Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/74

 (b) Or the rescuer is a hero (Finn in Maclnnes, p. 62 f.; J. M‘Dougall, Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 12 ff.; vide Kittredge, op. cit. 223).

[Cr. A.S. Beowulf, but his name suggests a person with werwolf attributes. Cf. Kittredge, l.c. 227.]

The motive of the kidnapped infant is sometimes entangled in the Amor and Psyche (Beauty and the Beast) Cycle (Mod. Ir. in C.Z. i. 176 ff.; Gaelic, M‘Dougall, Folk Tales and Fairy Lore, p. 2 ff.). Soon after the Beast's wife has borne a child a mysterious hand steals the infant. Sometimes the incident of dropping or tearing away the hand does not occur. [A Scotch story seems to identify the Mysterious Hand with the Beauty's Husband (cf. also Kittredge, op. cit. 241, n. 4).]

There is, however, another kidnapping motive; the tale where it occurs is pretty common in the whole of Europe. A maiden breaks the taboo not to enter a (tabooed) room; in consequence of her disobedience she is banished (and usually deprived of speech); a prince finds her and marries her, but whenever the young princess gives birth to a child, the being (whom she has offended by breaking the taboo) comes and steals the child away. The mother is accused of cannibalism and sentenced to death.

Sometimes the thief of the children throws the suspicion of cannibalism directly on the mother by smearing her mouth with blood. A similar incident is found in the Abandoned Wife (Genofefa) Cycle, where the wife is blackmailed by the mother-in-law or by her jealous sisters (see Kittredge l.c. 241 f.).

Now we find in the Mabinogi story a real Mysterious Hand motive, but we find also incidents which apparently belong to the other above-mentioned cycles, viz. (1) measures are taken to throw on Rhiannon a suspicion of cannibalism, (2) the mother is punished.

It is to be noticed that in tales where the Mysterious Hand steals the infant the mother is not suspected of any heinous