Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/247

Rh No. 4, The Queen of the Gorgons. Though this title breathes the classic lore of old Greece, this tale is intrinsically Eastern.

An envious prince sets a vizier's son three tasks, apparently impossible, which, however, the other accomplishes. One of them is to abduct for the prince a lady who turns out to be the Queen of the Gorgons. In the result the queen gives herself in marriage to the vizier's son.

No. 5, The Princess who was a witch (or more properly a demon).

This is the same as a story in Ralston's Russian Tales, where a similar female demon in a family eats up every human being within her reach, her own family included. The Greek story is the better told of the two.

No. 6, The Black Man.

A poor old woman hands over to a mysterious black man her idle, good-for-nothing son. The latter is taken to his master's abode in the bowels of the earth, and there meets with a beautiful princess, by whose instructions he foils his master's attempts to destroy him. He eventually rescues the princess, and is married to her.

No. 7, King Sleep.

This is a strange story of a prince who refuses to marry, and is interesting only because it introduces one of the fates (moirai) as an actor in the drama. A curious reminiscence of antiquity.

No. 8, The Enchanted Lake.

Three princes are commanded by their father to mount the roof of the palace and shoot each an arrow into space. Wherever an arrow falls, the prince who has launched it will find his wife. The two elder princes succeed in getting wives in this way. The arrow of the youngest travels a great distance and enters a lake. When the prince comes up he finds that a frog has seized it. He takes up the frog and conveys it to his own room. The frog is really an enchanted princess. When the prince goes out in the day she appears as a beautiful girl, cleans the room, and cooks the produce of his last chase. The prince, being surprised at this, watches for her, and catches her in the act. She tells him her history—that her family is royal, but God has cursed them, and condemned them to live in the lake. The prince's eldest brother determines to give a dinner on his father's birthday and invites