Page:Grimm's Household Tales, vol.1.djvu/76

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Girl marries Pumpkin (Wallachian). (Schott, 23.)

Girl marries Goat (Russian). Afanasief, vi. 50 (Ap, Ralston).

Girl marries Frog (German). Grimm, 1 (some of the Tsimsheean Indians of British Columbia believe that they are descended from a frog).

Girl marries Bear (Norse). Dasent ("East o' the Sun, West o' the Moon").

Man marries Frog (Russian). Afanasief, ii. 23. Ap. Ealston.

Girl marries Frog (Scotch). Chambers.

Man marries a Frog (Max Müller, Chips, ii.)

Other examples might be given to any extent.

II.

Examples of the belief in metamorpnosis are almost too common to need citation.

In the Introduction to his Translations of the Arabian Nights, Mr. Lane says he found this belief in full force in Egypt, and he naturally derives the frequency of metamorphosis in Arab stories from the belief which he found at work among the people. As examples we may select Tales of Old Japan (Mitford, passim), in Honduras (where, as usual, sorcerers possess this power), Bancroft, i. 740. Lapland, Reynard (ap. Pinkerton, i. 471). Bushmen, Bleek (Brief Account, &c., pp 1.5, 40). Among the Abipones, Dobrizhofifer, Engl. Trans, i. 63. Africa, Livingstone (Travels, p. 642). Mayas of Central America, Bancroft, ii. 797. Thlinkeets (Dale's Alaska, p. 423). Moquis, Schoolcraft, iv. 80. Aztecs, Sahagun, v. 13. Khonds. Campbell's Narrative, p. 45. The Hos, and others, non-Aryan tribas of India. Dalton, p. 200. Madagascar, Folk-Lore Journal, Oct. 1883.

It appears superfluous to give examples of metamorphosis from Household Tales. In the stories of red men (Schoolcraft), black men (Tlieal, Callaway, Bleek), yellow men (Jülg), and white men, people are metamorphosed or transform their neighbours into birds, beasts, vegetables, and stones.

III.

This is proved by all the accounts of sorcerers, pow-wows, medicinemen, piays, and what not, in North and South America, Melanesia, New Zealand, Africa, Siberia, and so forth. The idea had a strong hold as is well known, on the imagination of the Greeks and Romans. In savage tales (Taylor's New Zealand, p. 156; Schoolcraft's Algic Researches), Bleek, Callaway, Theal (Kaffir Folk Tales, p. 80), all difficulties yield when the hero or heroine chants a snatch of verse. Rocks open, streams dry up, supernatural beings appear, and so on. It is needless to quote instances from civilised folk tales, from the Scotch Rashin Coatie, to Grimm's "Little Snow-white" (53), and the Russian Vasilissa, all the characters are obeyed by inanimate objects when they repeat some lines of verse. The subordinate idea that