which it is combined in the English ballad. Whether this or that is the
anterior creation it is not possible to say, though the 'Lai du Corn'
is, beyond question, as Ferdinand Wolf held, of a more original stamp,
fresher and more in the popular vein than the fabliau of the Mantle, as
we have it.[227] The 'Lai du Corn,' preserved in a single not very early
manuscript (Digby 86, Bodleian Library, "of the second half of the
thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century"), may well belong,
where Wolf puts it, in the middle of the twelfth. Robert Bikez, the
jongleur who composed it, attributes the first authorship to "Garadue,"
the hero, and says that he himself derived the story from the oral
communication of an abbé. Arthur has assembled thirty thousand knights
at a feast at Pentecost, and each of them is paired with a lady. Before
dinner there arrives a donzel, with an ivory horn adorned with four gold
bands and rich jewels. This horn has been sent Arthur by Mangounz, king
of Moraine. The youth is told to take his place before the king, who
promises to knight him after dinner and give him a handsome present the
next day; but he laughingly excuses himself, on the ground that it is
not proper for a squire to eat at a knight's table, and retires. Arthur
sees that there is an inscription on the horn, and desires that his
"chapelein" may read it. Everybody is eager to hear, but some repent
afterwards. The horn was made by a fairy, who endued it with this
quality, that no man should drink of it without spilling, if his wife
had not been true in act and thought. Even the queen hung her head, and
so did all the barons that had wives. The maids jested, and looked at
their lovers with "Now we shall see." Arthur was offended, but ordered
Kay to fill. The king drank and spilled; seized a knife, and was about
to strike the queen, but was withheld by his knights. Gawain gallantly
came to the queen's vindication. "Be not such a churl," he said, "for
there is no married woman but has her foolish thought." The queen
demanded an ordeal by fire: if a hair of her were burned, she would be
torn by horses. She confessed that the horn was in so far right that she
had once given a ring to a youth who had killed a giant that had accused
Gawain of treason, etc. She thought this youth would be a desirable
addition to the court. Arthur was not convinced: he would make everybody
try the horn now, king, duke, and count, for he would not be the only
one to be shamed. Eleven kings, thirty counts, all who essay, spill:
they are very angry, and bid the devil take him who brought and him who
sent the horn. When Arthur saw this, he began to laugh: he regarded the
horn as a great present, he said, and he would part with it to nobody
except the man that could drink out of it. The queen blushed so prettily
that he kissed her three times, and asked her pardon for his bad humor.
The queen said, Let everybody take the horn, small and great. There was
a knight who was the happiest man in all the court, the least a
braggart, the most mannerly, and the most redoubtable after Gawain. His
name was Garadue, and he had a wife, _mout leal_, who was a fairy for
beauty, and surpassed by none but the queen. Garadue looked at her. She
did not change color. "Drink," she said; "indeed, you are at fault to
hesitate." She would never have husband but him: for a woman should be a
dove, and accept no second mate. Garadue was naturally very much
pleased: he sprang to his feet, took the horn, and, crying Wassail! to
the king, drank out every drop. Arthur presented him with Cirencester,
and, for his wife's sake, with the horn, which was exhibited there on
great days.
The romance of Perceval le Gallois, by Chrestien de Troyes and others
(second half of the twelfth century), describes Arthur, like the
fabliau, as putting off dinner till he should hear of some strange news
or adventure. A knight rides into the hall, with an ivory horn,
gold-banded and richly jewelled, hanging from his neck, and presents it
to the king. Have it filled with pure water, says the bearer, and the
water will turn to the best wine in the world, enough for all who are
present. "A rich present!" exclaims Kay. But no knight whose wife or
love has betrayed him shall drink without spilling. "Or empire vostre
présens," says Kay. The king has the horn filled, and does not heed
Guenever, who begs him not to drink, for it is some enchantment, to
shame honest folk. "Then I pray God," says the queen, "that if you try
to drink you may be wet." The king essays to drink, and Guenever has her
prayer. Kay has the same luck, and all the knights,[228] till the horn
comes to Carados (Brisié-Bras). Carados, as in the lai, hesitates; his
wife (Guinon, Guimer) looks at him, and says, Drink! He spills not a
drop. Guenever and many a dame hate nothing so much as her. Perceval le
Gallois, ed. Potvin, II, 216 ff, vv 15,640-767.[229]
The story of 'Le Livre de Carados,' in Perceval, is given in abridgment
by the author of Le Roman du Renard contrefait, writing in the second
half of the fourteenth century: Tarbé, Poètes de Champagne antérieurs au
siècle de François I^{er}, Histoire de Quarados Brun-Bras, p. 79 ff. The
horn here becomes a cup.
