Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/49

 Presidential Address. 21

tainments. Examples of repartee, which is a favourite motive in the humorous tales, may also be found in modern versions.^

Two stories which are original in conception should be mentioned. The first is a nature-myth. In India, it will be remembered, the lines on the moon's face are supposed to represent a hare ; and this tells us how the hare got into the moon,^ a story which recalls that of the old man with his lantern, bundle, and dog. The second describes the discovery of intoxicating liquors.^

The superstition mentioned in one of the tales which I have read as to the evil effects of a mouse-bite, is often exemplified ; it may be found also in classical literature, as in the Geoponica. There is a proverb both in Greek and Latin, "where mice nibble iron," apparently referring to the land of nowhere ; * and I have sometimes wondered whether there could be any connexion between the two. A similar elusive resemblance, or coincidence, is seen in the word caturangasamanndgata, or " four-cornered, four- membered," applied to the perfect man ; ^ for Ter/oaywi'os- or "foursquare" is the epithet of the perfect man in a poem of Simonides.^ There is also a very close parallel between a saying of Epictetus and a passage in this book.^

Allusions to other superstitions, to charms and incan- tations, and the like, are common enough. The serpent's breath is supposed to be poisonous ; but the serpent is its own antidote if it sucks out the poison of its bite.^ The sunrise breaks the power of spells.^ Sacrifice of life, especially human life, is made at the foundation of a building.^" The rightwise progress is regular when it is

^Jat. ii. 127 (quoted) ; Stumme, Tunisische Mdrcken, vol. ii.

'^Jdt. iii. 34. ^ /at. v. 6.

■* Herodotus, 3. 76; Seneca, Apocolocyntosis, 7. ^Jat. ii. 134.

" Plato, Protag. 339 B. ^ Jot. iii. 107 ; Bacon, Adv. of Learning, i. 8.

"iv. 283; i. 168. ^ii. 107. ^"iv. 155.