Page:Myth, Ritual, and Religion (Volume 2).djvu/317

Rh king's women, and he spake to the woman that had been the wife of Bitiou. And she was afraid, and said to Pharaoh, 'Wilt thou swear to give me my heart's desire?' and he swore it with an oath. And she said, 'Slay that bull, that I may eat his liver.' Then felt Pharaoh sick for sorrow, yet for his oath's sake he let slay the bull. And there fell of his blood two quarts on either side of the son of Pharaoh, and thence grew two persea trees, great and fair, and offerings were made to the trees, as they had been gods.

"Then the wife of Pharaoh went forth in her chariot, and the tree spake to her, saying, 'I am Bitiou.' And she let cut down that tree, and a chip leaped into her mouth, and she conceived and bare a son. And that child was Bitiou; and when he came to full age and was prince of that land, he called together the councillors of the king, and accused the woman, and they slew her. And he sent for his elder brother, and made him a prince in the land of Egypt."

We now propose to show, not only that the incidents of this tale—far more ancient than historic India as it is—are common in the märchen of many countries, but that they are inextricably entangled and intertwisted with the chief plots of popular tales. There are few of the main cycles of popular tales which do not contain, as essential parts of their machinery, one or more of the ideas and situations of this legend. There is thus at least a presumption that these cycles of story may have been in existence in the reign of Rameses II., and for an indefinite period earlier; while, if they were not, and if they are made of borrowed materials, it may have been from the Egypt of an unknown antiquity, not from much later Indian sources, that they were adapted.

The incidents will now be analysed and compared with those of märchen in general.

To this end let us examine the incidents in the