# Journal of American Folk-Lore/Volume 13/Issue 51/Notes and Queries

​ ​So the boy went into the little house, and in the middle of the floor stood a round yellow thing, into which he dipped his head, and his head became golden, and the house was full of shining and light.
Then he came out and jumped on the horse that had talked with him, and they fled.
Now when they had gone a long way—they went very fast—behold, there came, following them, the one who called himself the Great Spirit. And he said, "You bad rascals, stop; you shall not live, whither will you go in such a small country as this?" Saying this, he came toward them, when they were much frightened. And again he said, "You are bad rascals, stop; you shall not live."
Then the horse said, "Take the egg you have and throw it rearward." And he did so, whereupon the whole breadth of the country became a sea, so that he who followed them came to a standstill, and said, "Alas, my horse, have mercy on me and take me to the other side; if you do, I will value you very much." And the horse replied, "Ah, I am not willing to do that." But he continued to urge him; whereupon he threw himself above the water, and so that, when he came to the middle, he went down, and both were drowned. By this means the boy passed safely on.
So it was they came to the dwellings of a people, and remained there. But from behind they came to attack, and fought with them; but the boy turned his head around, and his head was covered with gold, and the horse also that he sat upon was golden, and those who came against them, he caused to be thrown off, and only a few remained when he left them. Again, when they returned to the attack, he destroyed them all. And so the boy was much thought of by the people.
The story deals with the incidents of the Forbidden Chamber and the Enchanted Horse, which appear in many tales of the Old World. In his "Mythology of the Aryan Nations" (London, 1897), G. W. Cox considers that "The Treasure of the House of Ixion, which none may enter without being destroyed like Hesionicus, or betrayed by marks of gold or blood, reappears in a vast number of popular stories, and is the foundation of the story of Bluebeard" (vol. ii. p. 36). Whatever truth there may be in this statement, the myth seems to have had antiquity and wide currency.
Thus in "Popular Tales of the West Highlands," No. 41 (vol. ii. pp. 265–275), J. F. Campbell recites a tale of the three daughters of a poor man who successively enter a forbidden chamber full of dead gentlewomen. In each case they are carried off by a king's son, who has by enchantment been changed into the form of a horse; after two of the sisters have stained themselves with blood, and been decapitated, the third is assisted by a cat, and is able to restore the prince to his original shape.
In an Italian story recorded by A. de Gubernatis, "Mythologie Zoölogique " (Paris, 1874, ii. 36), we also have an abduction of the heroine, entry into the forbidden chamber, and resuscitation of the king's son.
In a series of similar tales magic animals, especially the horse, serve as the means of punishment for uncontrolled curiosity.
In the "Arabian Nights," we read in the story of the "Third Royal ​Calander" how the hero is forbidden to enter the closet with a floor of red gold, and in that chamber finds a black horse, which he mounts, and which strikes out an eye. In the "Katha sarit sagara" it is related that the fairy bride of Saktideva prohibits him from ascending to the middle terrace of the palace, in which, however, he finds a horse with a jewelled saddle; trying to mount, he is thrown into a lake, and to his surprise, finds himself in a garden-lake of his own city.
The magic horse and the pool of gold appear in a Greek story mentioned by J. G. v. Hahn (Leipzig, 1864, i. 197), in a form closely analogous to that of the Dakota tale. A prince is carried by a drakos or demonic serpent to the castle of the latter, opens a forbidden chamber, where he finds a horse which advises him, drops his finger in a pool of liquid gold. The drakos immerses him in the pool, he flies on the horse, and is pursued. We then have the usual incidents of the "magic flight," in which the hero is advised by the steed to throw down objects which magically change to interspersed obstacles; these are soap, comb, and mirror, which last becomes a lake.
Instead of the puddle of gold variants introduce a well of magic water, as in Grimm, Kinder und Haus-Marchen, No. 136. In a Norwegian tale, G. W. Dasent, "Popular Tales from the Norse," 1859, p. 358, the finger of the young man is dipped in a copper caldron, in which he is afterwards immersed; we have the usual flight and pursuit, the magic objects being stone, bramblebush, and pitcher, which produces a lake.
The citation of narrations belonging to this class might be indefinitely extended, and it is clear that the Indian story has affiliation with the European.
Thomas Wilson.
Washington, D. C.
