Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/353

 Rh the posts they had promised him. In this variant the hero's prediction to his father and mother is fulfilled to the letter, but is not preceded by actual confession, though the parents had come to Rome for that purpose.

I have lingered over these two Breton tales, so well told and so full of detail that they are two of the best examples of this type. I shall now notice two other variants of a much less perfect description. The former of these is given by Grimm: it is a Swiss story from the Upper Valais, entitled The Three Languages. An aged count's only son, we are told, is stupid, and can learn nothing. His father, annoyed, puts him under a celebrated master for a year; and at the end the son, in answer to his enquiries, tells him that he has learnt what dogs say when they bark. The angry count puts him under another master, with the result that he learns only what birds say. The removal is repeated, only to end in the boy's acquiring the language of frogs. The usual order for death follows; and the count is deceived with a deer's eyes and tongue. The youth, wandering, comes to a fortress, where he begs a night's lodging. It is granted on condition of his staying in an old tower full of wild dogs, which bark and howl unceasingly, and devour men. He goes with food for them, and is well received. The next morning he reports that they have told him they are bewitched to watch over a treasure hidden in the tower, and cannot have rest ere it be discovered; and further that he has learned from them how this is to be done. He discovers it accordingly, and the dogs disappear. The lord of the castle, in gratitude, adopts him as his son. After a time he determines to go to Rome. By the way he hears what the frogs in a certain marsh are saying, and becomes thoughtful and sad. Arrived at Rome he finds that the pope has just died, and that his successor is to be pointed out by some divine and miraculous token. The hero enters the church, and suddenly two snow-white doves fly on his shoulders and settle there. This is recognised as the required sign, and he is chosen pope—thus fulfilling the frogs' prophecy. He has to sing a mass,