear-skin (Type 361); The Man as Heater of Hell's Kettle (Type 475); The King is Betrayed (Type 505); The Spirit in the Blue Light (Type 562—popularly influenced by H. C. Andersen's treatment); The Greedy Peasant Woman (Type 751); Sin and Honor (Type 755; also very popular in Ireland); The Devil's Riddle (Type 812); The Hero Forces the Princess to Say "That is a Lie" (Type 852); The Youth Cheated in Selling Oxen (Type 1538); The Clever Boy (Type 1542); and The Man Who got a Night's Lodging (Type 1544).

Rather widespread traditions having their focus definitely in Scandinavia are: The Man from the Gallows (Type 366); The Princess Rescued from Robbers (Type 506B); The Wonder Child (Type 708); The Princess Confined in the Mound (Type 870); and The Little Goose-Girl (Type 870A).

Oral tales distributed over all Europe, but especially characteristic of the western countries, are: The Giantkiller and his Dog (Bluebeard) (Type 312); The Nix of the Mill-pond (Type 316); Little Red Riding Hood (Type 333); Bargain of the Three Brothers with the Devil (Type 360); The Healing Fruits (Type 610); and The Presents (Type 620).

Finally, at least two tales seem to be especially characteristic of British tradition: Tom-Tit-Tot (Type 500) and Out-riddling the Judge (Type 927). The special form of Type 328 known as Jack the Giant Killer and that known as Jack and the Beanstalk represent peculiar British developments. [p. 185]

There has been no attempt in this book to give notice to all folktales known in Europe and Asia, especially to the hundreds of oral stories which are told in only a single locality or which have never traveled far from their original home. A considerable number of such stories local to Roumania, Hungary, Wallonia, and Russia may be examined in the excellent folktale surveys of these countries. [289] Of such of them as appear in the Aarne-Thompson Types of the Folk-Tale, it will be noticed that a large number of the local tales are characteristic of the Baltic area. It must be borne in mind that very exhaustive lists have been made of the Finnish and Estonian tales, [290] so that these large numbers are no cause for wonder. Of these oral tales in the main part of the Aarne-Thompson index, the following seem to be confined to the Baltic states: a version of The Black and the White Bride (Type 403C); The Girl in the Form of a Wolf (Type 409); Punishment of a Bad Woman (Type 473); "Iron is More Precious than Gold" (Type 677); The Rich Man's and the Poor Man's Fortune (Type 735); The Cruel Rich Man as the Devil's Horse (Type 761); The Princess who Murdered her Child (Type 781); Solomon binds the Devil in Chains in Hell (Type 803); The Deceased Rich Man and the Devils in the Church (Type 815); The Devil as Substitute for Day Laborer at Mowing (Type 820); The Boastful Deer-slayer (Type 830); The Dishonest Priest (Type 831); The Disappointed Fisher (Type 832); How the Wicked Lord was Punished (Type 837); and The Wolves in the Stable (Type 1652).

Local to the Baltic and Scandinavian countries are: [291] a version of The Children and the Ogre (Type 327C); The Vampire (Type 363); The Prince as Serpent (Type 433); The Raven Helper (Type 553); The Magic Providing Purse (Type 564); The Magic Mill (Type 565; sporadic in Ireland, Greece, and France); Beloved of Women (Type 580); The Thieving Pot (Type 591); Fiddevav (Type 593); The Gifts of the Dwarfs (Type 611); The Beautiful and the Ugly Twin (Type 711); The Mother who Wants to Kill her Children (Type 765); the Prodigal's Return (Type 935); and At the Robbers' House (Type 956A).

A much smaller group are limited to the Baltic states and Russia: The Strong Woman as Bride (Type 519); The Man Who Flew like a Bird and Swam like a Fish (Type 665; also in Bohemia); The Punishment of Men (Type 840); The Bank Robbery (Type 951B); and Cleverness and Gullibility (Type 1539; 253 versions in Finland alone, sporadic in Greece, Turkey, and America).

Though the groups of peoples just noticed are represented by a large number [p. 186] of local stories, some tales of limited dissemination occur almost everywhere. Thus The Faithless Wife (Type 315B*) belongs to the Baltic and Balkan states and Russia. Hans my Hedgehog (Type 441) is known from Norway to Hungary, but depends entirely upon the Grimm version. Born from a Fish (Type 705) seems purely Scandinavian, and four tales apparently are known only in Norway: The Animal Sons-in-law and their Magic Food (Type 552B); The King's Tasks (Type 577); The Children of the King (Type 892); and Like Wind in the Hot Sun (Type 923A). Confined to south eastern Europe is The Serpent Maiden (Type 507C). Primarily Italian, but also known in Russia, is The Wolf (Type 428). Central European, primarily German, are the three varieties of The Serpent's Crown (Types 672A, B, and C). And two tales, except for occasional appearances of the Grimm version in other countries, seem to be limited to German tradition: Jorinde and Joringel (Type 405) and The Girl as Flower (Type 407).

