{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_Custom_and_Myth_A_Far_Travelled_Tale/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_Custom_and_Myth_A_Far_Travelled_Tale","id":"wikisource_Custom_and_Myth_A_Far_Travelled_Tale","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Custom_and_Myth/A_Far-Travelled_Tale","summary":null,"tags":["Headers_applying_DefaultSort_key","Subpages"],"text":"A FAR-TRAVELLED TALE.\n\nA modern novelist has boasted that her books are read 'from Tobolsk to\nTangiers.' This is a wide circulation, but the widest circulation in the\nworld has probably been achieved by a story whose author, unlike Ouida,\nwill never be known to fame. The tale which we are about to examine is,\nperhaps, of all myths the most widely diffused, yet there is no ready way\nof accounting for its extraordinary popularity. Any true 'nature-myth,'\nany myth which accounts for the processes of nature or the aspects of\nnatural phenomena, may conceivably have been invented separately,\nwherever men in an early state of thought observed the same facts, and\nattempted to explain them by telling a story. Thus we have seen that the\nearlier part of the Myth of Cronus is a nature-myth, setting forth the\ncause of the separation of Heaven and Earth. Star-myths again, are\neverywhere similar, because men who believed all nature to be animated\nand personal, accounted for the grouping of constellations in accordance\nwith these crude beliefs. Once more, if a story like that of 'Cupid\nand Psyche' be found among the most diverse races, the distribution\nbecomes intelligible if the myth was invented to illustrate or enforce a\nwidely prevalent custom. But in the following story no such explanation\nis even provisionally acceptable.\n\nThe gist of the tale (which has many different 'openings,' and\nconclusions in different places) may be stated thus: A young man is\nbrought to the home of a hostile animal, a giant, cannibal, wizard, or a\nmalevolent king. He is put by his unfriendly host to various severe\ntrials, in which it is hoped that he will perish. In each trial he is\nassisted by the daughter of his host. After achieving the adventures, he\nelopes with the girl, and is pursued by her father. The runaway pair\nthrow various common objects behind them, which are changed into magical\nobstacles and check the pursuit of the father. The myth has various\nendings, usually happy, in various places. Another form of the narrative\nis known, in which the visitors to the home of the hostile being are, not\nwooers of his daughter, but brothers of his wife. The incidents of\nthe flight, in this variant, are still of the same character. Finally,\nwhen the flight is that of a brother from his sister's malevolent ghost,\nin Hades (Japan), or of two sisters from a cannibal mother or step-mother\n(Zulu and Samoyed), the events of the flight and the magical aids to\nescape remain little altered. We shall afterwards see that attempts have\nbeen made to interpret one of these narratives as a nature-myth; but the\nattempts seem unsuccessful. We are therefore at a loss to account for\nthe wide diffusion of this tale, unless it has been transmitted slowly\nfrom people to people, in the immense unknown prehistoric past of the\nhuman race.\n***\nBefore comparing the various forms of the myth in its first shape\u2014that\nwhich tells of the mortal lover and the giant's or wizard's daughter\u2014let\nus give the Scottish version of the story. This version was written down\nfor me, many years ago, by an aged lady in Morayshire. I published it in\nthe 'Revue Celtique'; but it is probably new to story-comparers, in its\nbroad Scotch variant.\n\nNICHT NOUGHT NOTHING.\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There once lived a king and a queen. They were long married and had\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0no bairns; but at last the queen had a bairn, when the king was away\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0in far countries. The queen would not christen the bairn till the\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0king came back, and she said, 'We will just call him Nicht Nought\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nothing until his father comes home.' But it was long before he came\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0home, and the boy had grown a nice little laddie. At length the king\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0was on his way back; but he had a big river to cross, and there was a\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0spate, and he could not get over the water. But a giant came up to\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0him, and said, 'If you will give me Nicht Nought Nothing, I will carry\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0you over the water on my back.' The king had never heard that his son\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0was called Nicht Nought Nothing, and so he promised him. When the\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0king got home again, he was very