Page:The folk-tales of the Magyars.djvu/389

Rh FISHER JOE. Kriza, xvi.

''Page 16. Grimm'', vol. i, "The Gold Children," p. 331, where a man draws a gold fish out of the water, which tells him if he will throw it back into the water he shall have a splendid castle. He throws it back, and all comes as the fish said. The fisher must not reveal how it has come about; but his wife's curiosity makes him break his word, and all disappears. The man catches the fish once more, and the same things happen, wealth and destitution; and then the fish is caught a third time. This time the fish is cut into six pieces, two of which are put in the ground, and grow up as golden cities; two are given to the man's horse, which has two golden foals; and two to the man's wife, who bears two golden children. See Grimm's notes, p. 453. Gubernatis, vol. i. p. 249 (as to Phallic Significance), and vol. ii. sub. art. "Fish," p. 330. Also Caballero's (Spanish) Fairy Tales, "The Bird of Truth," p. 1, and the Knights of the Fish," p. 29, where a poor cobbler, with no work, goes a-fishing as a last resource, catches a fish, and cuts it into six, with the same result as in the above tale. And Portuguese Folk-Tales, Folk-Lore Society, 1882; "The Baker's Idle Son," p. 72; Payne's Arabian Nights, vol. i. pp. 33-51.

Just as Fisher Joe lays his head on his wife's knee, and sleeps while wonders happen, so does the drummer rest, while the maiden does his tasks for him, in the story of the "Drummer," in Grimm, ii. 335.

Cf. also Dasent's Tales from the Norse. "The Mastermaid," p. 84,