Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/299

 Rh whilst the one is a priceless gem the other is "trodden under foot of men." And in their identity of material a witness is brought to the like behaviour and attitude of the mind at corresponding planes of culture, to the like explanations of common phenomena which it then gives.

In this view we do well, I think, on occasions when the members assemble, to take stock, as it were, and inquire to what larger result the labours of the student of folk-lore tend—what generalisations may be deduced from the evidence which he has collected. An attitude like this is possible only when we regard our mission as a serious one; when we recognise that there is some larger meaning than lies on the surface of the material, some deeper thought at the heart of it. So long as the folk-tale was looked upon as the vagrant of fancy, sober treatment of it was not possible. But now that it, with its allied forms of legend and tradition, are seen to be necessary products of human imagination and speculation in their efforts towards certitude, the study and comparison of its varied, yet, at centre, related specimens, takes rank among the inquiries of our time to be prosecuted on strictly scientific lines.

Guided by this spirit I venture to ask you to consider with me what philosophy of man's in the past may possibly be extracted from a group of allied stories not unfamiliar to the student of folk-tales, and to which the name of Punchkin, as the title of one of the older specimens, may be generically given. It will be convenient to present an outline of the more prominent variants, and then, after indicating how widespread are the several members of the group, suggest those conclusions which it appears to me may legitimately be drawn from at least one incident common to the whole.

In the story of "Punchkin," given in Miss Frere's Old Deccan Days, a Rajah has seven daughters, and, his wife dying when they were quite children, he married the widow of his prime minister. The children had treated her harshly in her time of need, and to escape her revenge they ran off to a jungle, where seven neighbouring princes who were out hunting found them, and each took one of them to wife. After a time the husbands again went hunting, and did not return. So when the son of the youngest princess, who had also been enchanted