m^^ '^m -^(^«Sf ,,' -://: .. W' ^. y^f'^^^^^ -. i4.-: ^1^ -im^ -. .-'„ -,-. \ i^f- '^X^^:m -:^w ^^s^m: : FOLK-LOKE OK MODERI (GREECE: THE TALES OF THE PEOPLE. EDITED BY THE Rev. E. M. GELDART, M.A., AVTIlOIi OF "the MODEKX GREEK LAXCa'AGE IS ITS liELATIO.V TO A.NCIEXT " GBEEK ; ''A GUIDE TO MObERX GREEK," &C•., &C. LONDON W. SWAX SONNENSCHEIN & CO.,. PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1SS4. .. (JATK <:?:. , AM) KIN ;SI'ON-nN-THAMKf PREP' A C . ': following Fairy Talcs are translated, witli the exception of tlie first three, the originals of which are contained in the Paniassos, a journal published by the Philological Society of that name in Athens, from the Cireek text, edited by J. Pio at Cu])enhagen, under the title : Coxites J'opii/aires Grecs piiblies d'aprl-s li's Afa/iiiscn'ts dii Dr. G. dc J/ii/nr, 1879. ' Hahn J. himself, the author of Albaiicsisilw Studten, Jena, 1854, and GriecJiischc und albancsiscJie JMarchcn, Leipzig, 1864, having lived from his youth in various parts of (Ireece, had employed native amanuenses to Avrite dovn, by word of mouth, the several stories• which formed the basis of his German version, as they fell from the lips of their narrators. Some of these were subsequently re\ised by Professor Mavrophrydes, of Athens, the rest after his• death by M. Pio, the editor of the Greek text already mentioned. Of many of the tales the latter found duplicate versions among the posthumous MSS. of Von Hahn, and, by the collation of these, he succeeded in i)roducing a text which, while it leaves much to be desired from a purely philological point of viev/, is evidently, as the mere style of the recital sufficiently attests, a far closer approximation to genuine oral tradition than is mostl)• the case with collections of jiopular legends. With regard to my own work, namely, the selection and translation of the tales con- tained in the present volume, I wish to say first that I have confined myself entirely to those of which I had the (keek text before me ; secondly, that I ha\-e translated them directly from the original, and subseciuently compared, where I could, the (ierman version of Von Hahn : besides consulting native Cireek PREFACE. friends on doubtful points. 1 cannot, however, ask to be judged by Von Hahn's translation. Great as his merit is in having first drawn the attention of his countrymen to the rich treasure of fairy legends (in a ])rose form) to be found in (Ireece, he was rather a mythologist than a linguist, and his (Jerman version is not only free, but in some instances either demonstrably inaccurate or founded on a different reading to that followed by Pio. In regard to the choice I have made within the limits assigned, and resisting the temptation to enlarge the present volume either from those portions of Von Hahn's Marchcn of which the Greek text is not published, or from the charming French collection of Emile Legrand : Recueil de Contes Popiilaires Grecs, Paris, 1881, of which also the original is not yet accessible, I have to say that I was still further restricted in the matter of selection, by the character of the legends themselves, many of which exhibit all that naive unconsciousness of the proprieties of •civilized life, which belongs to popular thought and speech, and which, while wholly innocent in itself, renders the narratives un- presentable in polite society, except at the cost of such mutilation as would deprive them of scientific value. For this scientific value consists essentially, as it seems to me, in the faithful and rigorous preservation both of the matter and the form of the original, so far as this is po.ssible and compatible with translation. I have therefore not sought nor desired to remove the uncouth :abruptness of the narrative, or to make it in any sense conform to the demands of literary elegance ; I have rather endeavoured to retain, so far as the English idiom at all admits, even the rapid transition from thejiast tense to the historic present, and vice 7rr.ur, Avhich is so specially characteristic of popular oral narration, and have left intact, as far as I could, the somewhat confusing inter- -calation of comment, and often far-fetched proverbial allusion and illustration, which is another strongly marked trait of these vernacular recitals. The main interest for the student attaching to these tales centres around the problem of the migration of 'i^y^^ IWAOH Vi^''^'^ ^M—^'^i '^^~-' PREFACE. myths. Many an old nursery favourite will be recognised through its Greek disguise by English children when they read, as I hope they will read, this book. A little girl of eleven interrupted me in the story of the Two Brothers and the Forty-Nine Dragons by the cry, "Why that's the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'."' .