A meistergesang, entitled 'Dis ist Frauw Tristerat Horn von Saphoien,'
and found in the same fifteenth-century manuscript as Der Lanethen
Mantel, Bruns, as before, p. 139, preserves many features of the lai.
While Arthur is at table with seven other kings and their wives, a
damsel comes, bringing an ivory horn, with gold letters about the rim, a
present from Frau Tristerat of Savoy. The king sends for a clerk to read
the inscription, and declares he will begin the experiment. The damsel
prudently retires. Arthur is thoroughly wet, and on the point of
striking the queen, but is prevented by a knight. The seven kings then
take the horn, one after the other. Six of them fare like Arthur. The
king of Spain looks at his wife, fearing shame. She encourages him to
drink, saying, as in the other meistergesang, If we are poor in goods,
we are rich in honor. Arthur presents him with the horn, and adds cities
and lands. Another copy of this piece was printed by Zingerle, in
Germania, V, 101, 'Das goldene Horn.' The queen is aus der Syrenen
lant.[230]
A fastnachtspiel gives substantially the same form to the story: Keller,
Nachlese, No 127, p. 183. Arthur invites seven kings and queens to his
court. His wife wishes him to ask his sister, the Queen of Cyprus, also;
but she has offended him, and he cannot be prevailed upon to do it. The
Queen of Cyprus sends the horn to Arthur by her maid as a gift from a
queen who is to be nameless, and in fulfilling her charge the messenger
describes her lady simply as a sea princess. The inscription is read
aloud by one of Arthur's knights. The King of Spain carries off the
honors, and receives in gift, besides the horn, a ducal crown, and gold
to boot. Arthur resolves that the horn shall be forgotten, and no grudge
borne against the women, and proposes a dance, which he leads off with
his wife.[231]
We have Arthur joining in a dance under nearly the same circumstances in
an English "bowrd" found in a MS. of about the middle of the fifteenth
century (Ashmolean Museum, No 61). The king has a bugle horn, which
always stands before him, and often amuses himself by experimenting with
it. Those who cannot drink without spilling are set at a table by
themselves, with willow garlands on their heads, and served with the
best. Upon the occasion of a visit from the Duke of Gloucester, the
king, wishing to entertain his guest with an exhibition of the property
of the horn, says he will try all who are present. He begins himself, as
he was wont to do, but this time spills. He takes the mishap merrily,
and says he may now join in a dance which the "freyry" were to have
after meat. 'The Cokwolds Daunce,' Hartshorne's Ancient Metrical Tales,
p. 209; Karajan, Frühlingsgabe [Schatzgräber], p. 17; Hazlitt, Remains
of Early Popular Poetry, I, 38.[232]
Heinrich von dem Türlîn narrates the episode of the probation by the
Horn with many variations of his own, among them the important one of
subjecting the women to the test as well as the men.[233] In his Crône,
put at 1200-10, a misshapen, dwarfish knight, whose skin is overgrown
with scales, riding on a monster who is fish before and dolphin behind,
with wings on its legs, presents himself to Arthur on Christmas Day as
an envoy from a sea king, who offers the British monarch a gift on
condition of his first granting a boon. The gift is a cup, made by a
necromancer of Toledo, of which no man or woman can drink who has been
false to love, and it is to be the king's if there shall be anybody at
the court who can stand the test. The ladies are sent for, and the
messenger gives the cup first to them. They all spill. The knights
follow, Arthur first; and he, to the general astonishment, bears the
proof, which no one else does except the sea king's messenger.
Caraduz[234] von Caz fails with the rest. Diu Crône, ed. Scholl, vv
466-3189.
The prose Tristan confines the proof to the women, and transfers the
scene to King Mark's court. Morgan the Fay having sent the enchanted
horn to Arthur's court by the hands of a damsel, to avenge herself on
Guenever, two knights who had a spite against Mark and Tristan intercept
it, and cause the horn to be taken to King Mark, who is informed that no
lady that has been false to her lord can drink of it without spilling.