In the rapid summary just completed it seems clear that for most of the complex tales of the European and Asiatic areas some generalizations are safe. Though we may not be able to say just when or just where a tale originated, or whether it was first an oral story or a literary creation, the general probabilities are such as we have indicated. Many questions of detail within the limits of these probabilities will engage the efforts of future scholars.

There still remain a considerable number of these complex tales where the evidence at present available is either insufficient to lead to general conclusions or else is so overwhelming in amount that it has never yet been properly utilized for systematic investigation.

For some tales, when the data are all assembled, the question as to whether they are essentially literary or oral seems quite unsolvable without much further study. Among such tales are: The Gifts of the Little People (Type 503); The Princess Rescued from Slavery (Type 506A); The Jew Among Thorns (Type 592); Tom Thumb (Type 700); The Maiden Without Hands (Type 706); Christ and Peter in the Barn (Type 752A); The Forgotten Wind (Type 752B) ; The Saviour and Peter in Night-Lodgings (Type 791); The Lazy Boy and the Industrious Girl (Type 822); The Princess who Cannot Solve the Riddle (Type 851); and The Parson's Stupid Wife (Type 1750).

In another group the question as to whether the tale is essentially Oriental or European is still not satisfactorily solved: The Ogre's (Devil's) Heart in the Egg (Type 302); The Spirit in the Bottle (Type 331); The Prince as Bird (Type 432); The Man Persecuted because of his Beautiful Wife (Type 465); The Table, the Ass, and the Stick (Type 563); and "All Stick Together" (Type 571).

Finally, a half dozen stories well known over the entire world present major problems of investigation, because of the great mass of materials at [p. 187] hand, much of unorganized. Each of them offers a challenge to scholarship. These six tales The Man on a Quest for his Lost Wife (Type 400); Cinderella (Type 510A); The Bird, the Horse, and the Princess (Type 550); The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn (Type 569); The Master Thief (Type 1525); and the Rich and the Poor Peasant (Type 1535). [p. 188]

[283] An exhaustive treatment would include a considerable number of such tales of purely local development for Lithuania, for Roumania, for Russia, and for India. The material for the first three of these countries may be examined in the surveys of Balys, Schullerus, and Andrejev, respectively (see references on pp. 420f.). No adequate survey of the material for India has yet been made. I have been working upon one for some years and have reasonable hopes of completing it.

[284] These are best represented by (1) Cowell, The Jātaka; (2) Chavannts, 500 Contes.

[285] For a discussion of this point, see p. 160, above.

[286] See pp. 278ff., below.

[287] See pp. I39f., above.

[288] The other tales which are distributed over the world and have received literary treatment have already been discussed.

[289] For Roumania, Hungary, and Wallonia, see FF Communications Nos. 78, 81, and 101 respectively. For the Russian, see Andrejev, Ukazatel' Skazočnich Siuzhetov.

[290] The number of purely Baltic tales would be greatly increased by inclusion of all those listed in Balys' Motif Index, which appeared after the Aarne-Thompson Index, and also by citing many of the "Types not Included" from the Aarne-Thompson Index.

[291] Single sporadic occurrences elsewhere are disregarded.

123, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 306, 307, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 315B*, 316, 325, 326, 327A, 327B, 327C, 328, 329, 330, 331, 332, 333, 335, 360, 361, 363, 365, 366, 400, 401, 402, 403, 403C, 405, 407, 408, 409, 410, 425, 426, 428, 430, 431, 432, 433, 440, 441, 449*, 450, 451, 460A, 460B, 461, 465, 470, 471, 473, 475, 480, 500, 501, 502, 503, 505, 506A, 506B, 507A, 507B, 507C, 508, 510, 510A, 510B, 511, 511*, 513, 513A, 514, 516, 517, 518, 519, 530, 531, 532, 533, 545A, 545B, 550, 551, 552, 552B, 553, 554, 555, 559, 560, 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 566, 567, 569, 570, 571, 575, 577, 580, 590, 591, 592, 593, 610, 611, 612, 613, 620, 621, 650, 652, 653, 654, 655, 660, 665, 670, 671, 672A, 672B, 672C, 673, 675, 677, 700, 705, 706, 707, 708, 709, 710, 711, 715, 720, 725, 735, 736, 745, 750A, 750B, 751, 752A, 752B, 753, 755, 756A, 756B, 756C, 759, 761, 765, 780, 781, 785, 791, 800, 801, 802, 803, 804, 810, 812, 815, 820, 821, 822, 830, 831, 832, 836, 837, 840, 841, 844, 850, 851, 852, 853, 854, 870, 870A, 875, 881, 882, 884, 888, 890, 892, 900, 901, 910A, 910B, 910C, 910D, 920, 921, 922, 923, 923A, 927, 930, 931, 935, 945, 950, 951A, 951B, 952. 953, 954, 956A, 956B, 960, 1137, 1525, 1535, 1538, 1539, 1540, 1542, 1544, 1640, 1641, 1642, 1650, 1651, 1652, 1655, 1697, 1750

