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296 of the märchen on the hypothesis that they were the original common store of the undivided Aryan people, carried abroad in the long wanderings of the race. But he felt that the presence of the märchen among Bechuanas, Negroes, and Finns was not thus to be explained. At the same time he closed the doors against a theory of borrowing, except in "solitary exceptions," and against the belief in frequent, separate, and independent evolution of the same story in various unconnected regions. Thus Grimm states the question, but does not pretend to have supplied its answer.

The solutions offered on the hypothesis that the märchen are exclusively Aryan, and that they are the detritus or youngest and latest form of myths, while these myths are concerned with the elemental phenomena of Nature, and arose out of the decay of language, have been so frequently criticised that they need not long detain us. The most recent review of the system is by M. Cosquin. In place of repeating objections which have been frequently urged by the present writer, an abstract of M. Cosquin's reasons for differing from the "Aryan" theory of Von Hahn may be given. Von Hahn was the collector and editor of stories from the modern Greek, and his work is scholarly and accomplished. He drew up comparative tables, showing the correspondence between Greek and German märchen on the one side, and Greek and