It is not always easy to tell, in tales of the marvelous, whether we are dealing with magic or with mere exaggerations of actual qualities. Particularly confusing in this respect is a small group of stories of men who are endowed with extraordinary skills. [76] The first of these tales, The Four Skillful Brothers (Type 653), is by far the best known. The father of the four brothers sends them away to learn skillful trades. When they return home he puts their skills to a test and bids them display their accomplishments. The star-gazer sees how many eggs are in a bird's nest on a distant tree; the thief steals the eggs; the huntsman shoots them, although they are scattered about upon a table. Finally, the tailor sews them up so that they can be returned to the nest: only a red line is around the necks of the birds when they are hatched. This is only a preliminary test for the brothers, who now hear of a princess who is offered in marriage to her rescuer. The astronomer finds her on a rock in a distant sea; the thief steals her; the huntsman shoots the dragon guardian; and the tailor sews together the shattered planks on the boat on which they are returning.

This dragon rescue story with its four rescuers does not lead to the neat conclusion possible with a single rescuer. Each of the brothers claims that he played the most important role in the rescue and should receive the princess. The versions offer three possible solutions of the quandary. The tale may be left with the dispute still unsettled. Or it may be proposed that she be divided, and in this manner, reminiscent of King Solomon, the true lover is discovered. A third solution is to give the brothers half the kingdom instead of the princess.

The tale has a long literary history, with its origin apparently in India, where it is told in the Vetalanpaficavimcati, or Twenty-Five Tales of a Vampire. Later stages are represented by the Mongolian Siddhi Kür, the Persian Tuti-Nameh, and an Italian novella of Morlini. From the sixteenth [p. 82] century down it has appeared frequently in literature, notably in the famous tale collections of Straparola and Basile. But though its literary origin seems clearly established, the tale has been taken over into the oral folklore of a good part of the world. It is well represented in every part of Europe and is unusually popular in Asia, where it is known from the Mediterranean to Japan and from India to Malaysia, Farther India, and Indonesia. It is scattered over much of Africa and has been carried, apparently by Negroes, to North America. On the other hand, it has not been reported on the American continent from American Indian, French, Spanish, or English tradition. We may well expect at some time to hear of the tale from Spanish America, since three versions are known in Spain.

A story so similar to some aspects of The Four Skillful Brothers as to suggest the possibility that, it is a mere outgrowth of that tale is the one known as The Three Skillful Brothers (Type 654). The beginning of the tale is identical with the other. The brothers having been sent out for training return and display their accomplishments. The fighting master swings his sword so fast that it does not become wet in a heavy rain; the barber shaves a running rabbit; and the blacksmith shoes a horse while it is galloping. The action usually goes no further than this simple anecdote, though we may hear of further adventures of the brothers. A version of this story somewhat different from that current today is found in the Scala Celi of Johannes Gobii, Junior, composed in France at the beginning of the fourteenth century. It has been used in jestbooks from the sixteenth century and has been collected orally, though not frequently, from most parts of the European continent. It does not seem to have traveled beyond.

A third tale of skill recounts the accomplishments of The Three Doctors (Type 660), who show their extraordinary ability in surgery. One of them removes one of his eyes, another removes his heart, and the third a hand. They are to replace these members without injury the next morning. The story does not turn out as happily as the other tales of skill, for during the night the severed members are eaten and animal members are brought in to act as substitutes. In this way one of the doctors acquires a cat's eye which sees best at night, another one is given a thief's hand which makes him want to steal, and the third is given a hog's heart, so that he is impelled to root in the ground. This tale likewise is apparently literary in origin, since it is told in the Middle Ages in the Gesta Romanorum and was reworked in the sixteenth century by Hans Sachs. As an oral anecdote it is popular in the Baltic states and is told throughout Scandinavia, in Ireland, Flanders, Germany, Russia, and Hungary. It seems not to be known in the Romance countries nor to have traveled outside of Europe.

All three of these tales of marvelous skill appear to belong to literature rather than to folklore, though all of them have been taken over by the tellers of oral tales. One story which is suggested by these three is purely [p. 83] literary, having a place in most of the important collections of artistic tales, both of the Orient and of Europe, [77] but being reported orally only from Norway, Denmark, Estonia and Russia, though rarely even in these countries. [78] This is the tale of The Wise Brothers (Type 655), who are asked by the king to speak three wise words. They declare, among other things, that the king is a bastard, or that the roast they are eating is dog meat, or that the wine tastes of a corpse. [79] It turns out upon investigation that all of these statements are true, but could not have been known to anyone who was not almost supernatural either in his fineness of perception or unusual powers of deduction.