Part Two

The Folktale from Ireland to India

III – The Simple Tale

4. Legends and traditions

C. Return from the Dead

The same question of the reality of belief appears with especial clearness when we deal with legends concerning the return from the dead. [401] The attitude of the story-teller varies much from country to country. Tellers of popular tradition, and their listeners as well, usually make no question about the credibility of a ghost story. This is true even in those western countries most influenced by rationalistic thinking, though here the ghosts which are alleged to have appeared are usually mere spooks. The tradition of the person who returns from the realm of the dead to revisit old scenes has become much impoverished, so that we have to go to groups of people less disturbed in their ancient ways of thinking to find full-blooded ghosts. Medieval literature, in general, and the folklore of eastern Europe, not to speak of that from so-called primitive peoples, is filled with instances of dead men who appear to their friends or enemies in form and stature as they had lived. Hamlet's father is on the borderline between the two ideas: he is recognizable, but is also spectral. Sometimes, however, the ghost is little more than a living dead man in full flesh and blood pacing up and down the earth awaiting the second death when his body shall eventually disintegrate in the grave. Frightful creatures these are, often appearing as vampires living on the wholesome blood of mortals.

It is hard to tell how widespread is the faith in the possibility of raising the dead. No study has ever been made that would throw, any light on beliefs of this kind at the present day in our western culture. It seems safe, however, to hazard a guess that such beliefs are very largely confined to strictly religious contexts, in which the occurrence is regarded as a definite miracle, a real interposition of power from on high. As we move eastward into Asia into other cultural patterns, and especially as we go on to Oceania or to the aborigines of the Americas or Africa, the bringing of a person back from the dead becomes much more commonplace and is easily accepted in non-sacred stories which are received as true.

Very much the same situation is found when we look into the stories of reincarnation. First of all, it is not always possible to distinguish accurately between the return from the dead in another form and the idea of ordinary transformation. As conceived by Ovid, sometimes the change of a [p. 255] person into an object or animal takes place without death and sometimes as a definite return in a new form. In present Western Culture, tales of actual reincarnation are probably nearly always thought of as unmistakable fictions, even by those who might believe in magic transformations. Of course, again, as we reach India, metempsychosis becomes for millions an object of religious faith, and this fact has made instances of reincarnation commonplace in Hindu tradition.

The very close relation of doctrines concerning future life and the next world to the whole religious belief and activity of people has profoundly affected this entire group of traditions. The pattern of organized Christian doctrine has worked for a thousand years or more to modify, and sometimes entirely to displace older concepts once universally accepted. Insofar as these survive at all, they are treated as fictions or, if not, those who believe in them are regarded as extraordinarily gullible and naive. But the poems and tales of Europe, both literary and popular, do contain many motifs dealing with the return of the dead, and seem to indicate a much richer tradition in former times.

We have already encountered resuscitation in several of our folktales. The dead may be brought back to life by cutting off his head (E12; Type 531), by burning him (E15; Type 753), or, as with Snow White, by removing the poisoned apple from her throat (E21.1; Type 709). A magic ointment may be used (E102), or the parts of the dismembered corpse may be brought together and revived (E30; Types 303 and 720). Most popular of all in folk tales is revival through the Water of Life (E80; Types 550 and 551). This water is usually found after a long quest and is powerful against both disease and death. Herbs or leaves are sometimes efficacious (E105; Type 612), or a magic fruit (E106; Type 590), or blood (E113; Type 516). In addition to these motifs peculiar to the folktale, there appear a few resuscitation tales which belong either to the world of myth or of legend. The method by which Thor, when he has killed his goats and eaten them, then reassembles their bones to bring them back to life (E32) has been employed by many other heroes in Europe and out, and the special feature of this legend, that one bone or member is missing and causes deformity in the revived animal or person (E33; Type 313), is likewise very widespread. Another tale from Norse mythology well known elsewhere is that of the warriors who fight each day and slay each other but are revived every night (E155.1).

