Page:Transactions of the Second International Folk-Congress.djvu/93

 the latter to lend to each other. These à priori probabilities are confirmed by an examination of details; corresponding versions, as in the present story, cannot possibly be explained as a borrowing of savage races from each other, while they are easily interpreted as adaptations of relations received through the civilised peoples. I believe that it will be found, in general, that the diffusion of folktales answers to that of literature, and that the nation which in any age acts as a centre of literary illumination will also be the centre of diffusion of folk-lore. The same fashion which causes acceptance of the former makes the latter also received. It goes without saying that there will be exceptions in individual cases.

All the variants hitherto considered agree in this point, that the hero, immediately after his encounter with the maid in bird-dress, proceeding on his way, comes to the house of her father, and is set to perform the task required. But there is another class of versions, to which belong most of the Oriental narratives, in which the history proceeds differently. These are literary recensions of a folk-tale, in which the youth, retaining the feathergarment of the fairy, makes her his wife, and carries her home. They live together, until, during his absence, she secures possession of her robe and escapes, leaving directions for him to follow. So ends the first part of the history. In the second section of the tale he is represented as engaging in a quest, asking of all animals the whereabouts of his beloved; at last he reaches the heavenly world in which she abides, is coldly received by her relatives, and the tasks and escape follow as related. The character of the tale indicates it as the older form of the narration, from which all the variants of the first class have been derived. The story may then be called "The Bird-Wife": I. Her acquisition and loss; II. Quest and recovery.

This older form of the story, in literature of an origin ultimately Hindu, is represented by the following versions: I. A narrative of Buddhist character, contained in the great Thibetian collection of the Kandjur, of uncertain date. II. A Burmese drama, depending ultimately on the same source, as shown by identity of proper names as well as of theme, III. Two long tales, included in the Thousand and One Nights, IV. Certain modern Hindu folk-tales, all exhibiting alteration and reconstruction. From these, and from versions in other Oriental