happy to see his wife again, and his\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0young son. She told him that she had not given the child any name but\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nicht Nought Nothing, until he should come home again himself. The\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0poor king was in a terrible case. He said, 'What have I done? I\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0promised to give the giant who carried me over the river on his back,\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nicht Nought Nothing.' The king and the queen were sad and sorry, but\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0they said, 'When the giant comes we will give him the hen-wife's\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0bairn; he will never know the difference.' The next day the giant\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0came to claim the king's promise, and he sent for the hen-wife's\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0bairn; and the giant went away with the bairn on his back. He\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0travelled till he came to a big stone, and there he sat down to rest.\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He said,\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0'Hidge, Hodge, on my back, what time of day is it?' The poor little\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0bairn said, 'It is the time that my mother, the hen-wife, takes up the\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0eggs for the queen's breakfast.'\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The giant was very angry, and dashed the bairn on the stone and killed\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0it.\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0. . . . .\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The same adventure is repeated with the gardener's son.\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0. . . . .\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Then the giant went back to the king's house, and said he would\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0destroy them all if they did not give him Nicht Nought Nothing this\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0time. They had to do it; and when he came to the big stone, the giant\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0said, 'What time of day is it?' Nicht Nought Nothing said, 'It is the\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0time that my father the king will be sitting down to supper.' The\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0giant said, 'I've got the richt ane noo;' and took Nicht Nought\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nothing to his own house and brought him up till he was a man.\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The giant had a bonny dochter, and she and the lad grew very fond of\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0each other. The giant said one day to Nicht Nought Nothing, 'I've\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0work for you to-morrow. There is a stable seven miles long and seven\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0miles broad, and it has not been cleaned for seven years, and you must\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0clean it to-morrow, or I will have you for my supper.'\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The giant's dochter went out next morning with the lad's breakfast,\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and found him in a terrible state, for aye as he cleaned out a bit, it\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0aye fell in again. The giant's dochter said she would help him, and\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0she cried a' the beasts of the field, and a' the fowls o' the air, and\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0in a minute they a' came, and carried awa' everything that was in the\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0stable and made a' clean before the giant came home. He said, 'Shame\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0for the wit that helped you; but I have a worse job for you\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to-morrow.' Then he told Nicht Nought Nothing that there was a loch\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0seven miles long, and seven miles deep, and seven miles broad, and he\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0must drain it the next day, or else he would have him for his supper.