says to the elder one, "When thou shalt take a jug of beer into thy hand
and it turns into froth, then delay not; for to thee of a certainty is
the issue coming to pass." _Records of the Past_, vol. ii. p. 144.
See also Isìlakòlona in "Malagasy Folk-Tales," _Folk-Lore Journal_,
1884, p. 130.
In folk-stories the giants were gifted with a keen sense of smell; and
no sooner did they enter the room where a man was than they knew of his
being there. The Norwegians and Swedes have stories of beings, which are
called "Trynetyrk," or "Hundetyrk," and so have the Lapps and Finns. The
Lapps call them "Bædnag-njudne," _i.e._, dog's nose; and the Finns,
"Koiran-Kuonalanien," which means the same. These monsters were men who
had noses like dogs, and so could track men by their scent. They were
said to be enormously large, and to have had one eye in the middle of
their forehead; and were much dreaded on account of their being
cannibals. A Lapp story tells how once a Lapp girl got lost, and came to
a Bædnag-njudne's house. He was not at home, but his wife was. The girl
was little, poor, and quite benumbed by the cold, and looked so
terrified that the wife thought it would be a sin for Bædnag-njudne to
eat her when he came home. So she took her and hid her under her gown.
When Bædnag-njudne came home, he at once began to sniff about, and said,
"I smell some one." His wife said all sorts of things to make him
believe it was not so; and, when she did not dare to conceal the girl
any longer, she let her out of the house secretly, and told her to fly
for her life. Meanwhile, Bædnag-njudne was long sniffing about the
house; and when he could not find anyone inside he went outside, and
soon found the footprints. So soon as the girl saw the monster was after
her, in her terror she sprang from a bridge and hid herself under it. So
the monster lost the track, and the girl was saved. _Friis_, p. 43.--Cf.
"Jack the Giant Killer," where the giant says,
"Fa, fe, fi, fo, fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman;
Be he alive, or be he dead,
I'll grind his bones to make my bread."
_Grimm_, vol. ii. p. 504.
In the northern ballad we are told how a girl is carried off by the
fairies. Two of her brothers set off to rescue her, but fail, because
they do not carry out Merlin's instructions. The third one succeeds;
and, while he sits talking to his sister, the hall doors fly open and
the elf king comes in shouting:
"With _fi_, _fe_, _fa_, and _fum_,
I smell the blood of a Christian man,
Be he dead, be he living, with my brand,
I'll clash his harns frae his harn pan."
See Dr. Jamieson's _Illustrations of Northern Antiquities_.
In the Eskimo story of "The Girl who fled to the Inlanders," (_Rink_, p.
218,) the inlanders know a coast woman has come, by the smell: In
"Inuarutligak," we are told of singular people, whose upper parts are
human, and lower little dogs: and are endowed with a keen sense of
smell.--Cf. p. 199, in this collection.
The cutting up of the hero's body reminds us of the Egyptian story of
Typhon cutting up Osiris, who is restored to life by Horus; see _Uarda_,
note to cap. viii. Cf. also _Sagas from the Far East_, tale v. p. 75,
and _Vernaleken_, "The Three White Doves," p. 269.
In the Eskimo stories the heroes are restored to life by the singing of
certain mystic songs.
In the legend of Gurû Guggâ, the bullocks are restored to life by the
singing of charms; Temple's _Legends of the Punjâb_, p. 124. Cf.
_Grimm_, vol. ii. "Water of Life," and note, p. 399; Ralston's _Russian
Tales_, p. 236.
The "wound-healing grass"[20] is in all probability flixweed
(_Sisymbrium Sophia_), the Magyar name for which signifies
"wound-healing leaf;" see article on Székely Folk-Medicine in _Folk-Lore
Record_, April, 1884, p. 98, and the Finnish story of "Golden Bird."
