Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/72

 64 or embody, and the non-mythological ones are divided into moral stories, puzzles, jokes, &c., "the moral stories being arranged according to the leading ideas which were in the mind of the teacher who first shaped them." Mr. Ralston gives several illustrations of his system, and he states that almost all the tales about grateful beasts are "expansions of moral apologues" intended to teach that man ought to behave with kindness towards animals. In the same class he also includes the stories relating to destiny; as, although connected with the mythological class, "they are intended to inculcate the doctrine that human life is ruled by fate." Another large group of stories, at the same time moral and mythological, are those, says Mr. Ralston, in which supernatural personages act "in such a manner as to teach, though unintentionally, a moral lesson." In all these tales two persons of opposite character are contrasted: the one meritorious and the other undeserving, the former being rewarded and the latter punished. Next in importance to the moral and mythological stories, Mr. Ralston places the numerous tales which appear to have had no higher purpose than to amuse, or at most to cause the exercise of ingenuity. In conclusion, Mr. Ralston gives a classification of the two hundred folk-tales collected by the Brothers Grimm: of which he says 103 are non-mythological. In this division are 50 comic stories, and 43 moral or didactic. Of the latter, "eleven are animal- tales; five belong to the 'grateful beasts' cycle; and five to the group of stories in which good and bad conduct are contrasted and recompensed; two are in praise of filial reverence and two of industry; and two show that 'murder will out.' The remaining sixteen illustrate as many different wise saws or moral axioms. There are also two robber-tales, which demand a separate place." As to the ninety-three tales in the mythological division, thirty-five are classed together as being "Husk Myths" or other transformation-stories, or as having magic and witchcraft for their subject. Of the remaining stories twenty are classed as "Eclipse Myths" or other nature-myths, thirty-one are described as "Demon Stories," and seven are unclassified. Two of these give the history of Thumbling, one refers to the myth of the Golden Goose, one to the association between snakes and treasures, and one accounts for the existence of the moon.