Page:Grimm's household tales, volume 2 (1884).djvu/509

Rh 1650, d. 1724) stories in the same book, vol, vi., deserves to be mentioned. This is Persinette, in the Pentamerone, Petrosinella, 2.1, but taken from a very weak and imperfect version. A note to one of the other tales, expressly says of it, that it alone (The Magician) has been taken from another book, but that all the rest are the original inventions of the author. Of the stories by Mademoiselle l'Héritier (b. 1667, d. 1737), the same book, vol, xii., only one, Ricdin-Ricdon, has a genuine basis. The beginning of it is like the Three Spinners (No. 14), and then passes into Rumpelstilzchen (No. 55); but here, too, the tradition has, with manifest injury to itself, been expanded into a short romance. In the 5th vol, there is another collection entitled, Les illustres Fées, of which the author is not known, and in this there are two pieces worthy of notice, Blanche belle, in which there is a ring of the German story, The Black Bride and the White One (No. 185) and Prince Guerini, taken straight from Straparola's The Three Animals' Gifts (5, 1.). The magic tales written by Count Caylus in the first half of the 18th century (Féeries nouvelles), see Cabinet des Fées, vol, xxiv., are empty and worthless to us, and only in one of them, Tourlou and Rixette, is a fragment of a story to be found; this is called the Yellow Bird, and is inserted as a moral fable. It contains the beginning of the Two Brothers (No. 60). An enchantress is changed into a yellow bird and caught. A rich man buys it of the man who has caught it, and as on its right wing he finds these words written, "Whoso eats my head shall be king, and whoso eats my heart shall have a hundred pieces of gold every morning as soon as he awakes," he makes the poor man's wife roast the bird for him. She, however, accidentally gives the head and heart to her two boys, who have on that account to fly from the deceived man's anger. One is murdered for his wealth; the other arrives in a kingdom where at that very time they are unable to agree as to the choice of a king, and are waiting for a sign. As a dove alights on his head he is chosen, but he governs so badly that he is killed in an insurrection. The moral drawn from this is that every one should remain in the rank of life in which he was born, but there is no doubt but that this ending is added for the sake of it. A collection of stories Nouveaux contes des Fées, the author of which is not known, appeared in the year 1718, and again in 1731, and was, as both editions had become rare, reprinted in the Cabinet des Fées, vol, xxxi. Of the nine stories which it contains, three only (the 1st, 5th, and 9th) have a valid foundation, and may be derived from oral tradition.


 * 1) The Little Green Frog (La petite Grenouille verte). A sick king desires to have a magic bird, so his son goes forth to obtain it, and comes to a well where a green frog tells him what to do, It gives him a grain of sand, and tells him to throw it down in