Note.—This tale has been ably discussed by E. Cosquin in his "Contes populaires de Lorraine," Paris, 1886, No. 12,1. 133, " Le prince et son cheval." In the story of Lorraine we have, as is common in märchen, a combination of incidents which may have previously existed in separate form. A prince forbidden by his departing father to enter a certain chamber, does so with the result that he finds a fountain of gold in which his finger is dipped, and on a second visit is entirely immersed. Then follows the magic flight (in this case it is not definitely stated that the horse is obtained from the forbidden chamber); thus is concluded the first part of the narration. A sequel continues the adventures of the hero after his deliverance; he arrives in disguise at a foreign court, at a public competition is accepted by a princess as her husband, lives despised with his father-in-law, but on occasion of public danger is able to resume his gilded garments and save the kingdom, preserves his incognito, but is discovered through a wound inflicted by the king himself in order to identify his savior. The two parts which in mutilated form appear also in the Dakota story, make up the tale, and it would seem that it has become diffused throughout the world in this complex shape, while the starting-point and date of the composition, which must have had a single author, are not clear. A class of ​variants differs from the type of the French tale by introducing the feature that the hero has been promised before his birth to a demon or enchanter; the latter thus offers offspring to a childless father, on condition of receiving one or two twins, a feature occurring in versions Czech, Mesopotamian, Hindu, and Swahili (Zanzibar). Obviously it is this form which has inspired the Dakota version, in which the magician is represented by the Great Spirit. The source (presumably European) of the Dakota tale is not evident. It is curious to find the egg as one of the magical objects of the flight among Kafirs (Cosquin, p. 154); in this case it produces a fog.
Editor.
Death Signs and Weather Signs from Newfoundland and Labrador.—1. Three lamps lighted together mean death.
Harbor Grace, N. F.
2. The striking of an old and disused clock signifies death.
Bay Robert and New Harbor, N. F., Labrador.
3. If a blind falls down, some one in the house will soon die.
Carbonear, N. F., Labrador.
4. The meeting of congregations coming from church and chapel is a sign of death.
Carbonear, N. F.
5. Rapping on the side of a house means death.
Newfoundland.
6. The enlarging of a house by joining together two houses or any enlarging or lengthening, and not widening, signifies death.
Venison Tickle, Labrador.
7. If a girl is married in black, one of the couple will soon die.
Newfoundland.
8. Leaving part of a potato bed unplanted means death within the year.
Venison Tickle, Labrador.
9. A hollow square resembling a coffin seen in a boiled pudding signifies death.
Bay Robert, N. F.
10. The frequent popping out from a lamp in the evening is a sign of death.
Bay Robert and Trim Bay, N. F.
11. Seeing an absent friend is a "vision" or "token" that one will die within the year. Seeing him at sunset, however, signifies long life; at midday, short life.
Bay Robert, N. F.
12. Seeing one's self is a token of long life if you live over that year.
Bay Robert, N. F.
13. On the death of a first child in a family, all its clothes must be given away, or the succeeding children will die.
New Harbor and Bay Robot, N. F.
​14. Some article of clothing intended for an unborn baby must be left unfinished or unbought, or the child will die.
Newfoundland.
15. If a baby is measured within a year, it will die.
Dildo and Carbonear, N. F.
16. It is unlucky for a father to make a coffin for his first child. The child would die.
Carbonear and New Harbor, N. F., Labrador.
17. It is unlucky to put the baby to the looking-glass before a year old. The child will die.
New Harbor and Harbor Grace, N. F., Labrador.
18. It is unlucky to cut an infant's nails before a year old. The child will die.
Trinity Bay and Carbonear, N. F.
19. The higher the day-dawn the more wind, the lower, the less wind.
Newfoundland and Labrador.
20. A sky red before sunrise and the color disappearing before sun is up means wind; if the red continues after sunrise, a fine day.
New Harbor and Heart's Delight, N. F.
21. Sunset with a pink hue in the eastern sky is a sign of rain.
Newfoundland.
22. Northern lights, if whistled to, will come near (so half-breeds say).
Labrador.
23. Northern lights working to the west mean storm or bad weather (in winter).
Topsail Bay, N. F., Labrador.
24. The fire burning blue means rain.
New Harbor and Carbonear, N. F.
25. Smoke falling is a sign of bad weather, rising of fine weather.
New Harbor and Carbofiear, N. F.
26. The cracking of ice in cold weather is a sign that mild weather is coming.
Newfoundland.
27. Frost coming out of rocks and boards is a sign that mild weather is coming.
Newfoundland.
28. A smoky chimney is a sign of mild weather.
Trinity Bay, N. F.
29. If seal nets in winter "shingle," i. e. rise, from say ten fathoms or more, to the top of the water, coated with ice, it is a sign that mild weather is coming.
Labrador.
30. Thunder ends in the quarter the wind is coming from.
Labrador.
31. If a squall lasts longer than the calm, the wind is increasing, if the reverse, decreasing.
Carbonear and New Harbor, N. F.
​32. Spots on the back of the fireplace in winter mean mild weather.
New Harbor and Carbonear, N. F.
33. Ground swell, heaving in, is a sign of mild weather (in winter).
Newfoundland.