\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nicht Nought Nothing began early next morning and tried to lave the\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0water with his pail, but the loch was never getting any less, and he\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0did no ken what to do; but the giant's dochter called on all the fish\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0in the sea to come and drink the water, and very soon they drank it\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0dry. When the giant saw the work done he was in a rage, and said,\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0'I've a worse job for you to-morrow; there is a tree seven miles high,\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and no branch on it, till you get to the top, and there is a nest, and\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0you must bring down the eggs without breaking one, or else I will have\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0you for my supper.' At first the giant's dochter did not know how to\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0help Nicht Nought Nothing; but she cut off first her fingers and then\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0her toes, and made steps of them, and he clomb the tree, and got all\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the eggs safe till he came to the bottom, and then one was broken. The\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0giant's dochter advised him to run away, and she would follow him. So\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0he travelled till he came to a king's palace, and the king and queen\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0took him in and were very kind to him. The giant's dochter left her\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0father's house, and he pursued her and was drowned. Then she came to\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the king's palace where Nicht Nought Nothing was. And she went up\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0into a tree to watch for him. The gardener's dochter, going to draw\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0water in the well, saw the shadow of the lady in the water, and\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0thought it was herself, and said, 'If I'm so bonny, if I'm so brave,\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0do you send me to draw water?' The gardener's wife went out, and she\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0said the same thing. Then the gardener went himself, and brought the\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0lady from the tree, and led her in. And he told her that a stranger\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0was to marry the king's dochter, and showed her the man: and it was\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nicht Nought Nothing asleep in a chair. And she saw him, and cried to\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0him, 'Waken, waken, and speak to me!' But he would not waken, and\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0syne she cried,\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0'I cleaned the stable, I laved the loch, and I clamb the tree,\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And all for the love of thee,\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And thou wilt not waken and speak to me.'\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The king and the queen heard this, and came to the bonny young lady,\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and she said,\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0'I canna get Nicht Nought Nothing to speak to me for all that I can\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0do.'\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Then were they greatly astonished when she spoke of Nicht Nought\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nothing, and asked where he was, and she said, 'He that sits there in\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the chair.' Then they ran to him and kissed him and called him their\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0own dear son, and he wakened, and told them all that the giant's\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0dochter had done for him, and of all her kindness. Then they took her\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0in their arms and kissed her, and said she should now be their\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0dochter, for their son should marry her.\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And they lived happy all their days.\n\nIn this variant of the story, which we may use as our text, it is to be\nnoticed that a lacuna exists. The narrative of the flight omits to\nmention that the runaways threw things behind them which became obstacles\nin the giant's way. One of these objects probably turned into a lake, in\nwhich the giant was drowned. A common incident is the throwing\nbehind of a comb, which changes into a thicket. The formula of leaving\nobstacles behind occurs in the Indian collection, the 'Kathasarit sagara'\n(vii. xxxix.). The 'Battle of the Birds,' in Campbell's 'Tales of the\nWest Highlands,' is a very copious Gaelic variant. Russian parallels are\n'Vasilissa the Wise and the Water King,' and 'The King Bear.' The\nincident of the flight and the magical obstacles is found in Japanese\nmythology. The 'ugly woman of Hades' is sent to pursue the hero.