Clodd's paper, entitled "The Philosophy of Punchkin," ante, vol. ii. are intended to teach a lesson beyond the philosophy which that able writer finds in them. No doubt they "embody that early system of thought, if system it can be called, which confuses ideas and objects, illusions and realities, subjects and shadows," and they may be evidence of "the survival of primitive belief in one or more entities in the body, yet not of it, which may leave that body at will during life, and which perchance leaves it finally, to return not, at death." Such stories, however, do more; for they teach the triumph of love or goodness over evil, even though aided by the power of magic. The incident of the existence of the soul apart from the body appears to me to be introduced merely as presenting an additional difficulty to be contended with, and to show that no obstacle is too great to be overcome: as expressed in the saying, "Love will find out the way."
Mr. Clouston in his edition of The Book of Sindibad[1] well remarks: "It is a peculiarity of fairyland that there are certain rooms which the fortunate mortal who has entered the enchanted palace is expressly forbidden to enter, or doors which he must on no account open, or cabinets which he must not unlock, if he would continue in his present state of felicity." Many stories referring to that prohibition have been brought together by Mr. Sidney Hartland,[2] who regards it as the central thought of the class to which such stories belong. He is not satisfied with this conclusion, however. He supposes the story of the forbidden chamber to have developed "from the slaughter of his wife and children by a capricious or cannibal husband, to a marriage and murder for previously-incurred vengeance, or for purposes of witchcraft, and thence to a murder by a husband for disobedience, express or implied. At this point the fatal curiosity comes upon the scene as one mode of accounting for the disobedience; and when once this element is introduced it proves a most potent influence, and the story branches off and blossoms in all directions." I cannot see, however, any occasion to go beyond the "fatal curiosity" for the original idea on which all the
- ↑ P. 308, Appendix
- ↑ The Folk-Lore Journal, vol. iii. pp. 198-242.