With regard to the passage "Rose ... was so beautiful that though you
could look at the sun you could not look at him," cf. the reply of
Curidach to Attila, as related by Priscus. "He, (Attila,) then invited
Curidach, chieftain of the Akatziri, to come and celebrate their joint
triumph at his court, but that chieftain, suspecting that his
benefactor's kindness was of the same nature as the promised boon of
Polyphemus to Ulysses, courteously declined, saying, 'It is hard for a
man to come into the presence of a god, and if it be not possible to
look fixedly even at the orb of the sun, how shall Curidach gaze
undistressed upon the greatest of God's' (_i.e._ Attila)." _Italy and
her Invaders_, by T. Hodgkin, London, 1880, vol. ii. p. 84.
The story of a girl assuming a snake's skin reminds us of the daughter
of Ypocras, who dwelt at Lango, in the form of a great dragon; see _The
Voyages and Travels of Sir John Maundeville_, cap. iv. See also,
"Snake-skin," in this collection, p. 283.--A Snake Friend occurs in the
Swahili "Blessing or Property," (_Steere_, p. 405); in the Finnish
"Haastelewat Kuuset," ("The Talking Pines,"); in "Melusina," B. Gould's
_Curious Myths_, p. 471, and in Keightley's _Fairy Mythology_, p.
480.--In the Norse story of the "Three Princesses of Whiteland,"
(_Dasent_, p. 210,) the princesses gradually rise out of the earth as
the lad destroys the trolls. See also _Vernaleken_, "The Fisher's Son,"
p. 250.
In the Serbian tale of "The Three Brothers," _Denton_, p. 275, the witch
destroys two of the brothers, having first persuaded them to throw one
of her hairs on their animals. The third brother resuscitates them, and
all goes well. Cf. "The Enchanted Doe," in _Pentamerone_.[21]
Cf. "To Lappepiger gifte sig med Stall," _Friis_, 106, and "Ivan,
Kupiskas Son," _Friis_, p. 170. Cf. exhaustive note in Stokes's _Indian
Tales_, pp. 163, 268; and the Portuguese tale, "Slices of Fish," in
_Pedroso: Folk-Lore Society_, p. 102. For animals that help, cf. "The
Three Princes," p. 113 of this volume.
To defeat a witch by drawing her blood is well known in the lore of the
people.
Cf. Lapp stories, "Ulta Pigen," where the lad catches an Ulta girl by
pricking her in the hand with a pin, so as to draw blood. A similar
incident occurs in "Goveiter Pige," from Næsseby. In "Bondesønnen,
Kongesønnen og Solens Søster," from Tanen, the herd is told to prick his
bride (who has gone from him on account of his looking behind) in her
hand till blood comes, and then suck the drop off. He did so and secured
his bride. _Friis_, pp. 23, 39, 140.
The same superstition is well known in the North of England. In
Lincolnshire there is a tale still told (1888) of a farmer who could not
get his horses to go past a certain cottage until he got down and
thrashed the old woman, who lived there, till the blood came. Whereupon
the horses went past without further ado. In Sykes's _Local Records_ of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, under March 26th, 1649, we are told how it was
decided that certain women were witches, because blood did not come when
they were pricked with pins by the "witch-finder." See also _Witch
Stories_ by L. Linton, p. 260, &c.
We must not feel surprised when we learn that it is still customary
among the Servians and other half-civilised nations to subject women who
are suspected as witches to the trial by water, since there are still
many persons living who can remember the same thing having been done in
the Netherlands and Germany. Thus, in 1823, it went through all the
papers that a middle-aged woman at Delten, in Guelderland, being
suspected of being a witch, volunteered herself to prove her innocence
by the trial of water, that the trial actually took place in broad
daylight before a crowd of people in a neighbouring canal, and that the
result of the trial turned out in her favour. The following case is more
horrible. It happened about thirteen years after the above date on the
Peninsula Hela, near Dantzic. A man living in the Cassubian village
Ceynowa was taken ill with dropsy, and a quack pointed out a poor widow
fifty-one years old, and mother of five young children, as the witch who
had caused the man's illness. In order to force her to undo the charm,
the quack beat her and jumped on her in a most brutal manner, and she
was led to the bed of the patient, who beat her with a stick until she
was covered with blood. Not content with this, the quack and some
fishermen took her into a boat and rowed out to sea twice; they tied her
hands and threw her into the water. On the second occasion they towed
her after the boat so long that the poor creature was drowned. The
further particulars are so revolting that one is apt to think that one
reads a description of a punishment among the cannibals. And this
happened in the Prussian State in the month of August of the year
1836!--From _Die Gartenlaube_, December 1884.
