Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/387

Rh the hand of the maiden, who demands that her lover should be a man of some substance. The same motif occurs, as we have seen, in two Serbian tales.

The tale from Hercegovina is, as we already stated, nothing more nor less than the Indian tale from the Pantachatantra.

The subject of Cymbeline also occurs in Serbian folk-tales in all its essential features. The wager between Posthumus and Iachimo, Iachimo's ruse, Imogen's disguise and her travels to seek her husband, and the solution of the plot,—all these occur as principal features in our own tales, which moreover resemble Shakespeare's fable in many other minor details.

The cycle is represented by two Serbian tales. The first of these is a Bosnian tale taken down by Kasikovic (Bosanska Vila, 1896, p. 353).

Once upon a time there was a drunkard who had a young and virtuous wife. Through his unfortunate failing he was reduced to beggary, and just at this time his wife discovered a cellar filled with gold pieces. She did not confide the secret of her trove to her husband, but incessantly encouraged him to avoid drink, and to set to work; and she supplied him with the necessary money to open a shop and start in business. The husband took her counsel to heart, and soon became the wealthiest merchant in the city. Once, when travelling to Constantinople on business, he had a difference with the toll-keeper in that city, who suddenly reproached him with the fact that all his wealth came from a questionable source, and was provided by his wife's lovers. Then follows the wager: "If you can prove to me," said the merchant in the presence of a Cadi, "that my wife is unfaithful, I will give you all the merchandise I have here with me." "I shall prove it," replied the toll-keeper, and departed for the city where dwelt the merchant's