THE REMAINING TYPES OF THE STORY.
{47}
We have now surveyed the stories of the Danae type and those of the
King of the Fishes type. There remain a large number of variants
wherein one or more of the incidents are wanting. Some of these have
already been mentioned. Where, as in many stories of the Danae type,
the hero is not duplicated, the Life-token is not found. A few
stories, however, approximate to the King of the Fishes type, but want
the Life-token. We may, perhaps, class these together as _The Mermaid
type_, from a variant of Campbell’s Argyllshire tale, told him by an
aged man in South Uist, which lays the scene in the Isle of Skye. The
eldest of three sons is promised to the mermaid; and when, at the age
of eighteen, he learns this, he wisely sets out for a place where
there is no salt water. He divides equitably the carcase of an old
horse between a lion, a wolf and a falcon, who are disputing over it,
and receives in return the power to transform himself into either of
their forms at pleasure, or (for Mr. Campbell was uncertain which) the
promise of their help at need. By this means, when acting as a king’s
herd, he overcomes three giants and a giantess, and obtains three
enchanted flying horses, {48} three splendid dresses and a
washing-basin and silver comb, on using which he would become the most
beautiful man in the world. He fights the “draygan” from the sea on
three successive days, and rescues the king’s daughter. The latter
afterwards recognises him by a scratch that she had made on his
forehead, as he lay with his head in her lap the third day, waiting
for the dragon. They are married, but their happiness is of no great
length; for the lady longs for dulse, and as he goes to seek it the
mermaid catches and swallows him. But mermaids are susceptible to
music; so by playing on the harp the hero’s wife succeeds in inducing
the creature to bring up her husband, who in the form of a falcon
flies to shore. The mermaid then takes the wife instead. A soothsayer
informs him that the mermaid’s soul is an egg, inside a goose, inside
a ram, inside a hurtful bull that dwells in a certain glen. With the
help of the Grateful Animals he succeeds in recovering his wife and
slaying the mermaid.[48.1]
Here, after the beginning, the hero’s brothers drop out of the story.
The more complex Lithuanian tale of _Strong Hans and Strong Peter_
retains both twins. An angel brings to a childless queen a golden
fish; and a witch brings her a silver fish. She eats both and bears
twins, the elder with golden hair and a golden star on his forehead,
the younger with the like in silver. In their nurses’ absence they are
suckled, the one by a lioness and the other by a she-bear. Two snakes,
deputed by the witch to kill Hans, the golden twin, are taken by him
one in each hand, though he is only a few weeks old, and strangled.
The witch, later on, sends a monster to kill him; but an angel meets
him, and bids {49} him bathe in a certain brook and then anoint his
body with an ointment, which he gives him. This renders Hans
invulnerable, and enables him to overcome the monster. The brothers
then set out together, and part at a crossway. Hans encounters a
twelve-headed dragon, and slays him in the same manner as Herakles did
the Hydra, dipping subsequently his arrows in the poisonous blood. He
thus rescues the princess; but before allowing him to marry her, her
father imposes other Herculean tasks upon him--among them, the
slaughter of the Nemean lion, the capture of the stag of Mount
Mænalus (here a horse, captured by wounding his foot), and the theft
of the apples from the Garden of the Hesperides. The way to the
apple-tree (here called the Tree of Health and Life), we are told, lay
through Hell; and incidentally Hans overthrew both Cerberus and the
Devil. To his astonishment, he found his brother Peter bound to a rock
in the place of torture, together with his wife. He freed them both,
and sent them back to earth. On bringing the apples to the king, Hans
was at last permitted to wed his daughter. The story then turns to
Peter, to explain how he and his wife had had the misfortune to get
into Hell. It appears that Peter’s first adventure after quitting his
brother was that of Theseus overcoming the Minotaur. It naturally
ended in his marrying the king’s daughter and becoming ruler. Various
neighbouring peoples, however, made war on him--among them, the
Amazons, described as a tribe of women whose hands were swords.
