< Page:The folk-tales of the Magyars.djvu
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

NOTES TO THE FOLK-TALES.

421

Svsnska Folksägner, "Mylingen"[1] and Hyltén-Cavallius Värend och Virdarne, ii. p. 1.

Also Grimm, vol. i. "The Juniper Tree" and notes, and ib. "The Brother and Sister" and notes; ib. vol. ii. "The Lambkin and the Little Fish," and notes.


WOMEN'S CURIOSITY. Merényi.[2]

Cf. S. ja T. ii. p. 73, "Haastelewat Kuuset" (the Talking Pines), which is very like the whole story.

Payne, i. p. 14. Dasent, Tales from the Norse, ii. p. 4. Denton, Serbian Folk-Lore, "The Snake's Gift." Naake, Slavonic Tales, "The Language of Animals" (from the Servian), and Grimm, vol. ii. p. 541. The power to understand the language of animals is often referred to in folk-tales, e.g. Grimm, vol. i. "The White Snake" and note, and ib. vol. ii. p. 541, et seq.

Gubernatis, vol. i. p. 152.

Tales of the Alhambra, "Legend of Prince Ahmed al Kamel."

Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. pp. 190, 469.

The power of animals to speak still remains amongst the superstitions of the people. In Neudorf, near Schärsburg, there is a prevalent superstition that on new year's night at midnight the cattle speak, but in a language which man may not hear, if he does so he dies. See Boner, Transylvania, p. 372; and I have heard a similar story as to their speaking (or kneeling) on Christmas Eve in Lincolnshire. Curious remnants, too, are to be found in the doggrel rhymes of the people, e. g., a few years ago I heard a woman in North Lincolnshire say,

"What do doves say?

  1. ↑ Myling, myring, or myrding generally means the ghost of a murdered person.
  2. ↑ Arany says he dare not accept the collection from which this story is taken for scientific purposes, as Merényi has drawn very liberally on his own imagination.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.