\nHe casts down his black head-dress, and it is instantly turned into\ngrapes; he fled while she was eating them. Again, 'he cast down his\nmultitudinous and close-toothed comb, and it instantly turned into bamboo\nsprouts.' In the Gaelic version, the pursuer is detained by talkative\nobjects which the pursued leave at home, and this marvel recurs in\nZululand, and is found among the Bushmen. The Zulu versions are\nnumerous. Oddly enough, in the last variant, the girl performs no\nmagic feat, but merely throws sesamum on the ground to delay the\ncannibals, for cannibals are very fond of sesamum.\n***\nHere, then, we have the remarkable details of the flight, in Zulu,\nGaelic, Norse, Malagasy, Russian, Italian, Japanese. Of all\nincidents in the myth, the incidents of the flight are most widely known.\nBut the whole connected series of events\u2014the coming of the wooer; the\nlove of the hostile being's daughter; the tasks imposed on the wooer; the\naid rendered by the daughter; the flight of the pair; the defeat or\ndestruction of the hostile being\u2014all these, or most of these, are\nextant, in due sequence, among the following races. The Greeks have the\ntale, the people of Madagascar have it, the Lowland Scotch, the Celts,\nthe Russians, the Italians, the Algonquins, the Finns, and the Samoans\nhave it. Now if the story were confined to the Aryan race, we might\naccount for its diffusion, by supposing it to be the common heritage of\nthe Indo-European peoples, carried everywhere with them in their\nwanderings. But when the tale is found in Madagascar, North America,\nSamoa, and among the Finns, while many scattered incidents occur in even\nmore widely severed races, such as Zulus, Bushmen, Japanese, Eskimo,\nSamoyeds, the Aryan hypothesis becomes inadequate.\n\nTo show how closely, all things considered, the Aryan and non-Aryan\npossessors of the tale agree, let us first examine the myth of Jason.\n***\nThe earliest literary reference to the myth of Jason is in the 'Iliad'\n(vii. 467, xxiii. 747). Here we read of Euneos, a son whom Hypsipyle\nbore to Jason in Lemnos. Already, even in the 'Iliad,' the legend of\nArgo's voyage has been fitted into certain well-known geographical\nlocalities. A reference in the 'Odyssey' (xii. 72) has a more antique\nring: we are told that of all barques Argo alone escaped the jaws of the\nRocks Wandering, which clashed together and destroyed ships. Argo\nescaped, it is said, 'because Jason was dear to Hera.' It is plain, from\nvarious fragmentary notices, that Hesiod was familiar with several of the\nadventures in the legend of Jason. In the 'Theogony' (993-998) Hesiod\nmentions the essential facts of the legend: how Jason carried off from\n\u00c6etes his daughter, 'after achieving the adventures, many and grievous,'\nwhich were laid upon him. At what period the home of \u00c6etes was placed\nin Colchis, it is not easy to determine. Mimnermus, a contemporary of\nSolon, makes the home of \u00c6etes lie 'on the brink of ocean,' a very vague\ndescription. Pindar, on the other hand, in the splendid Fourth\nPythian Ode, already knows Colchis as the scene of the loves and flight\nof Jason and Medea.\n***\n'Long were it for me to go by the beaten track,' says Pindar, 'and I know\na certain short path.' Like Pindar, we may abridge the tale of Jason. He\nseeks the golden fleece in Colchis: \u00c6etes offers it to him as a prize\nfor success in certain labours. By the aid of Medea, the daughter of\n\u00c6etes, the wizard-king, Jason tames the fire-breathing oxen, yokes them\nto the plough, and drives a furrow. By Medea's help he conquers the\nchildren of the teeth of the dragon, subdues the snake that guards the\nfleece of gold, and escapes, but is pursued by \u00c6etes. To detain \u00c6etes,\nMedea throws behind the mangled remains of her own brother, Apsyrtos, and\nthe Colchians pursue no further than the scene of this bloody deed. The\nsavagery of this act survives even in the work of a poet so late as\nApollonius Rhodius (iv. 477), where we read how Jason performed a rite of\nsavage magic, mutilating the body of Apsyrtos in a manner which was\nbelieved to appease the avenging ghost of the slain. 'Thrice he tasted\nthe blood, thrice spat it out between his teeth,' a passage which the\nScholiast says contains the description of an archaic custom popular\namong murderers.\n\nBeyond Tomi, where a popular etymology fixed the 'cutting up' of\nApsyrtos, we need not follow the fortunes of Jason and Medea. We have\nalready seen the wooer come to the hostile being, win his daughter's\nlove, achieve the adventures by her aid, and flee in her company,\ndelaying, by a horrible device, the advance of the pursuers. To these\nincidents in the tale we confine our attention.