Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/204

 1 88 The Romance of Mdlusine.

family, on the political relationships with one another and with the German States of the various lordships ultimately- incorporated into the Kingdom of France, and on the literary methods and predilections of the fourteenth century. These matters may leave members of the Folk-Lore Society cold. But there are others that will have for them a little more attraction.

Melusine was one of the mysterious ladies who wedded mortal men " upon conditions." They form a numerous class, and are found in all quarters of the globe. The conditions they lay down are by no means always the same. According to Gervase's version,- the tale was told of Raymond, lord of the castle of Rousset, in the province of Aix ; and the condition imposed by the nameless bride whom he wedded was that her husband should never see her naked. We will come back to this condition by and by. Jehan d'Arras, in adapting the tradition to his own purposes, reports a different condition, namely, that Melusine's husband was not to see her on Saturdays. He probably found the condition in the folklore of his time, for similar stipulations are not uncommon. Thus, in the arrondissement of Mont- beliard in the Jura, the water-fairy of the river Doubs weds the Sire de Mathay after bargaining that she is to be allowed absence from him every Friday night, and that he is neither to ask questions nor to attempt to spy on her. ^ But in a romance it needed some explanation. For this purpose, and without holding himself bound by any principle of economy in marvels, the romancer pro- ceeded to double the mysterious heroine with a mother also of more than mortal origin, the Lady Pressine. She was found, he tells us, by Elinas, King of Albany. He was hunting one day in a forest near the sea-shore, and, over- come by thirst, made his way to a fountain that he knew. As he w^as approaching it he heard a voice singing so melodiously that he thought it must be an angel's. Dis-

1 Ch. Thuriet, Traditions Popidaires du DoJibs (Paris, 1891), p. 458.