See also _Folk-Lore Record_, vol. v. p. 156, and Feb. 1883, p. 58; and
Henderson's _Folk-Lore of Northern Counties_, p. 181, and notes, which
says, "In Brittany, if the lycanthropist be scratched above the nose, so
that three drops of blood are extracted, the charm is broken. In
Germany, the werewolf has to be stabbed with knife or pitchfork thrice
on the brows before it can be disenchanted."
_Restoration to Life_. Cf. "Marya Morevna," _Ralston_, p. 91; Panch-Phul
Ranee, _Frere_, p. 140; "Loving Lailí," _Stokes_, p. 83, where Majnún is
restored to life by Lailí cutting her little finger inside her hand
straight down from the top of her nail to her palm, out of which the
blood gushed like healing medicine; and the Bél-Princess, where the
blood of the little finger again comes in. Also "Golden Hair," _Nauké_,
p. 108, and the Lapp story "Ivan," _Friis_, p. 176. Mr. Quigstad, of
Tromsø, to whose courtesy and learning I am deeply indebted, says he has
heard a similar incident in a Lapp story from Lyngen.
PRINCE MIRKÓ. Kriza, xiii.
_Page 59_. In the Finnish "Leppäpölkky" ("Alder Block"), _S. ja T_. ii.
p. 2, one half of the castle laughs and one half cries. The crying being
on account of a great three-headed snake which arose from the sea, and
would devour half the castle, half the men, and half the precious stones
if the king did not give his eldest daughter in their stead.
_Page 63_. The Tátos is a mythic horse possessed of the most marvellous
powers. It is generally represented (as in the present tale) as being a
most wretched creature to begin with. Cf. "The Little Magic Pony," p.
157; "The Three Princes, &c.," p. 197, where it is hatched from a
five-cornered black egg; "the wretched foal which lies seven fathoms
deep in the dung-heap," in "The Pelican," p. 256; the ugly creature in
"The Girl with the Golden Hair," p. 264; and the piebald in the
"Fairies' Well," p. 289. It feeds on burning cinders, and its breath
changes the most wretched things into the most glorious. Sometimes,
however, the first breath has an extraordinary effect, as _e.g._ p. 198,
where Ambrose becomes like "a diseased sucking pig." The name is still a
favourite one among the peasants for their horses. The word Tátos also
meant a priest in the old pagan days, but it never has this meaning in
the folk-tales.
The Tátos also appears in "Die Königstöchter," in Mailáth's _Magyarische
Sagen_, vol. i. p. 61. See also "Zauberhelene," vol. ii. of the same
collection, where we are told "Taigarot war ein wunderbares Pferd; es
verstand die Reden der Menschen, antwortete auch und hatte neun Füsze."
The whole story tells how Argilus carries off his wife, Helen, from the
power of Holofernes, the fire-king, who has got her in his underground
home. Taigarot belongs to Holofernes, and tells him where Helen is
carried off, and so he recovers her. Argilus hears that the magic horse
has a younger brother still more powerful although possessing but four
legs. This horse belongs to one Iron nose, a witch, and so Argilus
enters her service in order to obtain it. His duties are, first to
control the witch's stud of brazen horses; next to look after her
twelve black mares, who are her daughters, and then to milk them, and
make a bath of their milk. He manages to do all by means of a magic
staff, and so obtains the horse; whilst the witch is burnt to death in
the bath which she thinks will make her young. The horse tells Argilus
to wash it in the bath, and it at once becomes the colour of gold, and
from every hair hangs a golden bell. With this horse Argilus carries off
his wife. Holofernes follows on Taigarot, and not being able to overtake
them, digs his spurs into Taigarot, who in his indignation at such
treatment kicks Holofernes off, and so breaks his neck.
