The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-20

are conferred by a little red-jacketed
dwarf In the Chinese the three Won
ders are hat, cloak and basket and
they are the gift of a ragged outcast
The hat is naught else than the Iarn-
helm, or Cap of Darkness, but its posses
sor must be wen-bred enough to
take it off and carry it before
his breast if he expects to make
magic use of it. The cloak is not means
of disguise, like Odin's SiddhOttr; it is
rather to be compared with those gar
ments on which certain medieval saints
are said to have sailed the sea, as though
in a boat. The basket is the purse over
again, since it fills itself with riches at
the wish of its possessor.
The wicked princess figures in China as
in Germany; but instead OF long nose,
she gets horn that is 'as sensitive as a
boil, and as hard as a stone which coils
about the posts of the couch on which she
sits OF course, the victim of her greed
curses her in the usual way, and marries
her after the fashion of the long line OF
pretended physicians in the Arabian tales.
THE ORIGIN OF MAN.
The story of "The Mistakes of Apes,
exactly reverses the DarWinian theory or
the origin of man. There are numerous
fools in these Chinese tales, and they are
not unlike bn6 IOUlS III W6oGSlh AOAhhOAS'
The story of 1.-THE Two Melons" an
swers to those tales in the west which
show how the good neighbor is rewarded
and the miner punished by supernatural
Gifts The fairy serpent is the ''laidly
worm. - in the frog-the enchanted prince
or nrincess who needs only an affection
ate spouse or order to recover human
form, '"The man in the SHELF represents
the supernatural parsonage, like swan
maiden, who disappears forever al some
unexpected moment. -.
Religious meaning has eyaporated from
such tales in the west, but in Cathay
thew still express a deep, though 1T may
he a superstltious conviction that the
children who die prematurely are not the
beloved of the gods, but demons who nave
taken human form only to mock the a1ec-
ton of narents. Does the paIents'
love- saws Mr.. Dyer Ball, in Things
Chinese. . Ego out toward some little
child, and as year by year goes by IN
crease in strength, until suddenly some
disease takes the little darling away from
the home it has made bright auQ hapPy !,
"Then the miserable solace the oereaVeu
parents have is that it was not a proper
child of their own, but some spltetul
snirit that. after ingratating Itself INTO
! their affections, ruins all their fonu hopes
and dashes their anticipatlons OF Iuture
hiss bv suddenly showing itself IN us
tr,ue colors in returning whence IL came;
In the case of 1.-THE man in the smell,
however, the parents had good reason to
| know beforehand what the supernatural
powers had given them. ut is SAID one
NAV, by urgent appeal to the gods, get a
son. but the son may be a .sprlte or a
| demon The mother had lmploreG al
/ the gods in turn. The Sea Dragon ms hs1
annoved by her persistence, granted her
, %ravs hit her son was born in a conch
1 shell.
OTHER QUEER STORIES.
7, .bo +,,nical swan-maiden tale, that OF
! t1asoan ~ Bussorah, the supernatural
VIE Il renresented as cunningly invent
! ing a ruse to recover her feather dress