\n\nMany explanations of the Jason myth have been given by Scholars who\nthought they recognised elemental phenomena in the characters. As usual\nthese explanations differ widely. Whenever a myth has to be interpreted,\nit is certain that one set of Scholars will discover the sun and the\ndawn, where another set will see the thunder-cloud and lightning. The\nmoon is thrown in at pleasure. Sir G. W. Cox determines 'that the\nname Jason (Ias\u00f4n) must be classed with the many others, Iasion, Iamus,\nIolaus, Iaso, belonging to the same root.' Well, what is the root?\nApparently the root is 'the root i, as denoting a crying colour, that is,\na loud colour' (ii. 81). Seemingly (i. 229) violet is a loud colour,\nand, wherever you have the root i, you have 'the violet-tinted morning\nfrom which the sun is born.' Medea is 'the daughter of the sun,' and\nmost likely, in her 'beneficent aspect,' is the dawn. But (ii. 81, note)\nios has another meaning, 'which, as a spear, represents the far-darting\nray of the sun'; so that, in one way or another, Jason is connected with\nthe violet-tinted morning or with the sun's rays. This is the gist of\nthe theory of Sir George Cox.\n\nPreller is another Scholar, with another set of etymologies. Jason\nis derived, he thinks, from \u03b9\u03b1\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9, to heal, because Jason studied\nmedicine under the Centaur Chiron. This is the view of the Scholiast on\nApollonius Rhodius (i. 554). Jason, to Preller's mind, is a form of\nAsclepius, 'a spirit of the spring with its soft suns and fertile rains.'\nMedea is the moon. Medea, on the other hand, is a lightning goddess, in\nthe opinion of Schwartz. No philological reason is offered.\nMeanwhile, in Sir George Cox's system, the equivalent of Medea, 'in her\nbeneficent aspect,' is the dawn.\n\nWe must suppose, it seems, that either the soft spring rains and the\nmoon, or the dawn and the sun, or the lightning and the thunder-cloud, in\none arrangement or another, irresistibly suggested, to early Aryan minds,\nthe picture of a wooer, arriving in a hostile home, winning a maiden's\nlove, achieving adventures by her aid, fleeing with her from her angry\nfather and delaying his pursuit by various devices. Why the spring, the\nmoon, the lightning, the dawn\u2014any of them or all of them\u2014should have\nsuggested such a tale, let Scholars determine when they have reconciled\ntheir own differences. It is more to our purpose to follow the myth\namong Samoans, Algonquins, and Finns. None of these races speak an Aryan\nlanguage, and none can have been beguiled into telling the same sort of\ntale by a disease of Aryan speech.\n\nSamoa, where we find our story, is the name of a group of volcanic\nislands in Central Polynesia. They are about 3,000 miles from Sidney,\nwere first observed by Europeans in 1722, and are as far removed as most\nspots from direct Aryan influences. Our position is, however, that in\nthe shiftings and migrations of peoples, the Jason tale has somehow been\nswept, like a piece of drift-wood, on to the coasts of Samoa. In the\nislands, the tale has an epical form, and is chanted in a poem of twenty-six stanzas. There is something Greek in the free and happy life of the\nSamoans\u2014something Greek, too, in this myth of theirs. There was once a\nyouth, Siati, famous for his singing, a young Thamyris of Samoa. But as,\naccording to Homer, 'the Muses met Thamyris the Thracian, and made an end\nof his singing, for he boasted and said that he would vanquish even the\nMuses if he sang against them,' so did the Samoan god of song envy Siati.\nThe god and the mortal sang a match: the daughter of the god was to be\nthe mortal's prize if he proved victorious. Siati won, and he set off,\nriding on a shark, as Arion rode the dolphin, to seek the home of the\ndefeated deity. At length he reached the shores divine, and thither\nstrayed Puapae, daughter of the god, looking for her comb which she had\nlost. 'Siati,' said she, 'how camest thou hither?' 'I am come to seek\nthe song-god, and to wed his daughter.' 'My father,' said the maiden,\n'is more a god than a man; eat nothing he hands you, never sit on a high\nseat, lest death follow.' So they were united in marriage. But the god,\nlike \u00c6etes, was wroth, and began to set Siati upon perilous tasks:\n'Build me a house, and let it be finished this very day, else death and\nthe oven await thee.'\n\nSiati wept, but the god's daughter had the house built by the evening.\nThe other adventures were to fight a fierce dog, and to find a ring lost\nat sea. Just as the Scotch giant's daughter cut off her fingers to help\nher lover, so the Samoan god's daughter bade Siati cut her body into\npieces and cast her into the sea. There she became a fish, and recovered\nthe ring. They set off to the god's house, but met him pursuing them,\nwith the help of his other daughter. 'Puapae and Siati threw down the\ncomb, and it became a bush of thorns in the way to intercept the god and\nPuanli,' the other daughter. Next they threw down a bottle of earth\nwhich became a mountain; 'and then followed their bottle of water, and\nthat became a sea, and drowned the god and Puanli.'