For magic horses in other lands cf. the following tales:--the Finnish
"Oriiksi Muntettu Poika;" "The Little White Horse" in "Ferdinand the
Faithful," _Grimm_, ii. p. 156; Katar, in "The Bay with a Moon and
Star," _Stokes_, p. 131, which becomes changed by twisting his right
ear; "Weisnittle," in Stier's _Ungarische Volksmärchen_, p. 61;
Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged horse that used to carry the father of the
gods as swift as the wind over land and sea, in Wagner's _Asgard and the
Gods;_ and "Bayard, Faithful Bayard!" the good steed in the Carolingian
Legends in Wagner's _Epics and Romances of the Middle Ages_, pp.
367-396; "the shaggy dun filly" in "The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh," in
_Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands_, vol. i. p. 4; and the
"steed," in "The Rider of Grianaig," vol iii. p. 14 of the same book.
A magic horse appears in the Lapp story "Jætten og Veslegutten," (The
Giant and the Vesle Boy), from Hammerfest; _Friis_, p. 48. In this case
it assists the boy to escape from the giant, and to marry a king's
daughter; and finally becomes a prince when its head is cut off. "A
winged horse" appears in "Ivan, Kupiskas Søn," a story from Akkala, in
Russian Finland; _Friis_, p. 170. In "Jætten Katten og Gutten" (the
Giant, the Cat, and the Boy), from Alten, _Friis_, p. 63, the boy saves
the giant's son from a troll cat, and is told by the lad he saves, that
his father will offer him a gold horse and "a miserable one," and he is
to be sure and choose the miserable one; and in like manner he was to
choose a miserable box, and a miserable flute, in preference to golden
ones, which would be offered to him. There is a somewhat similar Finnish
story, "Paholaisen antamat Soittoneuwot" (Musical Instruments Given by
the Devil), _S. ja T._, vol. i. p. 181, where the hero, when in the
woods, sees the devil[22] running for his life, with a pack of wolves at
his heels. The lad shoots into the pack, killing one wolf, and thus
terrifying the rest. The grateful devil promises the lad whatever he
wishes. Acting on the advice of a maid in the devil's house, he asks
"for the mare which is in the third stall, on the right-hand side of the
stable." The devil is very loath to give this, but is obliged to do so,
and gives the boy a kantele, a fiddle, and a flute besides. The mare
acts the part of a Tátos for part of the tale, and then changes into a
woman, being the wife of the king, who appears at the latter part of the
story, and who orders the hero to perform difficult tasks. The kantele
is like the fiddle in the "Jew in a thicket" (_Musical Myths_, vol. ii.
p. 122; _Grimm_, vol. ii. p. 97), it makes every one dance that hears
it. The woman drops out of the story, and the persecuting king is kicked
up into the clouds by the irate devil who comes to help the hero, and is
never heard of again.
A horse that can talk plays a prominent part in another Finnish tale,
"The Golden Bird."--"Dapplegrim" is the magic foal in the Norse; see
_Dasent_, pp. 313 and 367. See also the "brown foal" in _Grimm_, "Two
Brothers," No. 107, and the "white horse," in "Ferdinand the Faithful,"
No. 126, and _note_.
Note also horses in "Der goldne Vogel," "Das Zauberross," and "Der Knabe
und der Schlange," in Haltrich's, _Siebenbuergische Märchen_; "La Belle
aux cheveux d'or," in _Contes des Fées_, par Mme. D'Aulnoy; "Schönchen
Goldhaar," _Märchensaal aller Völker für Jung und Alt_, Dr. Kletke, i.
p. 344; "Der goldne Apfelbaum," in Kaiadschitsch, _Volksmärchen der
Serben_, p. 33; and Denton, p. 43. Enchanted horses play a prominent
part in "Simple Johnny," p. 36, and "The Black Charger of Hernando," p.
292, in _Patranas or Spanish Stories_.--Cf. "The little Mare" from
Mentone, _F. L. Record_, vol. iii. p. 44. The Russians tell of "a sorry
colt rolling in the muck," which possesses marvellous powers in "Marya
Morevna," _Ralston_, p. 94; and in "Koshchei, the Deathless," there is
an heroic steed, _ibidem_, p. 101. See also "Ivan Kruchina," _Naake_, p.