Yseult spills, and the king says she deserves to die. But, fortunately
or unfortunately, all the rest of the ladies save four are found to be
in the same plight as the queen. The courtiers, resolved to make the
best of a bad matter, declare that they have no confidence in the
probation, and the king consents to treat the horn as a deception, and
acquits his wife.[235]
Ariosto has introduced the magical vessel made by Morgan the Fay for
Arthur's behoof[236] into Orlando Furioso. A gentleman tries it on his
guests for ten years, and they all spill but Rinaldo, who declines il
periglioso saggio: canto XLII, 70-73, 97-104; XLIII, 6-44. Upon
Ariosto's narrative La Fontaine founded the tale and the comedy of 'La
Coupe Enchantée,' Works ed. Moland, IV, 37, V, 361.
In a piece in the Wunderhorn, I, 389, ed. 1819, called 'Die
Ausgleichung,' and purporting to be from oral tradition, but reading
like an imitation, or at most a reconstruction, of a meistergesang, the
cup and mantle are made to operate conjointly: the former to convict a
king and his knights, the other a queen and her ladies, of
unfaithfulness in love. Only the youngest of the ladies can wear the
mantle, and only the oldest of the knights, to whom she is espoused, can
drink from the cup. This knight, on being presented with the cup, turns
into a dwarf; the lady, on receiving the gift of the mantle, into a fay.
They pour a drop of wine from the cup upon the mantle, and give the
mantle to the queen, and the cup, empty, to the king. After this, the
king and all the world can drink without inconvenience, and the mantle
fits every woman. But the stain on the mantle grows bigger every year,
and the cup gives out a hollow sound like tin! An allegory, we may
suppose, and, so far as it is intelligible, of the weakest sort.
Tegau Eurvron is spoken of in Welsh triads as one of the three chaste
ladies, and again as one of the three fair ladies, of Arthur's
court.[237] She is called the wife of Caradawe Vreichvras by various
Welsh writers, and by her surname of "Gold-breasted" she should be
so.[238] If we may trust the author of The Welsh Bards, Tegau was the
possessor of three treasures or rarities "which befitted none but
herself," a mantle, a goblet, and a knife. The mantle is mentioned in a
triad,[239] and is referred to as having the variable hue attributed to
it in our ballad and elsewhere. There are three things, says the triad,
of which no man knows the color; the peacock's expanded tail, the mantle
of Tegau Eurvron, and the miser's pence. Of this mantle, Jones, in whose
list of "Thirteen Rarities of Kingly Regalia" of the Island of Britain
it stands eleventh, says, No one could put it on who had dishonored
marriage, nor a young damsel who had committed incontinence; but it
would cover a chaste woman from top to toe: Welsh Bards, II, 49. The
mantle certainly seems to be identified by what is said of its color in
the (not very ancient) triad, and so must have the property attributed
to it by Jones, but one would be glad to have had Jones cite chapter and
verse for his description.
There is a drinking-horn among the Thirteen Precious Things of the
Island of Britain, which, like the conjurer's bottle of our day, will
furnish any liquor that is called for, and a knife which will serve
four-and-twenty men at meat "all at once." How this horn and this knife
should befit none but the chaste and lovely Tegau, it is not easy to
comprehend. Meanwhile the horn and the knife are not the property of
Cradock's wife, in the English ballad: the horn falls to Cradock of
right, and the knife was his from the beginning. Instead of Tegau's
mantle we have in another account a mantle of Arthur, which is the
familiar cloak that allows the wearer to see everything without himself
being seen. Not much light, therefore, but rather considerable mist,
comes from these Welsh traditions, of very uncertain date and
significance. It may be that somebody who had heard of the three Welsh
rarities, and of the mantle and horn as being two of them, supposed that
the knife must have similar virtues with the horn and mantle, whence its
appearance in our ballad; but no proof has yet been given that the Welsh
horn and knife had ever a power of testing chastity.[240]
Heinrich von dem Türlin, not satisfied with testing Arthur's court first
with the mantle, and again with the horn, renews the experiment with a
Glove, in a couple of thousand lines more of tedious imitation of 'Cort
Mantel,'[241] Crône, 22,990-24,719. This glove renders the right side of
the body invisible, when put on by man or woman free of blame, but
leaves in the other case some portion of that side visible and bare. A
great many ladies and knights don the glove, and all have reason to
regret the trial except Arthur and Gawain.[242]
There is another German imitation of the fabliau of the mantle, in the
form (1) of a farce of the fifteenth century and (2) of a meistergesang
printed in the sixteenth. In these there is substituted for the mantle a
Crown that exposes the infidelity of husbands.