Against this foe he invoked the Devil, and gave his wife in return for
help. But ere long, repenting of the bargain, he descended into Hell
to fetch her back. He had reckoned without his host: the Devil was too
strong for him; and it was only {50} by his brother’s intervention
that he and his wife were delivered.[50.1]
In a Sicilian tale, a dethroned king catches a golden fish, which
desires to be cut into eight pieces, two to be given to his wife, two
to his horse, two to his dog, and two to be buried in the garden. The
two latter pieces shoot up into magical swords. The twins set out
together and afterwards part. One of them wins in a tournament the
daughter of the king who had dethroned his father. This recalls
Basile’s Neapolitan tale; but, unlike that, there is no stress laid on
the episode of the Medusa-witch. On the contrary, it is presented as a
mere ordinary hunt at which the hero is detained for three days, while
his brother comes to the city and is mistaken for him.[50.2] In the
stories previously given of this type the same episode is hardly, if
at all, to be recognised.
Another type, wanting the Dragon-slaughter, contains the Life-token.
The best-known story of this type is Grimm’s tale of _The Gold
Children_. There the life-token is a golden lily which grows up with
each of the twins. Disguised in bear-skins, the hero wins the love of
a beautiful village-maiden. After his marriage he goes to hunt and
chases a stag. The stag disappears; and he finds himself standing
before a hut inhabited by a witch, who petrifies him for threatening
her obstreperous dog. His brother compels the witch to restore him to
life.[50.3]
As told in Flanders, the talking fish directs the fisher to cut it
into three pieces, one for himself, one for his wife, {51} and the
third to be buried in the garden. Three boys of marvellous beauty are
the result; and digging, in accordance with the fish’s instructions,
where he had buried the third piece, the fisherman finds three swords,
three pistols, and three flageolets of stone. The eldest son, going to
seek his fortune, reaches a magnificent palace, where one of the
king’s daughters, looking out of window, falls over head and ears in
love with him. Against her advice he goes to visit a palace of
crystal, inside whose glittering walls whosoever put his foot was
changed into a pillar of salt. Seeking in vain for the entrance, he
meets an old witch, who opens the door by her magical wand, and
invites him to enter. Before doing so, he puts his flageolet to his
lips to warn his brothers; for the instrument’s property was that
wherever in the world its owner played on it his brothers would hear,
and would know where to find him. Then he enters, and, like thousands
before him, is changed into a black stone. The second brother, on
hearing the pipe, set out to seek his brother; and he too was changed
into a pillar of salt. The youngest draws his sword and pistol upon
the witch, and compels her to disenchant her victims. Then, on opening
the door, hundreds and hundreds of men and women pour forth, with one
voice thanking heaven and their courageous deliverer. The three
brothers marry the king’s daughters with banging of bells and clanging
of cannon.[51.1]
This type is found not only in Germany and Flanders, but also among
the southern branches of the Slavonic race, as well as in Greece, in
northern Italy, and in Brittany. Two more examples, however, must
suffice. The Mantuan {52} version follows that of Grimm in its
opening, where the Father of the Fishes, as he is here called,
repeatedly enriches the fisherman before the latter’s wife insists on
knowing the secret of his wealth, and seeing the fish. The boys, as in
the Flemish tale, are three in number; and the life-token is the
fish’s blood preserved in three vases. The first of the brothers,
going to liberate a king’s daughter who is enslaved by an ogre in an
enchanted palace, is touched by a witch with a magical berry and
turned to stone. The second brother meets the same fate. They are both
delivered, together with the princess, by the youngest, who restores
them to life by anointing them with the fish’s blood. The maiden is
the reward of the youngest brother’s heroism.[52.1] In the Breton
story the fisher’s wife is already pregnant, and has a fancy for
eating fish. The large fish caught by her husband gives directions for
the wife to eat its flesh, the mare to drink the water wherein it has
been washed, and the dog to eat its entrails and lungs. The life-token
is a laurel, into whose trunk a knife is to be stuck daily by the
twin-brother (there are but two) left at home: if blood follow, the
absent one is dead. Being hired as groom, the first brother is married
by his master’s daughter. He notices that the windows on one side of
the castle are always closed; and on asking why, his wife tells him
that there is a yard on that side full of venomous reptiles. He goes
that way, and is entertained by the Medusa-witch, who pushes him upon
an enormous wheel covered with razors, where he is hacked to pieces.