124. "The marvellous white horse" appears also in Austria; see _Land of
Marvels_, pp. 48, 256, 260, 272, 342.
In the story of the third royal mendicant, in the _Arabian Nights_, Agib
mounts a black horse and flies through the air. Similar incidents will
be found in Nos. 1, 2, 4, 10, 17 of Dietrich's _Runische Volksmärchen_.
Several variants, together with the author's view of their significance,
are to be found in _Gubernatis_, vol. i., chap. ii.
The following, quoted from Stokes's _Fairy Tales_, p. 278, is worthy of
notice:--
"On the morning of the day which was to see his last fight, Cúchulainn
ordered his charioteer, Loeg, to harness the Gray to his chariot. 'I
swear to God what my people swears' said Loeg, 'though the men of
Conchobar's fifth (Ulster) were around the Gray of Macha, they could not
bring him to the chariot.... If thou wilt, come thou, and speak with the
Gray himself.' Cúchulainn went to him. And thrice did the horse turn his
left side to his master.... Then Cúchulainn reproached his horse, saying
that he was not wont to deal thus with his master. Thereat the Gray of
Macha came and let his big round tears of blood fall on Cúchulainn's
feet. The hero then leaps into his chariot and goes to battle. At last
the Gray is sore wounded, and he and Cúchulainn bid each other farewell.
The Gray leaves his master; but when Cúchulainn, wounded to death, has
tied himself to a stone pillar to die standing, then came the Gray of
Macha to Cúchulainn to protect him so long as his soul abode in him, and
the 'hero's light' out of his forehead remained. Then the Gray of Macha
wrought the three red routs all around him. And fifty fell by his teeth
and thirty by each of his hooves. This is what he slew of the host. And
hence is (the saying) 'Not keener were the victorious courses of the
Gray of Macha after Cúchulainn's slaughter.' Then Lugaid and his men cut
off the hero's head and right hand and set off, driving the Gray before
them. They met Conall the Victorious, who knew what had happened when
he saw his friend's horse. And he and the Gray of Macha sought
Cúchulainn at the pillar-stone. Then went the Gray of Macha and laid his
head on Cúchulainn's breast. And Conall said, 'A heavy care to the Gray
of Macha is that corpse.' Conall himself, in the fight he has with
Lugaid, to avenge his friend's slaughter, is helped by his own horse,
the Dewy-Red. When Conall found that he prevailed not, he saw his steed,
the Dewy-Red, by Lugaid. And the steed came to Lugaid and tore a piece
out of his side."
("Cúchulainn's Death," abridged from the "Book of Leinster," in _Revue
Celtique_, Juin, 1877, pp. 175, 176, 180, 182, 183, 185).
See also, Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_, Stallybrass, vol. i. pp. 328,
392; McGregor's _Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland_, p. 131; and
Belludo, the goblin horse of Alhambra. Nor must we forget "Phooka," the
wild horse of Erin's isle.
Note also the "Iliad"; cf. book ii. 760, book viii. 157, book x. 338,
473; specially Xanthus and Balius who talk, book xix. 440; and,
Martial's splendid epigram, beginning "Phosphore redde diem, cur gaudia
nostra moraris?"
Thus on every side we find this noble creature entwined in the lore of
the people, from the peasants' dull superstition to great Milton's
song,--
"Of the wondrous horse of brass,
On which the Tartar king did ride."
The horse still plays an important part in the folk-lore. Thus _e.g._
Yorkshire people say, that if you see a piebald horse, and do not look
at his tail, or think of a fox, whatever you wish for will be granted;
also, that you must spit over your finger for luck when you see a white
horse. The four black horses and chariot still rush through Penzance
streets in the night, according to some, and the white horse is carried
by the Christmas mummers in various parts of England and Germany. In the
Midlands a horse's head and skin is dragged about on Christmas eve; a
simulacrum, as some think, of Odin's heroic steed. Cf. _Henderson_, p.
