Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/258

232 "Presently they came to the place where the uncle first appeared to Hans. They baited the horses. Then said the uncle: 'Now, nephew, we agreed to divide everything. Now we must part, let us also divide the wife.'

"The uncle took her, sawed her in half; out of her inside came young flying dragons. The nephew fell down in a swoon; but the uncle cleansed and washed the inwards of the wife, and sprinkled her with water, whereupon she came to life again.

"'Now, nephew,' said the uncle, 'I am well pleased with thee for thy obedience. I have sheltered thee in all thy ways and paths.'

"Then they took leave of one another. But Hans came to his real uncle, and gave him all the gold and silver. In a month he built him a castle, and then returned to his kingdom."

One of our oldest versions of the story is that from the Tredici Piacevoli Notti of Giovanni Francesco Straparola (Venice, 1550) xi. 2, of which Grimm's summary, somewhat expanded, runs thus:

Bertuccio, a simpleton, is not to receive what he has inherited from his father, a Piedmontese notary, until his thirtieth year, but on his coming to twenty-five his mother is to give him three hundred ducats to trade with. He gets one hundred from her, goes away, and finds a thief still stabbing a dead man whom he has murdered. Out of compassion the simpleton gives the thief eighty gold pieces, rescues the corpse, and expends the remaining twenty pieces in having it honourably buried. His mother is vexed at his stupidity, but he asks for the other two hundred ducats, goes away, and redeems the daughter of the King of Navarre from two robbers. Afterwards, when she is taken away to her father's court, she tells him that she will marry none but him, and that when he comes after her he must hold his right hand on his head, by which she may know him. He sets out for Navarre on a sorry beast, and on the way meets a knight, who gives him his beautiful horse and splendid apparel, in return for which the simpleton