Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/648

 300 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

additional knowledge might further extend its antiquity, possibly carry it back to the most ancient Babylonian period. We have thus an example of a superstition, very likely of literary origin, which has emigrated from the Orient, and acclimatized itself among modern European peasants.

The explanation which Mr. Gaster demonstrates for one charm will, I am convinced, be found to apply to a vast body of folk-lore, including many popular European tales which have passed from land to land.

In his discussion, Mr. Gaster has not mentioned the existence of a very widely diffused game of children, dependent upon the same circle of ideas, and in all likelihood of equal antiquity. Under the title of " Old Witch," I have offered a number of American and English versions (Games and Songs, 1883, pp. 215-221, 141; Journal of American Folk-Lore, ii. ; see scene is precisely that of the tale connected with the name of Sisoe ; the child-stealing demon lurks at the door of the mother, obtains entrance under false representations, and steals the children ; a pursuit and recovery takes place, and the children are reanimated. One curious feature con- nects the game with classic antiquity ; the demon is represented as limp- ing. Now in the glossary of Hesychius, Gello is said to be an eidolon of Empusa (one-foot). The game in Europe exists in a vast variety of ver- sions, the children being represented as leaves, pots, colored pieces of cloth, or colors. The mythologic basis is indicated by the name of Saint Catharine of Sienna, given in an Italian version to the mother, just as in the charm it is the child of the Virgin that the witch endeavors to steal. I have estimated that one tenth part of the traditional games of children, played with words in Europe, are nothing more than altered versions of this same game, of which the English forms preserve the original idea. As Mr. Gaster observes, the attempt to explain such relations on the doctrine of independent origins is altogether inconsistent with the facts. I do not doubt that if we could revert two thousand years, we should find chil- dren in Greece performing the same dramatic action with reference to Lamia (the Swallower, lamos, throat), and one of the goddesses ; that in Palestine and Assyria we should similarly find children performing the capture by the sea-demon Lilith of infants of divine race. We have, in the charm and the game, only different developments of the same theme ; and while the general idea of a child-robbing spirit may be universally human, in this particular case we are confronted, not with such independent developments, but with very ancient Oriental customs, which have wan- dered into Europe, and have replaced, it may be, similar local usages. Such is the history of folk-lore in general ; while the underlying ideas are common to humanity, the expression of those ideas is constantly taking new forms, which are determined by continued diffusion from centres of culture. In this manner the ideas and literary productions of ancient civilizations are continually blending themselves with folk-lore.
 * also Mrs. A. B. Gomme, " Traditional Games," 1898, ii. 391-396). Here the

W. W. Newell.

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