Nearly all these stories of resuscitation appear as motifs in folktales or myths, not as actual traditions. This is also true of most of the tales of reincarnation. In folktales they are rather common, and examples will occur to almost anyone familiar with them: the little boy in The Juniper Tree (Type 720) who comes forth as a bird from the bones his sister has buried (E607.1 and E610.1.1); the appearance of Cinderella's dead mother as a cow (E611.2) or a tree growing from the grave (E631; Type 510); and the many varieties [p. 256] of the tale of The Singing Bone (E632; Type 780). More definitely in ballad tradition appear the twining branches which grow together from the graves of lovers (E631.0.1). We have already seen, also, how some explanatory legends have ascribed the habits of certain animals to their recollection of former existences as men (A2261.1).

On the contrary, as we have already noticed, the living tradition and active faith of nearly all countries abound in ghost legends. Not only may thousands of people be found who testify to having seen ghosts, but practices are all but universal which assume for their justification a substratum of such a belief.

There is so much variety in the general concept of ghost that one can hardly make an exact definition of it. In general, it may be said that we have legends all the way from a complete return from the dead with full human functions to the most wraithlike of spooks frightening people as they pass graveyards. We have noted that some traditions imply essentially a "living dead man," who merely wanders about waiting final death (E422). Not less complete in human functions is The Grateful Dead Man (E341) already met in a series of folktales (Types 505-508), where he returns to pay a debt of gratitude. These revenants of flesh and blood are most often malicious, and their return is usually to punish rather than to reward. The dead lover returns and takes his sweetheart behind him on horseback and attempts to carry her with him into the grave (E215). [402] The dead wife frequently returns to protest to her husband against his evil ways (E221), particularly if he has married again. Or a dead person returns to punish indignities suffered by the corpse or ghost (E235; Type 366), such as the theft of an arm or leg, or the kicking of the skull. Or, as in the Don Juan legend (E238; Type 470), the dead man is scornfully invited to dinner and then compels his host to go with him to the other world.

The dead may also return in their proper form on friendly missions. Best known of such stories, both in tales and ballads, are those concerning the return of a dead mother (E323), either to suckle her neglected baby or otherwise aid her persecuted children. [403] The dead child sometimes returns to stop the inordinate weeping of its parents (E324, E361). And sometimes conscientious dead come back to repay a money debt (E351) or to return stolen goods (E352).

Retaining some of his human characteristics, but essentially ghostlike, is the vampire (E251), who comes out of his grave at night and sucks blood (Types 307 and 363). There are many descriptions of these horrible creatures, especially in the legends of eastern Europe and of India. Elaborate means are devised for getting rid of them, the best known being the driving of a stake through the grave. Other wandering and malicious dead appear in many [p. 257] legends without the special characteristics of the vampire. They frequently make unprovoked attacks on travelers in the dark (E261), or they haunt buildings and molest those bold enough to stay in them overnight (E282-E284; Type 326).

Tales of spooks are likely to be rather vague in their outlines and frequently to be little more than an example of some popular belief or practice. There are, for example, a large number of stories about the unquiet grave (E410ff.), all telling of some reason why the dead person is unable to rest in peace. It may be because of a great sin—murder, suicide, adultery, or even, in medieval tales, the taking of usury. Particularly restless are the excommunicated or the unbaptized, or those who have not had proper funeral rites. And the murdered and the drowned are doomed for a certain period to walk the earth (E413, E414). Many special qualities are ascribed to these spectral ghosts. They are frequently invisible except to one person (E421.1.1) or to horses (E421.1.2). They are luminous (E421.3) and they cannot cast shadows (E421.2). But the wraithlike nature of these ghosts has permitted them to assume a multitude of forms in the imagination of those to whom they have appeared. Sometimes they are animals (E423), sometimes skeleton-like (E422.1.7), sometimes headless (E422.1.1), like the one which Ichabod Crane encountered.

Many are the ways in which the dead are discouraged from leaving the grave and in which they are "laid" if they become restless and wander forth (E430ff., E440ff.). All kinds of precautions are taken at funerals, the best known being to carry the coffin through a hole in the wall or to place a coin in the mouth of the corpse. Some relics of ancient sacrifice to the dead are still to be found. Many different magic objects can be carried as a protection against them, and like witches, they are thought to be powerless to cross rapid streams or to pass a crossroads. The restless ghost may sometimes be quieted by reburial or by an elaborate magic ritual, or by burning or decapitating the body. He may have to wander until some particular event takes place, or he may be only waiting for the cock to crow.

Ghosts are not always encountered by themselves. Many are the legends concerning groups of dancing ghosts (E493), of church services (E492), or processions of the dead (E491). And in addition to stories embodying these general conceptions, three of the tales concerning companies of ghosts are among the most popular in all Europe, The Wild Hunt, The Flying Dutch man, and The Sleeping Army.

