Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/254

228 any money. These dragons' heads are what devoured the men. Take her; the girl shall be yours, the money shall be yours. You did me a kindness; I also have done you one.'

What kindness did I do you?' asked the lad.

You took me from the hands of the Jews.'

"The dead man departed to his place, and the lad took his wife, went to his father."

The story has no name, but is clearly identical with the widespread folktale of "The Grateful Dead"—"Der dankbare Todte" of German folklorists, "Le Mort reconnaissant" of French. We have upwards of forty versions and variants, reaching back to the thirteenth century, and extending from Iceland to Sicily, from Armenia and Siberia to Spain and the Hebrides. The Armenian version is thus summarised by Benfey in his Introduction to the Panchatantra (Leipzig, 1859), vol. i., pp. 219-221:—

"A well-to-do man, once riding through a forest, comes on some men who have hung up a corpse on a tree, and are beating it cruelly. The dead man, they tell him, owed them money. He pays the debt, and buries him.

"Years go by, and gradually our man grows poor. In his native town lives a rich man with an only daughter, whom he wishes to find a husband for; but she has already had five husbands, all of whom have died on the marriage-night. Wooers have therefore grown shy, and when her father offers her to the impoverished hero, he also hesitates, and demands time to think it over.

"Now one day there comes a man to him, and wants to enter his service.

How should I keep a servant, who can hardly keep myself?'

But I want no pay, only half your future belongings.'

"They come to terms, and the servant advises him to close with the father's offer. On the wedding-night the servant posts himself with a sword in the bridal-chamber.

What wilt thou?'