The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-08-06
Childhood's Classics.
The Origin and Authorship of Fairy Tales.
GLondon Ouesn.l

london Quesn.]
From whence do they come, those itales that
delight our children; these Old World stories
that are SO varied and yet that seem to bear the
trace of common origin? In Asia, through
the length and breadth Of Europe, in China
and in the Hebrides, in Russia and in France,
we come upon them, with their stock of giants
and cunning dwarfs, of enchanted princesses
and sagacious animals. Were these fabulous
beings already invented in that period of the
childhood of the human race before our fore
fathers left its cradle beyond the Caspian sea?
Did the wandering tribes speeding eastwards
while away the leisure hours by repeating, as
they went along, those laughter-moving and
heroic conceits of the unknown story-tellers
among them. the shadowy ancestors of Homer
and Shakespeare and all the poets? Or, are
these fairy tales vestiges Of dead religions,
born Of mans awe and admiration of nature2
We find traces Of kindred superstitions linger-
ing among the simple country folk of almost
every European land. 1t is interesting to OBJ
serve how the ideas that have laid strong hold
on the Imagination of our peasantry we find
held, in scarcely altered form, by that Of
France, OF Bohemia by the isolated inhabi-
tants of the steppes of Russia, by the Scandina-
Wan people on the borders of the Baltic.
Among none of these races would a man in his
senses shoot a swallow or disturb one Of its
nests sheltering under the caves The swal-
low is with them-as it is with our peasants
still-the semi-sacred bird, hailed in the old
days by the Greeks, the Romans, the Teutons,
A. ~ IN, P,,fb 10
"the bird of God,' christened "The Virgin
Mary's bird" in Bohemia. Its early arrival is
everywhere looked upon as the harbinger Of
an abundant harvest. Storms cannot hurt
the house that protects its brood; some great
disaster will surely find out the rObber of the
swallows nest. Next to it the cuckoo holds
an important part of the respect of the country
folk over Europe. In France love-lorn maid
ems consult the voice of the unseen bird to
know how long they must wait for their future
husbands; the weeks, months, years being
counted by the number of cries uttered by the
mysterious visitant Mr.. Ralston, in his inter-
esting studies on "Songs of the Russian Peo-
ple,' and Mr.. Kelly in his collections OF "In-
do-European Folklore" mentions this cus-
tom as common to Sclavonic maidens among
number of rites connected with the cuckoo.
In the symbolic and chivalric literature OF Eu-
ropean lands the pigeon and the swan play a
constant role. Plants have also held, and still
hold, sway over the fancleS Oh MANKIND. Inc
shrieking mandrake has been the theme Of
weird stories and ballads. Strange ideas are
current in eastern Europe still about the fern.
Its magic blossoms, bursting into golden splen-
dor at certain periods of the year. reveal TO
those who pluck them all the secrets Of the
earth and its hidden treasures. The difficulty,
however, is to gather these supernatural flow
ers; for evil spirits swarm about the fern when
the season Of its blooming draws near, and
strip it of its glory. The supernatural appari-
tions devoutly believed in by the peasantry OF
various lands are also akin. The home-spirit
of Russia is the banshee of Ireland; the wood
demon of Bohemia, watching to decoy the
huntsmen, is the "Old Man of the Woods"
that tramps through the French forests, and
bears some resemblance to the "black dog"
our country folk of the fen countries see so
often. The Will O. the WIsp is held to. be "un.
canny" in most lands; in Catholic countries it
is usually held to be some poor restless soul
haunting the earth the spirit of one lying in
unconsecrated ground; some unshriven ghost
burdened by secret. In Russia it is thought
to be the soul of unbaptized children.
Whether the fairy tales are parallels of the
old re ligions.of which these superstitions are
the Surviving wrecks; whether Sleeping Beau
ty be the myth of nature waking to the kiss of
spring, and Tom Thumb be the lightning; or