He is revenged by his brother upon the witch, at whose death a
princess transformed into a vixen resumes her human shape, and aids
her deliverer in putting the bits of his {53} brother’s body together
and reviving him with the Water of Life.[53.1]
A Bosnian _märchen_ presents us with a type wherein only the
Supernatural Birth and the Medusa-witch are preserved. A pilgrim gives
an apple to a childless man. His wife is to eat it, the peel is to be
divided between the mare and the bitch, and the seeds are to be
planted in the garden. The elder twin, with his horse and dog, and his
lance of apple-wood, swims across the sea, and in doing so becomes
gilt. He marries a king’s daughter, and pursues a stag with golden
horns, which leads him to a tower. There he gambles with a lady for
the stag; but, losing, he is thrown into her dungeon, whence he is
rescued by his brother, who wins him back and weds the lady. The
elder’s jealousy, however, is aroused on the way home; and he draws
his sword against the younger, but is prevented from doing him any
harm, and at his return recognises how groundless his passion has
been.[53.2] In a Portuguese variant it does not end quite so
innocently; for when the elder learned that his wife had mistaken the
younger for her husband, he put him to death from which there was no
revival.[53.3] The Bosnian version differs also in its opening from
the other variants, all of which refer the supernatural birth to a
fish, or eel. This type is found in Sicily and in Germany, as well as
in the Balkan and Iberian peninsulas. It may be called, from the
Portuguese variant just cited, _The Tower of Babylon type_.
A type more interesting, because more various in its evolution, is
that which comprises only the Life-token and {54} the Medusa-witch. It
is usually associated with Galland’s tale of _The Two Sisters who
envied their Cadette_, where it appears as an episode. In the Wortley
Montagu Codex, at Oxford, it is found as a separate tale, and has been
thence translated by Sir Richard Burton. The eldest of three brothers,
it tells us, determines to procure a certain little nightingale which
transmews to stone all who come to it. Before starting, he takes his
seal-ring from his finger and gives it to his next brother as his
life-token: it will squeeze his finger if a mishap occur. The bird’s
habit was to cry out to its would-be captor, and, if he replied, to
take a pinch of dust and, scattering it upon him, turn him to stone.
The third brother only is successful in holding his tongue and
catching the bird. By sprinkling another material upon his unfortunate
predecessors, they are disenchanted, and among them his elder
brothers. The latter fling him into a well, that they may take the
credit of the exploit; but he escapes by means of a ring he has
obtained from the bird, and vindicates his claim.[54.1]
Another variant is found in the Tirol as a pendant to a story of an
innocent persecuted wife. The elder brother exhibits a dancing bear to
the king of Babylon, who is so delighted with it that he bestows his
daughter on the exhibitor, and names him viceroy. The viceroy goes to
hunt with his bear in the forest. He is overtaken by a tempest, and
kindles a fire to warm himself. The Medusa-witch conquers him by the
usual wiles. His brother is his deliverer, and happily there is no
jealousy. The life-token is a knife stuck in a tree and becoming rusty
when a misfortune befalls either of the brothers.[54.2]
{55}
A tale from Normandy leads us back to the fisherman. He catches the
King of the Fishes, who recommends that, after frying, its bones be
buried in the garden. A treasure would be found at the spot indicated;
from its head three faithful dogs would spring for his three sons, and
three rose-trees would grow from the earth--his son’s life-tokens. The
eldest son, having married a rich wife, sees the castle of the
Medusa-witch, and falls a victim to her. When the youngest, by his
dog’s help, destroys her, the second and third brothers wed two of the
loveliest ladies, who are disenchanted by her death.[55.1] A Milanese
variant omits all the marriages, and gives as the life-token a
handkerchief, which is besmirched with blood when its owner is
bewitched.[55.2]
The Scottish _märchen_ of _The Red Etin_ represents the three youths
as the sons of two widows. The two sons of one of the widows depart
successively with their mother’s malison. The life-token is a knife
which will become rusty, as in the Tirolese variant. The Medusa-witch
is the Red Etin of Ireland. He puts three questions, and petrifies him
who is unable to answer them. Moreover, he holds in captivity King
Malcolm’s daughter. The third youth gets his mother’s blessing and
half a cake by way of provisions for his journey; the others had got
whole cakes, though small ones, thanks to their carelessness in
drawing water to make them. He meets an old woman, to whom he gives a
piece of his bannock, and receives in return the solution of the three
questions, as well as a magical wand enabling him to quell the
dreadful beasts he encounters. When the questions are answered the
monster’s power is {56} gone. The youth hews off his three heads,
delivers King Malcolm’s daughter, and disenchants his two
friends.[56.1] The relation between this tale and that of Œdipus need
not be pointed out.
