Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/362

356 was the branch end. Then she said to him, ‘Thou exceedest in wisdom and goodness the fame which I heard, blessed be thy God.’ Therefore it is said, ‘And the Lord gave wisdom unto Solomon.’&thinsp;”

The chief critical problem of interest in connection with these Riddles is to trace how far they occur in other Jewish or Eastern sources. The following notes bearing on this side of the subject may perhaps be of service to students of folk-lore, who seem to an outsider to be more interested in parallels than in originals. Rabbinic literature, which is in a large measure one vast system of parallels, ought to offer them wide scope for their study.

With regard to the separate Riddles, there is in the Midrash on Lamentations, ch.i, a parallel to Riddle 1. In Perles’ work, Zur Rabbinischen Sprach- und Sagenkunde, p. 97, note 1, Persian parallels are also given. Riddle 2 is of a genealogical character, and so are Riddles 10 and 17. The study of the forbidden degrees in marriage may have encouraged the discussion of such questions. See, for instance, the Talmud of Babylon, Yebamoth, 9b. As to Riddle 3, on which there was a question in Folk-Lore Journal, vii, p. 316, besides this version four others are known, put together by the late Prof. Delitzsch in his work, Iris (Edinburgh, 1889), of which we give here a brief extract. Two are of Mahomedan origin. According to one: “The boys and girls he thus distinguished; when, according to the usual custom in the harems, water was brought to be poured on their hands, the girls received it in the palm, the boys on the backs of their hands.” According to the other: “The boys lifted the hand, on which the water was poured, immediately to their face, whereas the girls first filled the right hand with the water falling on the left, and then washed the face with both hands at once.” In the Byzantine version, as related by Georgius Cedrenus and Michael Glykas, the male children, when commanded to wash themselves, “rubbed their faces with right good will, the females gently and timidly.” In another version, again, Solomon distinguished between the boys and girls by the