Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1901-07-26
LA PLATA. MARYLAND, JULY 26 1901.


tNlhNse NANrAH
One OF the most difficult questions
that folk-lorlsts and ethnologists have
to deal with is the existence Of parallel
legends. Almost any tale in any
country can be matched by similar
tale told in some distant part Of the
world. There Is not a mythology or a
cluster OF folk-legends that can claim
originality. II we might look for
such originality at all we should ex-
pete 1t in the land Of the Mongols, In
the vast Celestial empire which for
tens Of centuries was apparently un-
touched by western culture. and which
has a language utterly unlike any
with which Europeans are familiar
That peoples Of similar race should
possess similar traditions is not sur
prising. but that this should be so
with peoples Of quite disslmilsr race
POINTS to some link OF kinship which
we have not yet fathomed. There is,
for instance. the Rip Van Winkle le-
gend. Of which Washington Irving
made so much. The American writer.
vi hNNAsFs WI AuMtu Ait lutd AAbh
classic and Christian myth-from the
tale Of Epimenides and Of the Seven
Sleepers Of Ephesus The Chinese tell
us how Wang Chi, father of Taou-
ism. was one day gathering frewood.
Coming to a cave. he found some old
men therein playing chess, that game
CT immemorial antiquity. While he
stood and watched the game one OF
the players gave him something to
put in his mouth. After he had
watched for some time. one Of the
old men remarked to him, you have
been here a long while; you should
go home now He went out Of the
cave. but on picking up his ak he
found the handle had crumbled to
dust. Returning to his home, he found
it a place Of strangers; he had been
watching that game Of chess while
centuries had passed by We might
fancy this to be sarcastic thrust at
the slowness with which chess is some
times played, but Chinese are not
generally given to double-entendres Of
NAldN NblNa NflF Ar hAbNNfl ldAtF Will
We suppose peculiar to Wales. but
which is really almost universal-that
Of the dog Gellert In different YER
sions Of the story. the faithful crea-
ture is not always dog; 1t is falcon,
or weasel or a pole-cat In the
Chinese tale it is a pet ichneumon
who watches a womans child while
she goes to fetch water, A snake comes
Stealing in and would bite the eniiiJ.
but the brave ichneumon attacks and
kills IT, Having done so. 1t goes forth
proudly to meet the mother, but i'm
mediately on seeing it stained with
blood she concludes that 1t has killed
her child. and in her rage she slays
it. The child is found alive and well.
In almost every collection of folk
stories we read Of a mermaid or river
spirit or swan-maiden. who becomes
tht wife Of n human being, but at last
deserts him One specimen Is the
familiar story of Melusina; another
version has been told for us by Sir
Lewis Morris in his poem. The Phys
icians of Myddfai" The Chinese tale
resembles those OF Europe in a very
marked degree. A farmer one day
a woman bathing in his we'll,
her clothes hanging on his pine-tree.
Annoyed at what he thought both i'm
modest and intrusive. he hides her
clothing. and when the woman walls
for it and begs to have 1t back, he
asks her why she fouled his water.
She answers that the Creator made the
well for the use of all He has meant
you for my wife at any rate, replies
the man: so he retains her garments
and she becomes his wife At last,
after having borne a son and daugh-
ter. she finds the clothes and an ire
sistible longing comes over her to
put them on and return to her old life.
good-by to her children. she
on a cloud. Probably she
is one Of the cloud-maidens OF Asiatic
mythology-London Household Words.