The Tirolese tale of _The Knife-grinder’s Sons_ will afford us the
next type. Two brothers catch a bird on whose head is inscribed the
words: “Whosoever roasts and eats my head will find every day a bagful
of gold.” Their father, reading this, intends to eat the head; but the
two boys steal the bird when it is cooked; and the elder eats the
body, and the younger the head. They wander out together, and part at
a giant oak-tree. The life-token is a knife stuck in the tree. Hans,
the elder, by sparing the lives of a fox, a wolf and a bear, gets them
as followers. With their help he slays the seven-headed dragon and
rescues the king’s daughter. She meets him in the chapel whence the
dragon was to fetch her, and gives him a ring, a chain, and a silk
neckerchief. Too weary with the contest to accompany her back to her
father, he lies down to rest, and is found and put to death by her
father’s servant, who cuts off the dragon’s heads and compels the
maiden to identify him as the dragon-slayer. The faithful animals,
however, find the Herb of Life, and revive their master. The false
servant is torn to pieces by the animals, and Hans is recognised by
the princess as her true deliverer. We may note that he had cut out
and preserved the dragon’s tongues, but they are not referred to in
the recognition scene. On retiring with his bride, he sees a magical
roebuck, and at once pursues it, thus falling into the hands of the
Medusa-witch. He is delivered by the younger brother; but the two
brothers, quarrelling {57} for the bride, are drowned in crossing a
river on the way back.[57.1]
In this type only the Supernatural Birth is wanting. The story is
found in almost identical terms elsewhere in the Tirol and other
German lands. In a version preserved by Pröhle, one of the two
brothers is lucky, the other unlucky. The unlucky one goes to an inn,
whose hostess is a witch and strangles him and his dog. The lucky one
delivers the princess from the seven-headed dragon, and then goes in
search of his brother. He comes to the inn, and is attacked at night
by twelve witches, of whom he slays eleven, but spares the twelfth.
She turns out to be the hostess. He forces her to bring his brother to
life again by means of some magical ointment, a portion whereof she
also gives him in case of any other misfortune to the luckless
brother. Both brothers then go to the town. The king’s servant has
possessed himself of the dragon’s tongues, and is about to be married
to the princess as her saviour. This catastrophe is happily prevented
by the assistance of the dog and the production of the princess’
kerchief given to the dragon-slayer after the fight. One day, while
hunting, the lucky brother is seized with jealousy of the unlucky one,
whom he has left at the palace with his wife. He suddenly goes home
and finds his brother gazing at her. Deeming this confirmation strong
as Holy Writ, he draws his sword and hews the unlucky brother to
pieces, thus finding occasion for the use of the ointment thoughtfully
provided by the witch; for he soon discovers how groundless his
suspicions have been.[57.2] This variant distinguishes {58} between
the victim of the Medusa-witch and the dragon-slayer, disconnects the
hero’s jealousy from the Medusa-witch incident, and, like the
Scandinavian tale cited in a previous chapter, gives the impostor the
dragon’s tongues. Moreover, it contains a mere relic of the
Life-token; for the brothers on parting agree to obtain tidings of one
another through their two dogs. These dogs, with the heroes’ horses
and spears, have grown up from seed sown by their father in a small
plot of ground. It is probable that both this variant and that cited
in the preceding paragraph have been derived by degradation from some
version, or versions, of _The King of the Fishes_, or the _Danae,
type_.
The Slavs of various parts of Russia are familiar with the type now
under consideration. In a Lettish tale the brothers steal and eat the
bird after having sold it. They then flee together. Coming to a
crossway, they find an old man who gives them each a horse, dog, whip
and bottle. The bottle is the life-token: its contents turn red if the
owner’s brother die. The dragon is a serpent with thrice nine heads.