The first of these, The Wild Hunt (E501), appears in the greatest variety of detail, though the central idea is always the same. It is the apparition of a hunter with a crowd of huntsmen, horses, and dogs, crossing the sky at night. Stories of this kind go back to classical antiquity, and they appear nearly all over Europe. The huntsman himself, and sometimes his companions, are identified with historic characters, sometimes even with one of the gods. [p. 258] The Flying Dutchman (E511), while not nearly so well known as The Wild Hunt, has much more definite texture as a real tale. A sea captain, because of his wickedness, sails a phantom ship eternally without coming to harbor. The only variety in the different versions concerns the nature of the crime, whether it has been unusual cruelty, a pact with the devil, or defiance of a storm. The third of these legends, The Sleeping Army (E502), tells of a group of soldiers who have been killed in battle and who come forth on certain occasions from their resting place, usually in a hill or cave, and march about, restlessly haunting the old battlefield. [404]

All these, and many other traditions of the return from the dead which might be cited, imply a belief in some mysterious element which survives the death of the body, that which we ordinarily call the soul. There is every tendency for popular tradition to conceive of this element in material terms, so that the passage of soul from body at death is not only actual but visible. Sometimes it is thought of as having the form of a mouse (E731.3), or bird (E732), or butterfly (E734.1) [405] which leaves the mouth at the supreme moment. Souls are sometimes identified with the stars, and it is thought that a shooting star signifies that someone is dying (E741.1.1). And, finally, not only popular tradition, but medieval literature as well, gives us pictures of devils and angels contesting over a man's soul (E756.1). It can be little wonder that an idea so difficult for even theologians and philosophers should produce much inconsistency in the traditions of unlettered folk.

[401] The whole of chapter "E" of the Motif-Index is devoted to this subject.

[402] See Type 365. This tale of "Lenore" appears both as ballad and prose folktale.

[403] See Types 403, 510A, 511, and 923.

[404] For other similar tales, see D1960.1 and D1960.2, p. 265, below.

[405] Cf. the Greek ψυϰη, meaning at once soul and butterfly.

303, 307, 313, 326, 363, 365, 366, 403, 470, 505-508, 510, 511, 531, 516, 550, 551, 590, 612, 709, 720, 753, 780, 923

A2261.1, D1960.1, D1960.2, E, E12, E15, E21.1, E30, E32, E33, E80, E102, E105, E106, E113, E155.1, E215, E221, E235, E238, E261, E282-E284, E323, E324, E341, E351, E352, E361, E410ff., E413, E414, E421.1.1, E421.1.2, E421.2, E421.3, E422, E422.1.1, E422.1.7, E423, E430ff., E440ff., E491, E492, E493, E501, E502, E511, E607.1, E610.1.1, E611.2, E631, E631.0.1, E632, E731.3, E732, E741.1.1, E756.1

Part Two

The Folktale from Ireland to India

V – European-Asiatic Folktales in other Continents

2. Africa

The Sahara Desert has always served as a great dividing line for the cultures of the African continent. North of the desert, from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean, the contact with European and Moslem culture has been intimate and continuous. As far as the folktale, at least, is concerned, that whole stretch of land is properly to be considered as a southern fringe of the European and Asiatic area. South of the Sahara, however, though there are intrusions from Europe and Asia, folk traditions are essentially native. The great majority of their tales have certainly had their origin on the soil of central or southern Africa.

The extent to which these tales are purely African differs greatly from tribe to tribe and especially from one culture area to another. Where there has been little direct contact with the Asiatics or Europeans, contamination is negligible, but it increases in direct proportion to outside contacts. In east [p. 285] Africa, especially that part lying close to Arabia and even further south, there is ample evidence of long association with Asiatic Moslems, even when the native populations have not embraced Mohammedanism. In contrast to this very old intrusion of outside tradition, the taking over of tales from Europe has occurred only during the last two or three centuries with the gradual penetration of the Western Powers into Africa. Some of this may have taken place rather early in the development of the American slave trade, since there are unmistakable signs of European tales which have been brought to America by slaves, probably during the eighteenth century.

