Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/36

 24 Presidential Address.

borne by a village maiden to a wandering king, who left a silver pistol behind as a token.^ The episode of the white sail appears in another story^ as a white flag on the topmast. In Cyprus we have a young hero slaying a three-headed serpent and a wild boar, and a tree of golden apples guarded by a dragon.^ In Melos we have the tale of Cupid and Psyche.^ A story resembling that of Oedipus meets us in Cyprus,^ and a riddling dragon in Naxos.*^

In a tale from Tenos, recovered by Mr. W. R. Paton, a child miraculously born, along with his mother and supposed father, is enclosed in a chest like Danae, and set adrift. Perhaps the most remarkable of all are two which I will now describe. The first, most appro- priately, was from Eleusis, and describes the adventures of Saint Demetra and her daughter Aphrodite, a most beautiful girl. Aphrodite was carried off by a Turkish Aga on a black horse which breathed fire from its nostrils. Demetra questioned Sun, Moon, and Stars, but they could tell her nothing. Then, led by a Stork, she travelled far and wide without result, until she came to Eleusis; here being courteously entertained by the headman of the village and his wife, she blessed their fields. Magic and grotesque elements now enter into the tale. In the end, the headman's son rescues the ravished maiden. Demetra and her daughter went away, and were never heard of again ; but ever since, by the Saint's blessing, the fields of Eleusis have been fruitful.'^ The second comes from a peasant in Boeotia, an old man in 1846, who asked a visitor,^ " Do you know how the first vine was planted ? No .? Then I will tell you. ' When Dionysios was young, he made a journey through Hellas, to go to Naxia; but inasmuch as the way was long, he

^ Greek Folk Poesy ^ ii. p. 28. ^ Same, p. 55. " Same, pp. 70, 71, 77.


 * Same, p. 277. ^Same, p. 194. "Same, p. 96.

■^ Same, p. 1 7 1. ** Hahn, Griechische Mdrchen, p. 76.