Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/180

172 and present parallels to many incidents in European folk-lore. Thus in the first recital we have, mutatis mutandis, a story analogous to the Norse tale (in Dasent) of Farmer Weathersky and his pupil in magic, with its many variants, Welsh, German, Italian, &c. The second story must be considered as containing the germ of the Arabian tale of Aladdin and his Lamp, which has also its analogues in other Asiatic and European tales. A close parallel to the third recital is found in the Rev. Lal Behari Day's Folk-Tales of Bengal. In the fifth, we have a variant of the wide-spread story of "The Outcast Child," so ably discussed by Mr. E. Sidney Hartland in this Journal last year, p. 308 ff.; in which, inter alia, occur the petrifying of victims, bird-maidens, incidents similar to some of those in the Arabian tale of Hassan of Basra, and the beautiful legend of Cupid and Psyche. The sixth recital furnishes a striking parallel to the tale entitled "The Transformation Donkey" in Miss Busk's Folk-Lore of Rome. In the seventh story are recounted the marvellous adventures of a prince, who was born in the form of a tortoise, in quest of a divine flower, which he had to obtain before marrying a beautiful princess.

But our space does not permit of even briefly indicating the character of the remaining narratives of the minister's son; suffice it to say that they are all equally curious and entertaining, and in the sequel the prince rejoins his friend and after strange adventures they arrive at his father's capital, with the young ladies, one of whom the prince espouses, while the other becomes the wife of the minister's son; and the conclusion (unlike that of most frame-stories) is full of wonderful incidents. All students of folk-lore and of romantic fiction cannot fail to find this work very useful, and all lovers of fairy tales must be delighted with it from the beginning to the happy end. Considering that English is a foreign language to Mr. Natésa Sástrí, the translation is on the whole very good, and we hope soon to hear of a new edition being required, the present one being, we understand, rather limited.