The hero is enticed to the Medusa-witch’s hut by a roebuck.[58.1] A
soldier’s two sons, in a story given by Afanasief, receive from an old
man wonderful horses and swords. The life-token is not detailed in the
abstract of the story before me. One brother weds a king’s daughter.
The other delivers another king’s daughter from a dragon, and marries
her. He follows a stag, whose tracks he loses, and, after shooting a
pair of ducks, comes to a deserted castle. There he meets the
Medusa-witch, in the shape of a fair maiden, who changes into a
lioness and swallows him. His brother compels her to cast him up and
bring {59} him to life again with Living-and-Healing-Water. She then
changes back into a maiden and begs forgiveness. They weakly pardon
her. Afterwards each of them is met by a beggar, who, being
transformed into a lion, tears him to pieces. These lions are the
Medusa-witch’s brothers.[59.1] A Lithuanian tale speaks of three
brothers and a sister. The brothers, sparing a wolf, boar, fox, lion,
hare and bear, receive a whelp apiece. Parting from one another, each
of them chooses a birch-tree and strikes it with his axe: the mark
will run with milk or blood, according as he is alive or dead. The
eldest brother takes charge of the sister, by whom he is betrayed to a
robber. He subdues the robber with the assistance of his beasts, nails
his sister by hands and feet to the wall of the robber’s castle, and
leaves her. After slaying a nine-headed dragon and rescuing the
princess, the latter takes him into her carriage; but on the way to
her house he is put to death by the coachman and lackey. His lion
catches a crow and compels it to bring the Water of Life to restore
him. He is recognised by means of the ring and handkerchief the
princess has given him, and marries her. Going hunting, he falls at
night into the power of the Medusa-witch, whom he finds in the shape
of an old woman at a fire. The youngest brother first attempts his
rescue, and afterwards the second, who is successful.[59.2]
The incident of the sister’s treachery, which forms part of the
Lithuanian tale, is found in several Slav versions. {60} In a Swedish
tale from north-western Finland the sister plays a different part. She
has been carried off by a dragon. The brothers are twins. Their
father, a fisherman, had caught a pike, which had bequeathed its eyes
as the life-tokens, to turn black when the heroes were in mortal
peril. The elder brother goes into the world, visiting on the way his
sister, from whom he receives a sword. He saves the king’s only
daughter from a sea-troll, and marries her. The Medusa-witch dwells on
a floating island, which the youth must needs explore. Since his
rescue by the younger brother, and the slaughter of the witch, the
island is no longer visible.[60.1] The fish reappears in a Sicilian
tale, though in a different capacity. There it is caught by the
brothers, who are fishermen. It is a voparedda, a poor kind of fish;
and its life is spared in consequence of its piteous appeals. In
return, it furnishes the brothers with horses, clothing, armour,
swords and money; and they ride forth to seek adventures. The
life-token is a cut in a fig-tree, which flows with milk or blood. The
elder youth is the dragon-slayer. A slave is the impostor who claims
the reward of the victory. The worm’s seven tongues in the lady’s
handkerchief prove his treachery and the hero’s right. One evening
after his marriage the hero goes out to see a bright light upon a
certain mountain, and falls a victim to the Medusa-witch. On his way
to rescue him the younger is met by Saint Joseph, who advises him how
to accomplish his task. The incident of the rescued man’s jealous fury
follows.[60.2]
The Kabyles are tribes of Libyan stock, inhabiting the mountains of
Algeria. They have a tale of two brothers, sons of a man by different
wives. One of the wives is {61} dead; and the other so persecutes the
dead woman’s son that he determines to go away. Before doing so, he
plants a fig-tree as his life-token. He slays a seven-headed serpent
which dwelt in a fountain and withheld the water. The king’s daughter
in this case is not a sacrifice to the snake: she is simply charged
with the duty of bringing it food. She gives the food to the hero
after the slaughter; and, taking one of his sandals, she returns and
reports the event to her father. He calls a public assembly, in order
to try the sandal on the men. The hero dresses in rags, and lames his
horse, his falcon and his hound. Consequently, he is at first passed
by in contempt; but he cannot escape the trial. The ascetic instincts
of the heroes of these tales are remarkable: they will do anything to
escape recognition and marriage. In the present case, when the sandal
is fitted to his foot, the king generously says to the dragon-slayer:
“I will give you my daughter gratis: become king, and I will be your
minister.” This is an offer the masculine Cinderella cannot refuse.
