Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/185

Rh your power; to secure the upper hand and to keep it is of vital importance. Michael Scott was obliged to keep his familiar under control by ceaseless employment. After making him bridge the Tweed and split the Eildon Hills, the magician hit on the ingenious device of setting him to the manufacture of ropes of sand. Loss of faith or of courage means failure, if not disaster. For the success of a charm two brothers sent to fetch magic water are enjoined "nocht to speir ane word all the way, and quhat euir they hard or saw nawayis to be affrayed: saying, it micht be that thai wold heir grit rumbling and sie uncouth feirfull apparitiones, but nathing suld annoy thame." Mr. Hartland mentions a certain John Gethin who was overcome with fright on raising the Devil, and so put himself into the enemy's power. A fight ensued between the Devil and Gethin's bolder companion, and the unfortunate man was rescued after being nearly torn in two. When St. Peter walked on the sea, so soon as he began to be afraid he began to sink. Fear was fatal to the man who saw Heracles and Cerberus.

Again, the principle that victory goes to the party which puts itself in the stronger position is very clearly brought out in cases where speaking is the mode of contact. A few examples may be quoted from Mr. Hartland's Legend of Perseus. In a German tale, the hero, returning with a branch of the Tree with the Golden Fruits, hears someone calling him, and turning to reply becomes a pillar of salt. This fate also overtakes his eldest sister, but the younger