A particularly important idea in the stories of murder brought to light is the power which the prophecy of the dying man exerts on the murderer. It is but one example of the strong hold which the belief in forecasting the future [p. 138] continues, even in our own day, to exert on all except the most rational thinkers. That certain persons are endowed with supernatural power to look into the days to come; that the Goddess of Fortune, or at least good luck, keeps watch over some and neglects others; that the stars or the flight of birds or the condition of a slaughtered animal's liver foretells the issue of future events—all these are a part of folk faith, and when they appear in a popular story seem so natural and so worthy of belief that they are never questioned. Rather, they are cited as certain proof of the very marvels which they illustrate. For these prophesyings are never the result of logical considerations. They are never given by a person whose good sense or judgment we would trust in ordinary business affairs. And the conditions under which they are produced are those which we would recognize as least conducive to judgment and clear thinking. We shall find that the prophecies given most weight come from half-demented old men or women, from the dying, or from those who have weakened themselves by long fasting or by narcotics, and from those notorious as cheats and rascals, as well as from truly holy men who have sincerely sought to penetrate the veil of the unknown.

Even animals are valued as prophets. One old tale popular with both priests and rabbis of the Middle Ages [203] is about The Boy Who Learned Many Things (Type 517). The hero understands the language of birds. [204] One day he hears them prophesy that his parents shall humble themselves before him. He repeats the prophecy, and his parents drive him away. The boy has many adventures and becomes a great man. He returns unknown to his parents and the prophecy is fulfilled.

Though this tale has been collected orally, at least once, in practically every country of Europe, it is essentially a literary story and cannot be thought of as a product of folk imagination. We recognize clearly enough something of the biblical account of Joseph, though several other stories which we shall now look at are even closer to that legend in general outline and in detail. Such is the tale which we may call The Dream (Type 725) in which the hero, like Joseph, dreams that his parents shall serve him and that the king shall pour water on his hands. Unlike Joseph, the hero is loath to tell his dream and persistently refuses to. He has a long series of adventures. He successfully solves riddles; he performs difficult tasks suggested by a hostile prince; he overcomes his enemies and wins a princess. As in the other tale, the prophecy is fulfilled and the parents humble themselves before their successful son.

The general outline of this story is old. Whether the literary versions of the Middle Ages, such as the accounts of the life of Pope Sylvester II and of [p. 139] Pope Innocent III, are based eventually upon the Joseph tale, it has certainly long been popular. [205] As an oral legend, it seems to be told mostly in eastern Europe, especially in Hungary and the Baltic states.

By far the best known of all stories prophesying future greatness for the hero is the tale studied by Aarne under the title of The Rich Man and His Son-in-Law (Type 930). [206] At the birth of a poor boy it is prophesied that one day he will become the son-in-law of a great and powerful man—in some versions, the king; in some, a very rich man. The rich man hears about the prophecy and buys the baby from his parents, so that he can get rid of him. He makes various attempts to put the boy out of the way. He sometimes abandons him in a box on a river, or exposes him in the forest or in the mountains. The child is rescued and adopted by some humble man such as a miller, a shepherd, a hunter, or the like. When the boy is grown up, the king discovers him and again plots against him. He sends him with a letter to the queen with instructions to have him killed. On the way robbers change the letter so that the queen is instructed to give the princess to the boy in marriage. The king orders his servants to throw the first comer into a hot oven or kiln, but this time also the boy is interrupted on his way, and the king's own son arrives first and is thrown into the oven.

The tale in the form just given is very old and has an extensive literary history. [207] As Tille shows, the literary texts consist of four groups, the Indic, the Ethiopic, the west European, and the Turkish. The Indic group has the oldest texts, which go back to the third century after Christ. There is a considerable number of these versions in the literature of India, extending down to recent times. They are very true to the form outlined above, which, according to Aarne's very careful analysis, seems to be the original plot of the story. It seems plausible to conclude that the story has traveled from India to Europe. The literary Ethiopic texts are clearly based upon Greek sources. This tale began to appear in literary collections of western Europe in the thirteenth century, associated with the legendary histories of the Emperor Henry III and of the Emperor Constantine. Finally, an interesting combination of the Indic and Ethiopic traditions is found in a Turkish romance by Suhaili, written in the seventeenth century.