70, also F. Finn and Magyar Songs on St. Stephen's Day. _Academy_ 1884.
pp. 150, 315.
_Page 63_. For breathing on old things and causing them to change, see
p. 92, where the baa-lambs restore the lad's body by blowing; and a
Finnish tale tells how a snake commands the hero to create with his
clean breath a copper battlefield that they may fight, and is told by
the man to create an iron one with his heathen breath, which he does;
and other snakes come in the story who in turn create copper and silver
battlefields, see Leppäpölkky, _S. ja T._ 2.
Sometimes the change is effected by a bath, as in "Fairy Elizabeth," p.
110, _supra_.
Cf. _Grimm_, "Iron John," vol. ii. p. 195.
_Page 65._ A glass mountain appears in the "Iron Stove," _Grimm_, vol.
ii. p. 161; "the princess on the glass mountain" in Thorpe's _Yule-Tide
Stories_, p.86; and "The crystal mountain" in _Vernaleken_ p. 276. It
occurs also in a Lincolnshire story, where the forsaken wife sits at her
husband's door and sings:
"Bare bull of orange return to me,
For three fine babes I bore to thee,
And climbed a glass hill for thee,
Bare bull of orange return to me."
_Folk-Lore Journal_, 1885, p. 188.[23]
See also notes to "The Little Magic Pony," _infra_.
The giant in "Handsome Paul," p. 26, like the Tátos in the present tale,
tells his friend to shut his eyes and open them at intervals on account
of the great speed they are going at; just as in the Finnish "Golden
Bird," the young man on the wolf's back is obliged to rub his eyes with
his handkerchief because the pace they are going at makes them water. In
the hurry he drops it and asks the wolf to stop a minute to pick it up
and is told it is already 1,000 miles behind them.
_Page 66._ Knight Mezey's wonderful sword is one of a numberless group
of incidents wherein the sword plays an important part; in this story
Mirkó ordered out his magic sword to protect him while he slept, and
then to join with Knight Mezey's in mowing down the enemies. When he met
Doghead (p. 73), their swords in like manner flew out of the scabbards
and fought their masters' battles; and in the "Secret-keeping little
Boy," p. 233, in this collection, the hero is born with a scabbard at
his side, whilst a sword point appeared in the garden and grew as the
scabbard grew; this sword cut up into pulp any one who came near its
master on mischief bent. Alderblock's sword in the Finnish story in like
manner flew out and cut Syöjätär into mincemeat. The Greeks told of
"Harpé," the sword Hermes lent to Perseus, and of the honoured swords of
Ulysses and Achilles.
Norse legends tell of wondrous swords, such as Odin's "Gram" that he
drove into an ash tree there to remain till the man should be found
strong enough to draw it out.[24] Cheru's sword, forged by the dwarfs,
"shone every morning on the high place of the sanctuary, sending forth
its light afar when dawn arose like a flame of fire;" then there is
Heimdal, born of nine mothers, the sword "Ase" of the Edda, who with his
mighty sword made even cunning Loki cry for mercy.
In the Niebelungen there is "Balmung," craftily made by the dwarfs and
tempered in dragons' blood, wherewith Siegfried smote the giants, and
did mighty wonders, yea, even after its master's death slaying his
enemies, till at last it rested on his grave by Brunhild's side. Roland
wielded his good sword "Durindart," the gift of an angel, against the
Paynim foe and did great wonders.
Dietrich in terrible conflict won "Eche-sax": Flammberg and the good
horse Bayard wrought wonders in the days of Haymon and his children:
Hunford's token of reconciliation to Beowulf, was the gift of "Hrunting"
hardened in dragon's blood: Nägling, Nagelring, and Rosen, too, smote
their worms, whilst "Mimung," good trusty Mimung, in the hands of
heroes, did mighty wonders, even splitting asunder a floating pack of
wool; and was so keen that Amilias did not know that Mimung had cut him
in two till he shook himself; and lo! he fell into two pieces. Wayland
Smith laboured in our own land, and brought forth a wondrous sword.