\n\nThis old Samoan song contains nearly the closest savage parallel to the\nvarious household tales which find their heroic and artistic shape in the\nJason saga. Still more surprising in its resemblances is the Malagasy\nversion of the narrative. In the Malagasy story, the conclusion is\nalmost identical with the winding up of the Scotch fairy tale. The girl\nhides in a tree; her face, seen reflected in a well, is mistaken by women\nfor their own faces, and the recognition follows in due course.\n\nLike most Red Indian versions of popular tales, the Algonquin form of the\nJason saga is strongly marked with the peculiarities of the race. The\nstory is recognisable, and that is all.\n\nThe opening, as usual, differs from other openings. Two children are\ndeserted in the wilderness, and grow up to manhood. One of them loses an\narrow in the water; the elder brother, Panigwun, wades after it. A\nmagical canoe flies past: an old magician, who is alone in the canoe,\nseizes Panigwun and carries him off. The canoe fleets along, like the\nbarques of the Ph\u00e6acians, at the will of the magician, and reaches the\nisle where, like the Samoan god of song, he dwells with his two\ndaughters. 'Here, my daughter,' said he, 'is a young man for your\nhusband.' But the daughter knew that the proposed husband was but\nanother victim of the old man's magic arts. By the daughter's advice,\nPanigwun escaped in the magic barque, consoled his brother, and returned\nto the island. Next day the magician, Mishosha, set the young man to\nhard tasks and perilous adventures. He was to gather gulls' eggs; but\nthe gulls attacked him in dense crowds. By an incantation he subdued the\nbirds, and made them carry him home to the island. Next day he was sent\nto gather pebbles, that he might be attacked and eaten by the king of the\nfishes. Once more the young man, like the Finnish Ilmarinen in Pohjola,\nsubdued the mighty fish, and went back triumphant. The third adventure,\nas in 'Nicht Nought Nothing,' was to climb a tree of extraordinary height\nin search of a bird's nest. Here, again, the youth succeeded, and\nfinally conspired with the daughters to slay the old magician. Lastly\nthe boy turned the magician into a sycamore tree, and won his daughter.\nThe other daughter was given to the brother who had no share in the\nperils. Here we miss the incident of the flight; and the\nmagician's daughter, though in love with the hero, does not aid him to\nperform the feats. Perhaps an Algonquin brave would scorn the assistance\nof a girl. In the 'Kalevala,' the old hero, W\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen, and his friend\nIlmarinen, set off to the mysterious and hostile land of Pohjola to win a\nbride. The maiden of Pohjola loses her heart to Ilmarinen, and, by her\naid, he bridles the wolf and bear, ploughs a field of adders with a\nplough of gold, and conquers the gigantic pike that swims in the Styx of\nFinnish mythology. After this point the story is interrupted by a long\nsequel of popular bridal songs, and, in the wandering course of the\nrather aimless epic, the flight and its incidents have been forgotten, or\nare neglected. These incidents recur, however, in the thread of somewhat\ndifferent plots. We have seen that they are found in Japan, among the\nEskimo, among the Bushmen, the Samoyeds, and the Zulus, as well as in\nHungarian, Magyar, Celtic, and other European household tales.\n\nThe conclusion appears to be that the central part of the Jason myth is\nincapable of being explained, either as a nature-myth, or as a myth\nfounded on a disease of language. So many languages could not take the\nsame malady in the same way; nor can we imagine any series of natural\nphenomena that would inevitably suggest this tale to so many diverse\nraces.\n\nWe must suppose, therefore, either that all wits jumped and invented the\nsame romantic series of situations by accident, or that all men spread\nfrom one centre, where the story was known, or that the story, once\ninvented, has drifted all round the world. If the last theory be\napproved of, the tale will be like the Indian Ocean shell found lately in\nthe Polish bone-cave, or like the Egyptian beads discovered in the\nsoil of Dahomey. The story will have been carried hither and thither, in\nthe remotest times, to the remotest shores, by traders, by slaves, by\ncaptives in war, or by women torn from their own tribe and forcibly\nsettled as wives among alien peoples.\n\nStories of this kind are everywhere the natural property of mothers and\ngrandmothers. When we remember how widely diffused is the law of\nexogamy, which forbids marriage between a man and woman of the same\nstock, we are impressed by the number of alien elements which must have\nbeen introduced with alien wives. Where husband and wife, as often\nhappened, spoke different languages, the woman would inevitably bring the\nhearthside tales of her childhood among a people of strange speech. By\nall these agencies, working through dateless time, we may account for the\ndiffusion, if we cannot explain the origin, of tales like the central\narrangement of incidents in the career of Jason.\n\nFootnotes","title":"Custom and Myth/A Far-Travelled Tale","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":4498}