Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/351

 Rh number we shall be nearer the truth than by postulating the introduction of tales whose existence at that period and in the form they actually have is not proved.

Nobody will compare fairy-tales such as, say the Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella, with any story in the "Pantchatantra." No resemblance whatsoever can be traced; in vain do we squeeze all the European tales in Indian moulds, it is a fruitless attempt.

I do not hereby deny all Indian Oriental influence; the history of Lyndipa and Pantchatantra in the European vernacular would easily discomfit me; but we must accept many more influences besides this Indian one to explain the origin of fairy-tales, a question I am now approaching.

In the study of tales I make a decided difference between the plot, or story, and the incidents, or means by which the plot is carried out. The former is the skeleton, the latter the surrounding flesh, blended, not born together, that is, the tale is composed of two elements, one stable, ancient, and unchanged, to a great extent, at least, throughout the migration period, the other changeable, derived from various sources, and national. This element the former acquires in its journeyings in various countries and under various circumstances.

Let us now study the first element, the plot. When we compare different fairy-tales throughout the world, their similarity consists in the identity of this element. I make abstraction of the slight differences, omissions, interchanges, combinations of two, or three, to one, only too natural if one considers how these tales are propagated before they are fixed by a literary form. Is this plot ancient or modern? When speaking of the mythological theory, I proved that mythology could not be an ancient possession of mankind, seeing that it is the same in nations who are themselves modern, and that it could not possibly resist the influence of time and place, and remain unchanged amidst the great changes the world has passed through. But it is not even necessary to essay a psychological refutation of such an assertion, as closer inquiry into the nature of this element gives us a satisfactory answer, with but few exceptions; chiefly of the animal-fable class, it is a regular story, novel, or fabliau. Indeed,