Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/253

 Rh Europe an abstract ethical principle was substituted, viz: right or wrong, which of the two prevails? So in Russia, Greece, Servia, &c. This has been still more attenuated in western parallels, and only a good and bad fellow have taken their place in Lorraine, Tyrol, Italy. Worse still is the Norwegian parallel, where one cuts out the eyes of his companion because he had deceived him. In the old oriental text, Satan, the demon, plays the rôle, and is proud of his deception when speaking to the other two demons of this exploit. The others reveal their evil doings, and how to counteract them. The man loses only money and obtains more in return. The blinding of the good in some European versions is only an increase of horror, to accentuate the reward. Thus in western tales, such as in Lorraine, Brittany, Basque country, Germany, Flanders, &c., animals have taken the place of the demons in Greek, Russian, Gipsy, Servian, and other parallels. The Albanian parallel (Hahn, 30) is still more identical with our tale, as far as the king's daughter is concerned and the wonderful delivery of her troubles. Without going into more details, we find the tales of the Mediterranean basin more akin to the old text than their northern variants.

The second tale, a real fairy tale, is remarkable from many a point of view. It reminds one remotely of Amor and Psyche, and still more of the golden lock of the ancient Egyptian tale, by which the princess is found. The second half belongs to the cycle of "La belle aux cheveux d'or" (Cosquin, No. 73), but also to "Le roi d'Angleterre et son filleul" (Cosq. No. 3). The grateful animals and the water of life and death are the prominent incidents in the second half, whilst the first belongs to a totally different cycle of deathbed promises. The father requests his son to do a certain thing and the strict fulfilment of this command brings the reward with it.

A late version of this tale was known through the