1. "Das Vasnachtspil mit der Kron."[243] A "master" has been sent to
Arthur's court with a rich crown, which the King of Abian wishes to
present to whichever king or lord it shall fit, and it will fit only
those who have not "lost their honor." The King of Orient begins the
trial, very much against his will: the crown turns to ram's horns. The
King of Cyprus is obliged to follow, though he says the devil is in the
crown: the crown hangs about his neck. Appeals are made to Arthur that
the trial may now stop, so that the knights may devote themselves to the
object for which they had come together, the service and honor of the
ladies. But here Lanet, Arthur's sister (so she is styled), interposes,
and expresses a hope that no honors are intended the queen, for she is
not worthy of them, having broken her faith. Arthur is very angry, and
says that Lanet has by her injurious language forfeited all her lands,
and shall be expelled from court. (Cf. Der Lanethen Mantel, p. 261.) A
knight begs the king to desist, for he who heeds every tale that is told
of his wife shall never be easy.
2. The meistergesang 'Die Krone der Königin von Afion.'[244] While his
majesty of Afion is holding a great feast, a youth enters the hall
bearing a splendid crown, which has such chaste things in it that no
king can wear it who haunts false love. The crown had been secretly made
by order of the queen. The king wishes to buy the crown at any price,
but the youth informs him that it is to be given free to the man who can
wear it. The king asks the favor of being the first to try the crown:
when put on his head it falls down to his back. The King of Portugal is
eager to be next: the crown falls upon his shoulder. The King of Holland
at first refuses to put on the crown, for there was magic in it, and it
was only meant to shame them: but he is obliged to yield, and the crown
goes to his girdle. The King of Cyprus offers himself to the adventure:
the crown falls to his loins. And so with eleven. But there was a "Young
Philips," King of England, who thought he might carry off the prize. His
wife was gray and old and ugly, and quite willing, on this account, to
overlook e bisserle Falschheit, and told him that he might spare
himself. But he would not be prevented; so they put the crown on him,
and it fitted to a hair. This makes an edifying pendant to 'Der Luneten
Mantel,' p. 261.
Still another imitation is the Magical Bridge in the younger Titurel
which Klingsor throws over the Sibra. Knights and ladies assembled at
Arthur's court, if less than perfect[245], on attempting to ride over it
are thrown off into the water, or stumble and fall on the bridge: ed.
Hahn, p. 232 ff, st. 2337 ff. Hans Sachs has told this story twice, with
Virgil for the magician: ed. Keller, Historia, König Artus mit der
ehbrecher-brugk, II, 262; Goedeke, Dichtungen von Hans Sachs, I, 175.
Kirchhof follows Hans Sachs in a story in Wendunmuth, ed. Österley, II,
38.
Florimel's Girdle, in the fourth book of the 'Fairy Queen,' canto v,
once more, is formed on the same pattern.[246]
There might be further included in imitations of the horn or mantle test
several other inventions which are clearly, as to form, modelled on this
original, but which have a different object: the valley from which no
false lover could escape till it had been entered by one "qui de nulle
chose auroit vers s'amie fausé ne mespris, nè d'euvre nè de pensée nè de
talent," the prose Lancelot in Jonckbloet, II, lxix (Warnatsch),
Ferrario, Storia ed Analisi, Lancilotto del Lago, III, 372, Legrand,
Fabliaux, I, 156; the arch in Amadis, which no man or woman can pass who
has been unfaithful to a first love, and again, the sword which only the
knight who loves his lady best can draw, and the partly withered garland
which becomes completely fresh on the head of the lady who best loves
her husband or lover, Amadís de Gaula, l. ii, introduccion, c. 1, c. 14,
and ballad 1890 in Duran, II, 665; the cup of congealed tears in
Palmerin of England, which liquefies in the hand of the best knight and
faithfulest lover, chapters 87-89, II, 322 ff, ed. of London, 1807.
Besides those which have been spoken of, not a few other criterions of
chastity occur in romantic tales.