The Medusa-witch is an ogress, whose domain he invades with his horse,
hound and falcon. She binds the animals with hairs, and then eats them
and their master. The younger brother and his animals avenge him. He
watches two tarantulas fighting; the one kills the other, and brings
it to life again by pressing the juice of a herb under its nose. The
younger brother takes the hint, and thus revives the hero and his
beasts.[61.1]
Two Italian variants omit the Life-token. As Basile tells the tale,
there are two brothers, sons of a Neapolitan merchant. The elder,
playing with the king’s son, wounds him and has to flee the country.
He passes the night at a {62} deserted house, and by his courage frees
it from three ghosts and acquires a treasure, which, however, he
leaves to the lord of a neighbouring tower, and goes on his way with
horse and hound. His next feat is to deliver a fairy from a band of
robbers, from whom her honour was in danger. The Dragon-slaughter
follows. He takes the seven tongues and goes to an inn, allowing the
king’s daughter to return alone to her father. His want of gallantry
results, as usual, in the pretensions of an impostor, who possesses
himself of the dragon’s heads, and is about to be married to the
princess, when the hero puts in his claim. The morning after the
wedding he goes to the house of a lovely maiden, seen from his window.
She is, of course, the Medusa-witch. He is rescued by his brother, and
afterwards kills the latter in an access of jealousy. On finding out
his mistake, he restores him by means of a herb which he has seen the
dragon use, during the fight, to mend his own heads when struck
off.[62.1] The other variant is a folktale recently collected in
Tuscany. It is much less elaborate, and reads like a half-forgotten
narrative. Here are three brothers born at a single birth. Each of
them owns a horse and dog which came into the world at the same time.
The first, seeking adventures, meets an old woman in the mountains,
and asks for a steel that he may light a fire, for it is cold. She
replies by transforming his horse, his dog and himself into salt. The
second brother is dealt with in the same manner. The third, instead of
asking for a steel, threatens the witch with death unless she revive
his brothers. By way of recompense, he takes his two elder brothers’
animals, and goes further. With the aid of his dogs he saves the
king’s {63} daughter from a seven-headed lion. He takes the tongues;
but a charcoal-burner takes the heads, and pretends to be the
deliverer. On the hero’s vindicating his right, he marries the lady,
and the charcoal-burner is condemned to the fire.[63.1]
From the remaining types the Medusa-witch is absent, and from the
first of them the Life-token also. Traces of the witch’s influence,
however, are found in some of the stories. Such a story is that of
_The Enchanted Twins_, of which we have two versions, almost exactly
alike, from different parts of Sicily. It seems properly to belong to
the Albanian colonists settled in the island for the last four or five
hundred years. A king, childless and dethroned, catches a fine red
fish, which gives him the accustomed directions. In this case it is to
be cut, according to one version into four, or according to the other
into eight, pieces, which are to be equally distributed to the
fisherman’s wife, his bitch, his mare, and for burial in the garden.
Two boys, two colts and two puppies are born, and, according to one
version, two magical swords grow up in the garden. The twins set out
together, but part. One of them wins, in a tournament, the daughter of
the king, who has dethroned his father. After his marriage he goes
hunting. While absent, his brother comes to the town, and is mistaken
for him as in most of the foregoing types, but puts the customary
sword between himself and his sister-in-law when he goes to bed. The
dragon-slayer, returning, is about to kill his wife from jealousy, but
is happily informed of the facts in time.[63.2]
An African variant, told, presumably at Blantyre, on {64} Lake Nyassa,
to the Rev. Duff Macdonald of the Church of Scotland Mission, by a
native of Quilimane, speaks of a fisherman who caught a large fish.