An analysis of the occurrence of European and Asiatic tales in central and south Africa shows a considerable difference in the interest various tribes have had in stories which have come to them from outside. In some, the folk tradition is very little affected; in others, the material from outside actually overbalances the native. Of the tales which have been brought in, some are found once or twice but have never made much of a place for themselves, while others have spread over the whole continent. Some of these tales which have great popularity in Africa have certainly come directly or indirectly from India. Such are The Tarbaby (Type 175), The Animal Languages (Type 670), The Four Skillful Brothers (Type 653), and probably The Table, The Ass, and The Stick (Type 563). A larger number seem clearly to have arrived from Europe: The Theft of Butter (Honey) by Playing God father (Type 15); The Fox as Nursemaid for the Bear (Type 37); The Wolf Flees from the Wolf Head (Type 125); Red Ridinghood (Type 333); The Quest for the Lost Wife (Type 400); The Black and the White Bride (Type 403); The Cat as Helper (Puss in Boots) (Type 545); Race with Relatives in Line (Type 1074); Ogre Kills Own Children: Substitutes in Bed (Type 1119); The Rich and the Poor Peasant (Type 1535); and The Eaten Grain and Cock as Damages (Type 1655). The Aesop tradition seems to be almost entirely lacking. Biting the Foot (Type 5), while it belongs to that tradition, probably came to the Africans from Northern Europe.

The tales just listed are very popular, not one of them appearing in Africa in fewer than ten versions. Their conformity to the European or Asiatic type is unmistakable, and we are sure that for at least this many stories there has been a widespread borrowing from the other continents. For a few very widely distributed African tales, the situation is not quite so clear. The story is told with some difference from the European or Asiatic analogue, and there is at least a possibility that we are dealing with a closely parallel narrative rather than an actual borrowing. Doubtful cases of this kind are represented by The Animals Build a Road (Type 55); The Princess Who Murdered Her Child (Type 781); Attempted Murder with Hatchet (Type 1115); Crayfish as Tailor Drowned (Type 1310); Holding Up the Rock (Type 1530); and Lending and Repaying, Progressive Bargains (Type 2034C). [p. 286]

These are only the most popular of the foreign tales in Africa. When we consider all of the borrowings which have thus far been reported, we find a total of 119 of the 718 types listed in the Aarne-Thompson catalogue. Perhaps most popular are the animal tales, a goodly number of which have become familiar to us in a later stage of development in the American Negro Uncle Remus cycle. But we also find a considerable group of the typical wonder tales such as Cinderella, Puss in Boots, The Two Travelers, and, strangely enough, six black adaptions of Snow White.

There are, of course, certain types of European stories not likely to appeal to such an alien culture, with different social contentions and life experiences. We seek in vain for tales based primarily upon the typical religious organization in Europe. But these fields of very special interest are strictly limited, and the African finds enjoyment in nearly every kind of European folktale. He may do some queer things with them and change them around so that little more than a skeleton of the original remains and so that it takes the expert eye to discover that they are not actually native. On the other hand he may take the tale over completely with all its foreign trappings, and it may remain as completely exotic as the railroad train or the airplane.

5, 15, 55, 125, 175, 333, 400, 403, 545, 563, 653, 670, 781, 1074, 1115, 1119, 1310, 1530, 1535, 1655, 2034C

Number of Borrowing of European-Asiatic Tales by Indonesians, African, and American Indians

