Oblivion which is the motive of so many tales of this kind,[1] though in another connection in Homer we have the Drink of Forgetfulness, as we find it, for instance, in the Master Maid and Panch Phul Ranee.[2]
Next comes the cycle of the Unwilling Bride, of whom, irrespective of cases like that of Atalanta, which simply imply bride-winning, we have at least three leading types, the Unnatural Father, as in Catskin;[3] secondly, the Underworld type, as in the case of Andromeda;[4] and, thirdly, the Master Maid. Akin to these is the tale of the Wright's Chaste Wife, who makes her wooers spin flax.[5] Such tales very often end in a Chastity Test, and this, admirably adapted as it is to the plot of the wooing, it is curious we do not find in the Odyssey.
The device of the weaving and unravelling of the web by which Penelope baffles her lovers is a much more difficult matter, though instances of devices of somewhat the same class are not wanting in the cycles of tales which I have already quoted. Thus, in a widely-spread group of Indian tales akin to the Wright's Chaste Wife, we have what may be termed the incident of the Abhorred Marriage Deferred.[6] But here we have no evasion trick, as in the
- ↑ Miss Cox, Cinderella, p. 512.
- ↑ Dasent, Tales from the Fjeld, p. 71; Miss Frere, Old Deccan Days, p. 143.
- ↑ Miss Cox, Cinderella, pp. 53, seqq.
- ↑ Hartland, Legend of Perseus, vol. iii., pp. 22, seqq.
- ↑ Clouston, Popular Tales, vol. ii., pp. 289, seqq.; Book of Sindibad, pp. 311, seqq. The oriental version is to be found in "How the Soldier's Wife foiled her Lovers," North Indian Notes and Queries, vol. iii., pp. 105, 119; Temple, Wide Awake Stories, p. 407. The original is probably the tale of Devasmita; Tawney, Katha Sarit Sâgara, vol. i., pp. 85, seqq. Also see Hartland, Legend of Perseus, vol. ii., pp. 24, seqq.; for the trick played on the lovers, Gonzebach, Sicilianische Märchen, vol. i, p. 359; for the love-gift or covenant-token, Folk-Lore Record, vol. ii., pp. 114, seqq.
- ↑ Temple, Wide Awake Stories, p. 429; quoting ibid, 64, 146, 204; Day, Folktales of Bengal, pp. 29, 90, 217; Miss Frere, Old Deccan Days, pp. 10, 44; Indian Antiquary, vol. i., p. 119; vol. iv., p. 263. To which may be