The fish gave him millet and some of its own flesh, and spoke to him,
directing him to cause his wife to eat the flesh alone, while he ate
the millet. Compliance with these instructions was followed by the
birth of two sons, who were called Rombao and Antonyo, with their two
dogs, two spears and two guns. The explanation, however, of the origin
of the dogs and weapons has been forgotten. The boys became hunters,
not hesitating to kill whoever opposed them and to take possession of
his land and other property. There was a whale which owned a certain
water, and the chief of that country gave his daughter to buy water
from the whale. But Rombao slew the whale, thus saving the maiden, and
cut out its tongue, which he providently salted and preserved. The
credit of the exploit is claimed by the captain of a band of soldiers,
commissioned by the chief to ascertain why the whale had not sent the
usual wind as a token that the girl had been eaten. The chief
accordingly gives the captain his daughter in marriage. When, however,
the marriage-feast is ready, and the people assembled, the lady is
unwilling. Rombao, who has made it his business to be present,
interferes at the critical moment with the inquiry why she is to wed
the captain, and is told it is because he has killed the whale. “But
where,” he asks, “is the whale’s tongue?” The head, of course, has
been produced in evidence of the captain’s brag; but the incident is
omitted by the narrator. The tongue cannot be found until Rombao
triumphantly produces it, and proves that he, not the captain, is
entitled to the victor’s honours. He marries the maiden, while the
captain and his men, {65} who aided and abetted his falsehood, are put
to death.[65.1] This variant contains manifest traces of weathering,
which may point to a foreign, perhaps a Portuguese, provenience. The
atmosphere and most of the details, however, are purely native. The
husband and wife eating apart, the hunting and filibustering
proceedings of the twins, the scarcity of water, the salting of the
monster’s tongue (which, I think, never occurs in an European
variant), and the wedding customs, are among the indications of the
complete assimilation of the story by the native mind. The only
details distinctly traceable to Portuguese influence, paramount on the
Quilimane coast, are the names Rombao and Antonyo, and the
guns--neither of them essential to the story.
In an Abruzzian version the fisherman has but one son, born after his
wife has consumed broth made of the magical fish. The bitch, having
eaten the head, brings forth a puppy, and the mare, having eaten the
flesh, a foal. Swords sprout up in the garden where the bones have
been buried. The boy, grown to manhood, fights a seven-headed dragon
and rescues the princess who was to have been its prey; and the story
ends with his confutation of the fraudulent charcoal-burner in the
ordinary way.[65.2]
Three Swabian variants substitute the Life-token for the Supernatural
Birth. Two of them, almost exactly the same, display, so far as they
go, some similarity to the Argyllshire tale mentioned in a previous
chapter. Three brothers depart on their travels together. At the first
finger-post they separate, each of them sticking his staff into the
post until he return, so that either, coming back to the place, would
know whether the others had gone home. Hans, {66} the hero, takes
service with a nobleman as a shepherd, and is cautioned never to go
into the forest; for three giants dwell there, and they will kill him.
One Sunday he goes into the forest and finds a castle. Entering it, he
meets with no one until he gets to the last room of the top story,
where is an enchanted princess. She gives him a pipe, by blowing into
which he can make all things dance that hear him. He afterwards drives
the sheep repeatedly into the forest, to feed on the excellent pasture
there. At length the giants catch him on successive days; but Hans
blows in his pipe and sets them dancing, and then takes the
opportunity to kill them. He cuts out their tongues and eyes, which he
wraps in his handkerchief. The princess whom he thus frees asks him to
marry her and become king; but he excuses himself at present on the
ground that his time of service is not up. After a while, the maiden’s
father, being tired of waiting, issues a proclamation for her
deliverer. The nobleman, to whom Hans has foolishly confided his
victory, sends his own son to court, with the bodies of the giants, to
claim the reward. Hans, however, by means of the tongues and eyes,
easily convicts him of falsehood. But before permitting Hans to marry
the princess, the king requires him to win at the sport of running at
the ring. The giants’ servants in the castle furnish him with horse
and splendid clothes, and instruct him in the game, so that he wins.
But the king, under pretence of sending him to a monastery to learn,
shuts him in an enchanted castle, haunted by thirteen devils. Hans
with his pipe dances the devils to death, and the king can no longer
withhold the promised reward of the princess’ hand and the kingdom.
