If the rewards and punishments given by our mysterious strangers are filled with magic and miracles, even more marvelous are the ways of divine justice in uncovering hidden crime. Even an idea usually so foreign to the peoples of western Europe as reincarnation is used to reveal a murder in the story of The Singing Bone (Type 780), which not only appears as a popular folktale but is sung as a ballad throughout northern and western Europe and the United States. [196] The details of these stories show considerable variation. Usually in the prose form we have the murder of one brother by another, whereas in the ballad we are dealing with two sisters. In any case, the murdered person is either buried or left in the water where he has been drowned. Sometimes a harp is made from various parts of the body, or a flute from a bone, or some other instrument from a tree which has grown over the murdered person's grave. The musical instrument is played in public and sings out the accusation of the murder.

How widespread this story is considered to be will depend upon the investigator's definition of the tale-type. [197] Accounts of murders revealed by some reincarnation of the victim are to be found in all parts of the world. But this motif is so simple that there would seem to be no necessary connection between primitive tales of this kind and the European tradition. Thus, the many stories cited from central Africa may well represent an independent tradition. [198] The prose tale, as told throughout Europe, does seem to have a sufficient number of common details to constitute a definite narrative entity. Mackensen feels that this prose story probably originated in Belgium, but he recognizes the great difficulty of reaching conclusions that will give proper weight to the ballad tradition and to analogous tales which may have independently arisen in remote parts of the earth.

Some of the African versions mentioned above are more properly analogous to another story of revealed murder, The Princess Who Murdered Her Child (Type 781). The hero of this tale, who understands the language of birds, [199] hears a bird above him sing, "The bones lie under the tree." [200] The murder is [p. 137] thus brought to light. As for the European tale, it seems to be confined to Estonia and Finland, where it is well known. The African story of the revelation of the murder by the bird is certainly independent of this Baltic tradition.

There are also other European tales of murders betrayed by birds which may or may not be dependent upon the Baltic story. [201] Psychologically much more striking than any of these supernatural revelations of murder are those stories in which the slayer himself is induced, in one way or another, to betray the murder. A good representative of this group of tales is the Grimms' story, The Sun Brings All to Light (Type 960). The dying man has declared, "The bright sun will bring it all to light." On one occasion the sun shines brightly on the murderer's food and he thoughtlessly addresses the sun, "You would like to bring it to light, but cannot." His remark is investigated and the murder revealed. This form of the tale is current in Germany, the Baltic countries, and Serbia. About as frequently, the object which causes the revelation is some plant, instead of the rays of the sun. This variation is found all the way from Spain to Russia.

Perhaps more common than the betrayal by either the sun or a plant are stories in which some kind of bird causes the murderer to betray himself. Such tales have received literary treatment by many authors since classical times. They all follow in general lines the Greek myth of The Cranes of Ibycus. In this story the murdered man calls upon the cranes, the only witnesses of the murder, to avenge him. The cranes follow the murderer and point him out. [202] Though the tale appears in many literary versions, it is well established in oral tradition, especially of the romance countries and Germany. There is no doubt that these tales of The Cranes of Ibycus and The Sun Brings All to Light have been of so much mutual influence that they may properly be considered as two forms of a single folk story. In it may be found a good instance of a theme so well grounded in the belief in a higher justice that it has appealed to the essential optimism of both the learned and the illiterate and has therefore become a part not only of the European literary tradition but, also, in many countries, of the native folklore.