#Bed clothes and bed.# 'Gil Brenton,' #A#, #B#; the corresponding
Swedish ballad, #A#, #B#, #E#; Danish, Grundtvig, No 275:[247] see pp
64, 65, of this volume.
#A stepping-stone# by the bed-side. 'Vesle Aase Gaasepige,' Asbjørnsen
og Moe, No 29: see p. 66.
A chair in which no leal maiden can sit, or will sit till bidden (?).
'Gil Brenton,' #D#, #C#.
#Flowers# [foliage]. 1. In the Sanskrit story of Guhasena, the
merchant's son, and Devasmitá, this married pair, who are to be
separated for a time, receive from Shíva each a red lotus: if either
should be unfaithful, the lotus in the hand of the other would fade, but
not otherwise: Kathá Sarit Ságara, ch. 13, Tawney, I, 86, Brockhaus, I,
137. 2. In the Tales of a Parrot, a soldier, going into service,
receives from his wife a rose [flower, nosegay], which will keep fresh
as long as she remains true: Rosen, Tuti-nameh, from the Turkish
version, I, 109; Wickerhauser, also from the Turkish, p. 57; Iken, p.
30,[248] from the Persian of Kadiri. 3. So the knight Margon in the
French romance of Perceforest, vol. IV, ch. 16 and 17. 4. In a Turkish
tale found in a manuscript collection called 'Joy after Sorrow,' an
architect or housewright, having to leave home for want of employment,
is presented by his wife with a bunch of evergreen of the same property.
5. An English story of a wright reverts to the rose. A widow, having
nothing else to give with her daughter, presents the bridegroom with a
rose-garland, which will hold its hue while his wife is "stable:" 'The
Wright's Chaste Wife,' by Adam of Cobsam, from a manuscript of about
1462, ed. Furnivall.[249]
#A shirt# [mantle]. 1. In connection with the same incidents there is
substituted for the unfading flower, in Gesta Romanorum, 69, a shirt.
This a knight's wife gives to a carpenter or housewright who has married
her daughter, and it will not need washing, will not tear, wear, or
change color, as long as both husband and wife are faithful, but will
lose all its virtues if either is untrue. The shirt is given by a wife
to a husband in several versions of an otherwise different story. 2. In
the German meistergesang and the Flemish tale Alexander of Metz: Körner,
Historische Volkslieder, p. 49, No 8; Goedeke, Deutsche Dichtung im
Mittelalter, 2d ed., p. 569 ff; 'De Historia van Florentina,' etc., Van
den Bergh, De nederlandsche Volksromaus, p. 52 f. 3. In the story 'Von
dem König von Spanien[250] und seiner Frau,' Müllenhoff, Sagen, u. s.
w., p. 586, No 607, a wife gives the shirt to her husband the morning
after the wedding: it will always be white until she dies, when it will
turn black, or unless she misbehaves, in which case it will be spotted.
4. 'Die getreue Frau,' Plönnies, in Wolf's Zeitschrift für deutsche
Mythologie,' II, 377. An English princess gives her consort, a Spanish
prince, at parting, a white shirt which will not spot as long as she is
faithful. 5. 'Die treue Frau,' Curtze, Volksüberlieferungen aus Waldeck,
p. 146. A merchant's son, married to a princess, goes away for a voyage;
they change rings and shirts, and neither shirt will soil until one of
the two shall be untrue. 6. 'Die getreue Frau,' J. W. Wolf, Deutsche
Hausmärchen, at p. 102. A prince, going on a voyage, gives his sword to
his wife; as long as the blade is not spotted, he is faithful. He
receives from the princess a mantle; as long as it is white, her faith
is inviolate.