Type

Indonesianx

Africanx

Americanx Indianx

1. The Theft of Fish		5	7
2. Tail-Fisher		3	13
4. Carrying the Sham-Sick Trickster		5
5. Biting the Foot	13	16
6. Inquiring about the Wind		2
7. Calling of Three Tree Names		1
8. The Painting	2	7
9A. The Unjust Partner: Bear Threshes		7
9B. The Unjust Partner: Corn and Chaff			2
15. Theft of Butter (Honey) by Playing Godfather		13	2
21. Eating His Own Entrails	1	1
30. Fox Tricks Wolf into Falling into a Pit		1
31. Fox Climbs from Pit on Wolf's Back	15
33. Fox Plays Dead and is Thrown out of Pit and Escape	20	5
36. Fox in Disguise Violates the She-Bear	1
37. Fox as Nursemaid for Bear	7	30
38. Claw in Split Tree	11	2
47A. Fox Hangs by Teeth to Horse's Tail		2	1
49. Bear and the Honey			2
50. Sick Lion	1
55. Animals Build a Road		18	1
56. Fox Steals Young Magpies		7
60. Fox and Crane			3
62. Peace Among Animals			1
72. Rabbit Rides Fox a-Courting	1	6	7
73. Blinding the Guard		2	2
100. Wolf as Dog's Guest Sings			1
101. Old Dog as Rescuer of Child			1
104. Cowardly Duelers			3
105. Cat's Only Trick		2
111. Cat and Mouse Converse	3
122A. Wolf Seeks Breakfast		2
122B. Cat Washes Face before Eating		5
123. Wolf and Kids			1
125. Wolf Flees from Wolf-Head		12
130. Animals in Night Quarters			1
154. "Bear-Food"		6	1
155. Ungrateful Serpent Returned to Captivity	12
156. Splinter in Bear's Paw		1
157. Learning to Fear Men		1	1
175. Tarbaby and Rabbit	2	39	23
210. Cock, Hen, etc. on Journey	10
221. Election of Bird King	2
222. War of Birds and Quadrupeds		4
225. Crane Teaches Fox to Fly	4	3	43?
228. Titmouse Tries to be Big as Bear	1	8
235. Jay Borrows Cuckoo's Skin	3
248. Dog and Sparrow	1
249. Ant and Cricket			3
275. Race of Fox and Crayfish	26		1
295. Bean, Straw, and Coal			3
300. Dragon-Slayer	1		14
301. Three Stolen Princesses			16
302. Ogre's Heart in Egg	2		1
303. Twins or Blood-Brothers	3		3
307. Princess in the Shroud		2
311. Rescue by Sister (Girls in Sacks)		5	1
313. Girl as Helper in Hero's Flight		2	33
314. Youth Transformed to Horse (Goldener)	24	4	15
325. Magician and Pupil	1
326. Learning What Fear Is			2
327A. Hansel and Gretel	6	8	10
327B. Dwarf and Giant	3
327C. Devil Carries Hero in Sack		9	6?
328. Boy Steals Giant's Treasure			6
331. Spirit in Bottle			1
333. Red Ridinghood; Six Little Goats		16
400. Quest for Lost Wife	37	11	29
401. Princess Transformed into Deer		1
402. Mouse (Cat, etc.) as Bride	1
403. Black and White Bride	1	15	6
408. Three Oranges		1
425. Search for Lost Husband (Cupid and Psyche)	5	5	1
432. Prince as Bird		1
450. Little Brother and Little Sister		3
451. Maiden Who Seeks her Brothers			1
461. Three Hairs from Devil's Beard	17	1	1
471. Bridge to Other World	1	1	1
480. Spinning Woman by the Spring	6		3
506. Rescued Princess: Grateful Dead	6		1
507. Monster's Bride: Grateful Dead			1
510A. Cinderella	2	3	4
510B. Cap o' Rushes		2	1
511. One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes	3
513. The Helpers (Extraordinary Companions)		2	3
514. Shift of Sex	1
516. Faithful John		1
518. Devils Fight over Magic Objects		2
531. Clever Horse		3	2
533. Speaking Horse-head		6
545. Cat as Helper (Puss in Boots)	2	10
550. Bird, Horse, and Princess	4	4
551. Sons on Quest for Remedy		4
552A. Three Animal Brothers-in-Law			1
554. Grateful Animals	11
555. Fisher and His Wife	5
559. Dungbeetle		1	4
560. Magic Ring	36	8	2
561. Aladdin	1		2
563. Table, Ass, and Stick	7	14	4
566. Three Magic Objects and Wonderful Fruits	2		1
567. Magic Bird-heart	13	1	1
569. Knapsack, Hat, and Horn	5		5
570. Rabbit-herd	1	1
571. "All Stick Together"		1
590. Prince and Arm Bands			1
592. Jew Among Thorns	1
612. Three Snake-Leaves	2
613. Two Travelers		5	1
621. Louse-Skin	3
650. Strong John	27	3	4
653. Four Skillful Brothers	8	12
655. Wise Brothers	1	2
670. Animal Languages	6	23
671. Three Languages		2
675. Lazy Boy	2
676. Open Sesame	1	9
700. Tom Thumb		5	1
706. Maiden Without Hands		6	2
707. Three Golden Sons		8	1
709. Snow White		6
750. The Wishes: Hospitality Rewarded	1	1	3
780. Singing Bone		8
781. Princess Who Murdered her Child		12
785. Who Ate the Lamb's Heart?	1
851. Princess who Cannot Solve Riddle	3	2
852. Princess Forced to Say, "That is a Lie."	1	2
853. Princess Caught with her own Words			2
854. Golden Ram			1
875. Clever Peasant Girl	3	3
882. Wager on Wife's Chastity	2
900. King Thrushbeard		1?
901. Taming of the Shrew			1
910. The Good Precepts		2
921. King and Peasant's Son	1	2
922. King and Abbot	1
923. Love Like Salt		1
930. Prophecy for Poor Boy		1	1
931. Oedipus	1
935. Prodigal's Return			1
945. Luck and Intelligence	8	1
950. Rhampsinitus	1
1000. Anger Bargain	5		2
1004. Hogs in Mud, Sheep in Air	2	3	4
1012. Cleaning the Child	1
1015. Whetting the Knife	2
1030. Crop Division	1
1031. Roof as Threshing Flail			2
1060. Squeezing the Stone	1	1	1
1061. Biting the Stone		1	1
1062. Throwing the Stone	1		1
1063. Throwing Contest with Golden Club			1
1074. Race with Relatives in Line	6	38	12
1085. Pushing Hole in a Tree			1
1088. Eating Contest: Food in Bag			20
1115. Attempted Murder with Hatchet		10
1119. Ogre Kills Own Children: Substitutes in Bed		14	5
1149. Children Desire Ogre's Flesh	10	4
1157. Gun as Tobacco Pipe		1
1200. Sowing of Salt		1
1250. Bringing Water from Well: Human Chain		1	2
1260. Porridge in Ice Hole	1
1276. Rowing without Going Forward	4
1278. Bell Falls into Sea: Mark on Boat	2
1310. Crayfish as Tailor: Drowned	18	22	31
1319. Pumpkin as Ass's Egg, Rabbit as Colt			1
1350. Loving Wife: Man Feigns Death		1?
1360C. Old Hildebrand			1
1380. Faithless Wife: Husband Feigns Blindness		1
1384. Quest for Person Stupid as Wife		2
1386. Meat as Food for Cabbage	7
1415. Lucky Hans	2		1
1430. Man and Wife Build Air Castles	7	1
1525. Master Thief	2		6
1528. Holding Down the Hat	2		1
1530. Holding up the Rock		11	3
1535. Rich and Poor Peasant	10	16	11
1537. Corpse Killed Five Times	3		2
1539. Cleverness and Gullibility	7		3
1540. Student from Paradise (Paris)	3
1541. For the Long Winter			2
1542. The Clever Boy: Fooling-Sticks			8
1563. "Both?"			3
1585. Lawyer's Mad Client			1
1590. Trespasser's Defense			1
1610. To Divide Presents and Strokes		2
1611. Contest in Climbing Mast			1
1612. Contest in Swimming			1
1640. Brave Tailor	3		4
1641. Doctor Know-All	21	3
1642. The Good Bargain: Money to Frogs			4
1651. Whittington's Cat	2	2
1653. Robbers under Tree	2	1	5
1655. Eaten Grain and Cock as Damages		10	1
1685. Foolish Bridegroom	6	1
1696. "What Should I Have Said?"	6	4	2
1698A. Search for Lost Animal: Deaf Person	1
1698B. Travelers Ask the Way: Deaf Peasant		1
1730. Three Suitors Visit Chaste Wife	2	3
1737. Parson in Sack to Heaven		1
1775. Hungry Parson			3
1920A. Lying Contest: "Sea Burns"	1
1930. Schlaraffenland		3
2028. Troll (Wolf) Cut Open		1
2030. Old Woman and Pig	2	4
2031. Frost-bitten Foot	4	3
2033. Nut Hits Cock's Head		3
2034C. Lending and Repaying, Progressive Bargains		22
2035. House that Jack Built		4
2400. Ground Measured with Horse's Skin			1