\nd so it is, with a difference. How far such tales are --- i/iaii!sJics Gemeingut, how far they have crept into Greece through Turkish, Arabic and perhaps, ultimately, Persian sources; what way they have travelled, and what they have lost and gained upon the journey, is one of the most interesting, and at the .same time complicated (juestions which can engage the investigator of ethnological relations. That Little Saddleslut is the Greek Cinderella is obvious at the first blush. But why the one sat upon the hearth and the other on a saddle, not without a reminiscence of the hearth in respect of the place of burial of her much injured mother ; why in Greece the corpse of the mother replaces the (rodmother of the Teutonic legend, whether or not in the spinning wheel and the cannibal feast which usher in the Greek story, we have elements purely Hellenic, in a word, to account at once for difference and likeness in the two tales when placed side by side : these are among the most knotty points which savants can undertake to determine. The reader who is •curious about parallels will find abundant comparative illustration in the note_s to Von HahiVs collection. But the inexhaustible nature of the inquiry here opened up deters me under present conditions, especially that of my own ignorance, from doing more than offering one or two solitary and perhaps superfluous hints. With the story of "The Golden Steed" compare "Der gute Johannes" in Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmarcheii. ^Vith " Starbright and Birdie," Grimm's " Briiderchen und Schwes- tcrchenl" With "Sir Lazarus and the Dragons," Grimm's " Das tapfere Schneiderlein." Again, as essentially the same tale in another form, compare "The Man without a Beard" " I venture here to . and Der Riese und der Schneider." \/ hazard the suggestion that the greater i)rominence of solar / "^ and stellar elements to he t'ound in the (ireek, compared with the German versions, of cognate stories, points to a higher antiipiity for the former, as regards the shape in which they have come down. I would es]jecially refer to the almost total disappear- ance of the astronomical '• strain " in •• Briiderchen and Schwes- erchen,'" and its, even conscious, jjresence in the story of '• Starbright and Birdie." For a more distinctly solar signification I would draw special attention to the adventures of the " .Scab- pate," pp. 56-65, and 152-181. His tumbling in the mire, his hor.se.s of various hue, his javelin wherewith he slays his rival in the first story, and all the varied vicissitudes of his che(iuered fortune, are so many Avays of representing the struggle of the sun with clouds and darkness, and depicting its final victory over storm and gloom. In the " Tale of the Dragon," pp. 141-143, the jiart played by the pea reminds us curiously of Hans Andersen"s. story of "The Real Princess."' 1 CONTENTS VAC, I. — THE TWO I'.ROTHERS AND THE FORIV-XJNE DRAGON'S ....... 9 II. THE NINE DOVES ...... iS III. MY I.ADV SEA . .22 IV. — LITTLE SADDLESLUT 27 V. STARBRIGHT AND lURDIE 31 C VI. THE (;) WAND ..... 37 VII.•—THE SNAKE, THE DOG, AND THE CAT . 42 '. SUi r.AZARL'S AND 1 DRAGONS ... 47 IX. —THE LION, THE TIGER, AND THE EAGLE . 50 X. THE LITTLE LROl HER WHO SAVED HIS SISTER FROM THE DRAGON ..... 55 XL THE HET WU II THE LEARDLESS . .60 XII. -IHE KNIFE OF SLAUGHTER, THE WHETSTONE OF PATIENCE, AND THE UNMEI.TINt; CANDLE . 62 XIII. FOX ON PII,GRLMAGE .... 65 XIV. —THE HUSIUNDMAN, THE SNAKE, AND THE FOX . 68 XV.-^THE PRINCESS WHO WENT TO THE WARS . 70 XVI. THE TWINS ....... 74 XVII. THE GOAT-GIRL 8 XVIII. THE PAY-PERRV 85 XIX. THE PRINCE AND THE 1 AIRV . ... 88 XX.—THE GOLDEN STEED 02 coyTEXTS. PAC i; XXI. —THE GOLDEN CASKET Io6 XXII. —THE CUNNING OLD 120 XXIII. —THE SHOEMAKER AND THE PRINCES^ . 1 35 XXIV. —THE TALE OK THE DRAGON . • M^ '. LITTLE JOHN, THE WTDOW's SON . 1 44 XXVI.—THE SCAIi-PATE 1 54 XXVII. —CONSTANTES AND THE DRAGON . 74 '. THE CRAZY PRIESTESS WITH HER CRAZV DAUGHTERS . 183 XXIX.—-THE MAN WTTHOUr A BEARD . 8 : : THE TWO BROTHERS AND THE FORTY NINE DRAGONS. (SVRA.) OxcK upon a time there were two brothers. One was very rich and had four children, the other was very poor and had seven children. One day the poor man's wife went to the rich man and said to him, " I am very wretched, for I have not enough bread for my children. I take a little meal and I mix it with a great deal of bran and so manage to make bread.