#A picture.# For the rose, as in Perceforest, there is substituted, in
a story otherwise essentially the same, a picture. A knight, compelled
to leave his wife, receives from a magician a picture of her, small
enough to carry in a box about his person, which will turn yellow if she
is tempted, pale if she wavers, black if she yields, but will otherwise
preserve its fresh hues: Bandello, Part I, nov. 21. This tale,
translated in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, 1567 (ed. Haslewood, II,
471, nov. 28), furnished the plot for Massinger's 'Picture,' 1630. The
miniature will keep its color as long as the woman is innocent and
unattempted, will grow yellow if she is solicited but unconquered, and
black if she surrenders: Act I, Scene 1. Bandello's story is also the
foundation of Sénecé's tale, 'Filer le parfait amour,' with a wax image
taking the place of the picture: Œuvres Choisies, ed. Charles et Cap,
p. 95.[251]
#A ring.# The picture is exchanged for a ring in a French tale derived,
and in parts almost translated, from Bandello's: the sixth in 'Les
Faveurs et les Disgraces de l'Amour,' etc., said to have appeared in
1696.[252] A white stone set in the ring may become yellow or black
under circumstances. Such a ring Rimnild gave Horn Child: when the stone
should grow wan, her thoughts would have changed; should it grow red,
she is no more a maid: see p. 192. A father, being required to leave
three daughters, gives them each such a ring in Basile, Pentamerone,
III, 4. The rings are changed into glass distaffs in 'L'Adroite
Princesse,' an imitation of this story by Mlle. Lhéritier de Villaudon,
which has sometimes been printed with Perrault's tales: Perrault, Contes
des Fées, ed. Giraud, p. 239; Dunlop, ch. 13.
#A mirror#, in the History of Prince Zeyn Alasnam, reflecting the image
of a chaste maid, will remain unblurred: Arabian Nights, Scott, IV, 120,
124; 1001 Nacht, Habicht, VI, 146, 150; etc. Virgil made a mirror of
like property; it exposed the woman that was "new-fangle," wandelmüetic,
by the ignition of a "worm" in the glass: Meisterlieder der Kolmarer
Handschrift, Bartsch, p. 605 (Warnatsch). There is also one of these
mirrors in Primaleon, l. ii, cap. 27; Rajna, Le Fonti dell' Orlando
Furioso, p. 504, note 3. Alfred de Musset, in 'Barberine,' substitutes a
pocket-mirror for the picture in Bandello, Part I, nov. 21: Œuvres
Complètes, III, 378 ff.
#A harp#, in the hands of an image, upon the approach of a
_despucellée_, plays out of tune and breaks a string: Perceval le
Gallois, II, 149, vv 13, 365-72 (Rajna, as above).
A crystal #brook#, in the amiral's garden in Flor and Blancheflor, when
crossed by a virgin remains pellucid, but in the other case becomes red,
or turbid: ed. Du Méril, p. 75, vv 1811-14; Bekker, Berlin Academy,
XLIV, 26, vv 2069-72; Fleck, ed. Sommer, p. 148, vv 4472-82; Swedish,
ed. Klemming, p. 38, 1122-25; Lower Rhine, Haupt's Zeitschrift, XXI,
321, vv 57-62; Middle Greek, Bekker, Berlin Academy, 1845, p. 165,
Wagner, Mediæval Greek Texts, p. 40 f, vv 1339-48; etc. In the English
poem, Hartshorne's Ancient Metrical Tales, p. 93, if a clean maid wash
her hands in the water, it remains quiet and clear; but if one who has
lost her purity do this, the water will yell like mad and become red as
blood.
The #stone# Aptor, in Wigamur, vv 1100-21, is red to the sight of clean
man or woman, but misty to others: Von der Hagen und Büsching, Deutsche
Gedichte des Mittelalters, p. 12 (Warnatsch).[253]
A #statue#, in an Italian ballad, moved its eyes when young women who
had sacrificed their honor were presented to it: Ferraro, Canti
popolari di Ferrara, Cento e Pontelagoscuro, p. 84, 'Il Conte
Cagnolino.' There was said to be a statue of Venus in Constantinople
which could not be approached by an incontinent woman without a very
shameful exposure; and again, a pillar surmounted by four horns, which
turned round three times if any κερατας came up to it.[254]
Virgil, 'Filius,' made a brass statue which no misbehaving woman might
touch, and a vicious one received violent blows from it: Meisterlieder
der Kolmarer Handschrift, Bartsch, p. 604, 14th century. This statue
would bite off the fingers of an adulteress if they were put in its
mouth, according to a poem of the same century published by Bartsch in
Germania, IV, 237; and a third version makes the statue do this to _all_
perjurers, agreeing in other respects with the second: Kolmarer
Meisterlieder, as before, p. 338. In the two last the offence of the
wife causes a horn to grow out of the husband's forehead. Much of the
story in these poems is derived from the fifteenth tale of the
Shukasaptati, where a woman offers to pass between the legs of a statue
of a Yaksha, which only an innocent one can do: Benfey, Pantschatantra,
I, 457.[255]