1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9A, 9B, 15, 21, 30, 31, 33, 36, 37, 38, 47A, 49, 50, 55, 56, 60, 62, 72, 73, 100, 101, 104, 105, 111, 122A, 122B, 123, 125, 130, 154, 155, 156, 157, 175, 210. 221, 222, 225, 228, 235, 248, 249, 275, 295, 300, 301, 302, 303, 307, 311, 313, 314, 325, 326, 327A, 327B, 327C, 328, 331, 333, 400, 401, 402, 403, 408, 425, 432, 450, 451, 461, 471, 480, 506, 507, 510A, 510B, 511, 513, 514, 516, 518, 531, 533, 545, 550, 551, 552A, 554, 555, 559, 560, 561, 563, 566, 567, 569, 570, 571, 590, 592, 612, 613, 621, 650, 653, 655, 670, 671, 675, 676, 700, 706, 707, 709, 750, 780, 781, 785, 851, 852, 853. 854. 875, 882, 900, 901, 910, 921, 922, 923, 930, 931, 935, 945, 950, 1000, 1004, 1012, 1015, 1030, 1031, 1060, 1061, 1062, 1063, 1074, 1085, 1088, 1115, 1119, 1149, 1157, 1200, 1250, 1260, 1276, 1278, 1310, 1319, 1350, 1360C, 1380, 1384, 1386, 1415, 1430, 1525, 1528, 1530, 1535, 1537, 1539, 1540, 1541, 1542, 1563, 1585, 1590, 1610, 1611, 1612, 1640, 1641, 1642, 1651, 1653, 1655, 1685, 1696, 1698A, 1698B, 1730, 1737, 1775, 1920A, 1930, 2028, 2030, 2031, 2033, 2034C, 2035, 2400