Page:Cinderella, Roalfe Cox.djvu/23

 Rh sequence of adventures: Girl to be devoted to a serpent or other monster, who is really a man in a beast's skin. He marries the girl. She may not see her lord; is betrayed into disobeying this rule; the husband disappears; she wanders in quest of him; is set on impossible tasks by his mother; accomplishes them by aid of animals; she and her lord are reunited. Mr. Lang thinks this little romance, with its chain of adventures, might be invented at once in I know not how many countries, and might spring armed from I know not how many brains. That would be the miracle!" It would, indeed, only I never said anything of the sort, as far as I remember. I said that all the incidents were either universally human, like Psyche's jealous sisters, or were suggested by nuptial taboos and other customs, common in many countries. I never said that all the tale of Apuleius might spring from any number of savage brains all at once. What I said, and what I demonstrated, is, that tales of a similar character, turning on transgression of a nuptial taboo, might and did occur, probably independently, among Zulus and Red Indians. Some of the proofs are given, from Zulu and Red Indian sources, in Cupid, Psyche, and the Sun-Frog. They differ greatly in detail and "sequence of adventure". What is consistent is the disappearance of wife or husband, on the infringement, by husband or wife, of a mysterious prohibition. I argue "tales on the pattern of Cupid and Psyche might have been evolved, wherever a curious nuptial taboo required to be sanctioned, or explained, by a myth". I added that " they might also have been transmitted in the unknown past of our race". Where the sequence of adventures in Apuleius is strictly preserved, there I believe firmly in transmission, in borrowing. Where the sequence does not occur, but the essence or central point does occur, the disappearance of wife or husband, usually more or less supernatural, often occasionally invested with an animal's form—when this occurs in South Africa or North America, blended with local superstitions, there I believe that independent development is perfectly possible.

It is not hard to confute an opponent, if it may be done by attributing to him a theory which he does not hold, and