Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 3 1885.djvu/212

 204 turn wooed and taken away, chooses more humbly to be dragged, and is made the giant's housekeeper.

Probably none of these variations in the mode in which the ogre acquires possession of the heroine are important; but their variety lends emphasis to the idea of a combination of cleverness and malignity which go to make up the character of Bluebeard, but which are ultimately defeated by the greater cleverness of the lady. In Perrault's version the lady's cleverness has disappeared, leaving as its only relic the constant excuses and delays wherewith she puts off her husband's vengeance until her brothers are able to rescue her. Few, however, of the variants which I have examined concur in this apparent simplification of the story. Another detail which has dropped out of the typical story, as well as some others, is the gloom of forest and cavern amid which the ogre dwells, and which harmonises fitly with his character. This gloom seems an essential part of the myth lying at the root of the tale: it is the gloom of cloud, of night, of winter, the outward and visible sign and vesture of the fiend who inhabits it.

II.

Another type of the story, which I venture to dub "The Dead Hand" type, seems common amongst the Romance and Sclavonic peoples; but I have not yet met with it in the folk-lore of any Teutonic race. In this type the disobedience consists in failing to eat a portion of human flesh (usually a hand) before the demon's return. When he comes in, he inquires of the captive if she have obeyed, and tests her asseverations by calling to the unlucky limb, which invariably answers him wherever it may have been hidden. The heroine succeeds in deceiving the monster; and, believing in her fidelity, he, in the typical tale (given by Nerucci from the neighbourhood of Pistoja ), delivers her his keys, by which she obtains access to his treasures. and to the ointment that heals wounds and brings the dead to life. She finds her sisters, who have been beaten and cast half dead into a dark room. Having healed them, she sends the ogre home with them successively in chests, and subsequently escapes herself in the