Page:Transactions of the Second International Folk-Congress.djvu/91

 As the concluding part of our tale, relating to forgetfulness of the bride, is not found in Asiatic versions, it would seem likely that this last section was added in Europe; these variants, existing in all European countries, must have depended on the narration of a single story-teller, who constructed his tale by adding a new section to an Oriental story. The similarity of these versions would indicate that this narrator lived in a time comparatively recent; the probability is that he belonged to Central Europe, and to one of the most civilised nations.

To the absence in Oriental versions of the last part of the European stories there is one very curious exception, namely, in a ballad of Samoa, which contains all the sections of the tale, including that of bride-forgetfulness. The conclusion seems to be that this ballad must have been inspired by a tale recently imported from Europe, yet the story is highly characteristic in form and scenery. If this be the explanation of the correspondence, the fact is highly instructive, as indicating the ease with which a primitive people may appropriate ideas from civilised visitors, and transform these into forms which would be taken to be of indigenous origin, unless the contrary could be ascertained otherwise than by internal evidence. image of a fairy, who informs him that she is a princess of the City of Ivory. He proceeds thither, and obtains the princess for his wife. The tale, though altered and modernised, seems to depend on the same märchen used by Somadeva. It is curious that the tale of the latter contains both forms of the flight, the casting out of magic objects, and the transformation. Some European versions have one, some the other.

The work of Somadeva, in general, is a translation from the Brat-kathá of Gunadhyā, composed about the time of our era. I cannot say whether the particular tale belonged to the latter collection. There is an independent translation, of the eleventh century, by Kshemendra. See S. Lévi, Journal Asiatique, 8th Ser., vi, 1885, 417; C. R. Lanman, Sanscrit Reader, Boston, 1888, p. 322. For the date of Somadeva, G. Bühler, Vienna Acad. Sitzungsberichte, vol. CX, 1885, 545.