Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/353

 Rh after year, and century after century. Add to this the feasts on the day of the saint, the performances or drawings bearing on his life and death, and it is only to be wondered at that until now this influence could have been so totally overlooked; and that instead of searching for the right explanation through the medium of the literature and spirit which ruled Europe with such a lasting influence, it was rather sought in mythological or similarly airy speculations.

I find a third source of information, but more confused and not likely to have exercised any great influence in this direction, in the vague knowledge of the scattered remnants of classical antiquity, seen and acquired in those times merely through polluted channels and imperfect renderings. What penetrated even more was the romantic tale, tinged and changed by the medium it passed through; nevertheless it cannot be totally excluded from the summary of the multifarious elements which contributed, among other result, to the originating of fairy-tales.

None of these, however, make the origin of fairy-tales older, because they began to influence only after they were translated into the vernacular, and the homilies of the saints, as well as the tales of Greek or Roman mythology were understood by the masses, whether they were communicated to them from the pulpit or by the troubadour or minstrel singing the exploits of ancient and modern heroes in the popular tongue.

These are the manifold materials from which the elements of the tales are drawn, and yet the number of the latter is so small that we can reduce the whole extent of fairy-tales to some eighty formulæ, very much akin to the primitive elements of chemistry, which also form innumerable combinations, and produce new and unexpected results.

These tales, containing only the simple plot, are carried from land to land by many ways, especially by soldiers and caravans of travelling merchants; and whosoever has had the opportunity of seeing the life of the Orient, not through the mist of distance, but on the spot, will be astounded to notice how quickly news spread through Asia and Africa—how any great event which occurs in Europe, for instance, is immediately talked of in the bazaars of Kurdistan, as well as in