Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/146

 138 stories of Europe have widely-spread analogies in the Indian Peninsula, I am inclined to agree with M. Cosquin that they were introduced from India within historic times, and ousted the native stories by superior narrative force. By this means I am enabled to explain, on the anthropological method, the existence of unnatural incidents in these common stories; for almost all the savage ideas postulated by Mr. Lang to explain these incidents had existed in India throughout all time, up to and including the present day. At the same time, I should not deny that there may still be in existence a few primitive European stories which have escaped the struggle for existence with the Indian ones; nor should I deny the possibility that some of the common European stories have had their origin in Europe itself since primitive times. Cinderella appears to be one of these.

The series of incidents to which I have previously referred, as forming the true Cinderella, seem to me to have arisen in Europe during the feudal times, for the essence of the story involves monogamy, both in the choice of the hero and in the conception of the heroine as a step-daughter. The fact of the test implies this also, and the shoe involves a state of culture in which there was nothing like leather. The choice of a menial heroine by the high-placed prince involves also the conception of a social status quite alien to savage ideas. And here I must protest against the curious procedure on the part of Mr. Lang, who, in discussing this part of my argument, ventured not only to traverse my position, but also to correct my English. I had said that I doubted whether there was much “variation” of social position amongst savages, meaning, of course, that there was rarely, if ever, exogamy between the various sections or castes into which savage tribes are almost invariably divided. Mr. Lang calmly suggests that I had meant to say “variety” instead of “variation”, and assumes me to deny the existence of sections or castes at all. I venture to think that this is a