After some years, Hans makes up his mind to go home, whither his
brothers have preceded {67} him. So he puts on his old
shepherd-clothing, and is despised by his brothers, one of whom has
become a general, and the other a merchant. He endures all their
indignities for some six weeks, until his consort, wearying of his
absence, comes to look for him. He still pretends stupidity, and does
all sorts of foolish things; but she recognises him through it all,
and induces him to resume his royal garb, to the confusion of his
father and brothers, who have been ill-using him.[67.1]
Here the Life-token has dwindled into a mere token of the brothers’
having returned home, and all its magic is lost. The remaining variant
presents no special points of interest, save that it too is obviously
in a state of decay. There are three brothers who depart together. The
life-token is a sword stuck in a fir-tree, to become spotted with rust
if its owner die. The hero obtains helpful animals (a bear, a wolf and
a lion) in the old familiar manner. The dragon is seven-headed; the
coachman is the impostor, and is found out by the want of the tongues.
What became of the hero’s brothers nobody knows.[67.2]
{68}
Finally, there is a type, not very common, which includes only the
three incidents of the Supernatural Birth, the Life-token, and the
Dragon-slaying. The Portuguese legend of _Saint George_ may be taken
as the typical form. The saint is represented as one of the twin sons
of a fisherman who caught the same fish three days successively. The
first two days it had begged for life; but the third day it directed
that it should be cut into six pieces, two for the fisherman’s wife,
two for his mare, and two to be buried behind his garden-gate. From
the last-mentioned pieces two lances grow. Saint George and his
brother start on their adventures together, but soon part, the saint
giving his brother a branch of basil-gentle, and saying: “When it
withers, come in search of me, because I shall then be in danger.”
George rescues the princess from the dragon; and her father desires to
make him general and give him the maiden in marriage. At this critical
moment his brother perceives the branch withering, and hurries off to
find him. The difficulty is that George, by virtue of vows he has
taken, cannot marry. His brother comes in time to accommodate his
tender conscience, by taking the lady himself and leaving George the
honours of canonisation.[68.1] In a story from Lorraine a different
turn is given to the characters of the two younger brothers, but one
which indicates a close relation with the Portuguese legend: they are
the impostors who pretend to have slain the dragon. Here the fisherman
catches the Queen of the Fishes repeatedly, until his wife insists on
eating her majesty. The fish requests that some of its bones be placed
under the bitch, some under the mare, and the rest under a rose-tree
in the garden. Three puppies are found {69} under the bitch, three
foals under the mare, and three boys beneath the rose-tree. The
life-tokens are the roses on the tree, one of which falls when
misfortune happens to either of the brothers. The first brother takes
all three dogs; and, with their help, in a three days’ conflict he
quells the seven-headed beast and delivers the princess. She thereupon
invites him to come home with her; but he prefers to return to his
father’s house, carrying the beast’s heads. The king issues a
proclamation for him. The youngest brother personates him; but the
heads he brings turn out to be of wood, with which the real victor has
deceived him. The king throws him into prison, and condemns him to be
hanged the next day. His rose falls from the tree. The next brother
goes to rescue him; and the king condemns him to the like punishment.
His rose falls. The real victor then takes the seven heads and the
seven tongues to the castle. For his sake his brothers are spared. He
weds the princess, and they wed two of her maids of honour.[69.1]
The mention of the seven tongues, as it were by accident, is a
reminiscence of what I hold to be the ancient and typical form of the
Imposture-episode. A similar survival occurs in another tale from
Lorraine, wherein the dragon and the Medusa-witch are confounded
together. In this tale there are likewise three brothers, sons of a
fisherman who had given three drops of blood of a certain big fish to
his wife, three to his mare, and three to his bitch, and had preserved
three in a glass as the life-token. The eldest brother, seeking
adventures, enters the castle of a seven-headed witch, and is
forthwith changed into a toad. The blood at home boils in the glass;
and {70} the second brother sets out, only to meet with the same
reverse. The third brother conquers the witch with the assistance of a
charcoal-burner, and cuts out her tongues. Now, he who slew the witch,
and brought her tongues in proof, would have the castle and marry the
king’s daughter. The charcoal-burner bethinks himself of his folly in
not taking the tongues. To secure them, he kills the youth; and,
exhibiting them to the king, he succeeds in obtaining the
princess.[70.1] Charcoal-burners are the favourite villains of the
Perseus _märchen_; but it is rarely they are successful. Nor, indeed,
is it often that the folktale descends to a style of art worthy of
Miss Braddon.