THE WORLD'S BEAUTIFUL WOMAN. Erdélyi, iii. 1.
Arany gives the following variants of this tale: Mailath 2, Grimm[1] 53, and Schott, Wallachische Märchen 5. See also in Russian poetry by Pushkin, in Bodenstedt's translation i. p. 100. In the German variants, twelve pigmies take the place of the twelve robbers in the Hungarian tale; and the queen thus addresses her mirror:
"Spieglein, spieglein an der Wand
Wer ist die schonste im ganzen Land?
And receives the reply—
"Fran Königin. Thr seid die Schönste hier
Aber Schneewitchen ist thausendmal schöner.
Als Thr."
Cf. Pedroso Portuguese Folk-Tales, F.L.S. 1882. "The Vain Queen," and "The Maiden with the Rose on her Forehead."
Page 164. The love-stricken ones is a touch of the Oriental method of describing the power of love. See numberless examples in Payne's Arabian Knights.
Page 165. There is an Indian superstition noted in Temple's Legends of the Punjáb, p. 51, where we read, "he wore some coarse clothes over his own, so that her perspiration should not injure him," and in the footnote: "the woman's perspiration would take his 'virtue' out of him."
Page 165. Magic Mirror. Besides the variants at the beginning of the notes, we may compare the Magic Mirror in the Norse Saga, "King Gram" and the Hanoverian tale, in Grimm, vol. ii. p. 379.
For spitting as a mode of enchantment, see numerous examples in Arabian Nights.
Page 172. "The Pin, &c. which prevents the girl from moving." Cf. Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, p. xiii.. "The Pomegranate King,"
- ↑ See note, vol. i. p. 407.