34. If the land is low, it is a sign that wind will be on it.
New Harbor and Carbonear, N. F.
35. The sea "burning" is a sign of a northwest wind.
Heart's Content, N. F.
36. A tide unusually low means south wind, a high tide north wind.
New Harbor and Labrador, N. F.
37. Mountain Indians point toward a high hill called Great Knife to cause wind.
Labrador. A. F. Waghorne.
The Game of the Child-Stealing Witch.—In "Folk-Lore," vol. x. 1900, M. Gaster has discussed the history of a Roumanian charm against the child-stealing witch. With great learning and acuteness, he traces the career of this particular piece of superstition for two thousand years. The charm, directed against the cataract, is cast into the form of an incident. The sufferer is said to meet certain evil spirits, known as the "Windmaids and the Beautiful," who blacken his countenance and blind him. The Holy Virgin meets certain sisters whom she bids clear away the mist from the eyes of the afflicted person. In another variant the pernicious spirit goes to Bethlehem in order to steal the child of the Virgin Mary, but is repulsed by the archangel Michael. She confesses her various names, which constitute a protective charm. Mr. Gaster shows that the basis is identical with that of a love-charm contained in a MS. of the sixteenth century, connected with the name of Sisoe. This saint has a sister, Meletia, whose four children the Devil has swallowed. The sister hides herself with her fifth child; but when Sisoe begs that the door shall be opened to him, the Devil enters the house in the shape of a millet-grain, and carries off the last child. The saint pursues, and by the advice of friendly trees discovers the route taken by the Devil, who is drawn out of the sea with a hook, and forced to vomit up the children. In Greek texts published by Leo Allatius is found the story as that of Sysynnius and Gylo, who changes into a fish; and this Gylo is the Gello of classic antiquity, a child-stealing demon. In Hebrew folk-lore the counterpart of Gello is Lilith, who is represented as living in the waters, and as a stealer of little children; against her exist early charms which are in origin identical with the one still extant. That the names of the demon, in the modern charm, are used as prophylactic against her, is only a corruption of the more ancient form, in which the names of guardian angels served this purpose. Mr. Gaster justly observes that he has followed this charm from the heights of the Carpathian mountains through Roumania, the plains of the Balkans to old Byzantium, through Palestine, and as far as the valley of the Nile. Probably ​additional knowledge might further extend its antiquity, possibly carry it back to the most ancient Babylonian period. We have thus an example of a superstition, very likely of literary origin, which has emigrated from the Orient, and acclimatized itself among modern European peasants.
The explanation which Mr. Gaster demonstrates for one charm will, I am convinced, be found to apply to a vast body of folk-lore, including many popular European tales which have passed from land to land.
In his discussion, Mr. Gaster has not mentioned the existence of a very widely diffused game of children, dependent upon the same circle of ideas, and in all likelihood of equal antiquity. Under the title of "Old Witch," I have offered a number of American and English versions (Games and Songs, 1883, pp. 215–221, 141; Journal of American Folk-Lore, ii.; see also Mrs. A. B. Gomme, "Traditional Games," 1898, ii. 391–396). Here the scene is precisely that of the tale connected with the name of Sisoe; the child-stealing demon lurks at the door of the mother, obtains entrance under false representations, and steals the children; a pursuit and recovery takes place, and the children are reanimated. One curious feature connects the game with classic antiquity; the demon is represented as limping. Now in the glossary of Hesychius, Gello is said to be an eidolon of Empusa (one-foot). The game in Europe exists in a vast variety of versions, the children being represented as leaves, pots, colored pieces of cloth, or colors. The mythologic basis is indicated by the name of Saint Catharine of Sienna, given in an Italian version to the mother, just as in the charm it is the child of the Virgin that the witch endeavors to steal. I have estimated that one tenth part of the traditional games of children, played with words in Europe, are nothing more than altered versions of this same game, of which the English forms preserve the original idea. As Mr. Gaster observes, the attempt to explain such relations on the doctrine of independent origins is altogether inconsistent with the facts. I do not doubt that if we could revert two thousand years, we should find children in Greece performing the same dramatic action with reference to Lamia (the Swallower, lamos, throat), and one of the goddesses; that in Palestine and Assyria we should similarly find children performing the capture by the sea-demon Lilith of infants of divine race. We have, in the charm and the game, only different developments of the same theme; and while the general idea of a child-robbing spirit may be universally human, in this particular case we are confronted, not with such independent developments, but with very ancient Oriental customs, which have wandered into Europe, and have replaced, it may be, similar local usages. Such is the history of folk-lore in general; while the underlying ideas are common to humanity, the expression of those ideas is constantly taking new forms, which are determined by continued diffusion from centres of culture. In this manner the ideas and literary productions of ancient civilizations are continually blending themselves with folk-lore.
W. W. Newell.