All of these literary versions correspond with each other in considerable detail, and are unmistakably part of the same tradition. Tille cites a Latin work going back to the first century of our era which has most of the features of this story except the initial prophecy. He is inclined to think that this form represents an earlier stage in the development of the tale than the more elaborate versions found in India. [p. 140]

Alongside of literary retellings of this tale, it appears in the folk tradition of most parts of Europe, especially of the countries east of Germany. But usually the European folktale combines the story of The Rich Man and His Son-in-Law with another, in which the hero is sent on a quest to a far-off realm, usually the other world. This tale is the one which Grimm calls The Three Hairs from the Devil's Beard (Type 461). When not combined with The Rich Man and His Son-in-Law, as given above, that tale may have any one of a number of introductions, but in any case, the hero is sent by his prospective father-in-law (or by some other powerful person) on a quest to hell to bring back three hairs from the devil's beard. In all these stories, the other world is conceived of as lying beyond a great body of water. On his way, the hero is asked various questions which he shall find the answer to before he returns. He must seek to find why a certain tree does not flourish, how a certain water animal can be freed from an annoyance, how a sick princess can be cured, why a certain spring has gone dry, how to find a lost princess, where the lost key can be found, how a girl thus far avoided by suitors can marry, why certain livestock die. Finally, the ferryman to the other world wants to know how he can be freed from his duties.

When the youth arrives at the home of the devil, he is aided by the devil's wife, or sometimes his mother, [208] who assists the youth in securing not only the three hairs which he desires but also the answers to the questions. On his homeward journey he receives a large award for the answers to the questions. The envious king attempts to imitate the youth's success. He does not, of course, realize that the way in which the ferryman can be released from his tedious task is to have someone else take the oar into his hands. When the king reaches the farthest shore, the ferryman hands him the oar, and he must keep the ferry until he succeeds in turning it over to someone else.

As an independent tale, this quest to the other world is known in all parts of Europe in more than three hundred versions. It has practically no literary history, unless we consider an episode from the cuneiform fragments of the Assyrian myth of Izdubar, which, as Tille points out, [209] shows not only a general resemblance, but some striking common details.

In Europe there is a very frequent combination of The Rich Man and His Son-in-Law with The Three Hairs from the Devil's Beard. In these combinations the quest to the other world is assigned to the youth after the rich man, or the king, realizes that the youth has survived all earlier attempts to get rid of him. This combined tale is found all over Europe and as far east as China. Sporadic versions appear in northern and central Africa, among the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia, and among the Cape Verde Island Portuguese of Massachusetts. The frequency of the combined versions makes it impossible to study either of these tales alone. Both Aarne and Tille [p.141] are convinced that originally the two tales had nothing to do with each other and that the combination was made in the oral tradition of Europe.

The contention that the tale of the quest to the other world is really an independent story is strengthened by the existence of two other tales of this kind which sometimes combine with The Rich Man and his Son-in-Law and sometimes appear alone. The first of these, The Journey to God to Receive Reward (Type 460A) , has a peculiar introduction: A young man has heard that God returns tenfold the alms given to a poor man (Motif K366.1.1; Type 1735). He sets out on his journey to God and receives his reward. On the way he is given the questions to which he receives the answers in the other world. The related tale, The Journey in Search of Fortune (Type 460B), is much like this. A poor man who has never had good luck goes on a quest for Fortune. The questions and answers appear here just as in the tales of the journey to God and to the devil.

As independent stories these three quest tales are found in various parts of Europe, but outside of that continent they seem always to be combined with the tale of The Rich Man and His Son-in-Law. Except for this very usual amalgamation, these tales would belong properly with a group of otherworld journeys later to be discussed, [210] and not, as here, with accounts of the marvelous fulfillment of prophecies.

In our discussion of the literary background of The Rich Man and His Son-in-Law, the tales mentioned were all quite clearly a part of an unbroken tradition. Certain remoter parallels to this story are well known, both from ancient legendary history and from literature. The Hebrew legend of Joseph and the Persian of Cyrus both tell of such prophecies of greatness carried out. Except insofar as they are paralleled in the folk stories we have just studied, these legends have remained purely literary. On the other hand, one famous story coming from Greek drama keeps being repeated as an oral tale, the myth of Oedipus (Type 931). The essential points always remembered are the prophecy that the youth shall kill his father and marry his mother. He is saved after exposure and reared by another king. The prophecy is fulfilled with tragic results. This story seems to be particularly popular among the Finns and has been collected several times in Hungary and Roumania, and sporadically in Lithuania, Lapland, and from the Cape Verde Islanders in Massachusetts. The fact that it is still told as a traditional story testifies to the close affinity of this old myth with real folk tradition.