In this tale and some others (e.g. "Fairy Elizabeth") it is said that in order to celebrate a wedding the clergyman and the executioner were sent for. Several of the clergy who live among the SzÉkely people on the very spot have been applied to for an explanation of the perplexing word, but they were unable to furnish any clue. The word is not given in Kriza's Glossary. It appears to be one of those curiosities of popular nomenclature so often found in Hungary, and may be a fanciful name for "sacristan," or sexton. One of the many names of this official is "harangozÓ," i. e. the bellringer; hence the individual who holds the corresponding office among the Jews is in small villages sometimes called "the Jewish bellringer," a clear case of lucus a non lucendo. A friend of the editors (who is a SzÉkely) says that "hÓhÉr" in his part means any one who torments, maltreats, or brutalises another. It is also made into a verb thus, "hÓhÉrholja a lovat," "he maltreats the horse." He says that the hÓhÉr is nearly always mentioned in fairy tales in connection with the priest, who was generally accompanied by him: but he does not think the word has any special significance in Folk-Lore.

Page 5. "Vasfogu BÁba." BÁba, in Magyar, as in Japanese, means a midwife: in Slavonic, an old woman. See Ralston's Russian Folk Tales: note, p. 137. "The French are coming." This must be unique. The usual exclamations are, "The Turks are coming," or "The Tartars are coming." The nurse will frighten a naughty child with Turks or Tartars. For the heroic deeds of a popular hero against the French, cf. "Le Chevalier Jean, Conte Magyar, par Alex. Petoefi ...traduit par A. Dozon." Paris. 18º.

The present story is one of a host wherein the gratitude of beasts is compared with the ingratitude of man; and is a more perfect version of the well-known Puss in Boots. Cf. Schiefner, Avar Tales. There is a variant, "Madon linna" ("The Snake's Castle"), collected in Russian Karelia, where the hero is the only son of an old couple, the mother when dying tells her son not to be downhearted, as he still has his father to help him; soon after the father fell sick. "What shall I do, dear father, when you die?" asked the lad. "Go to the forest," replied the father, "and there you will find three traps, bring home alive whatever you find." Soon the father died, and the lad was left alone in his sorrow; after many days he suddenly remembered what his father had said, and set off to the forest, where he found the traps. In the first and second there was nothing, but in the third was a brown fox, which he brought home alive, thinking to himself, "There's not much to be got out of this beast; I shall soon die of hunger." When he got home, he put the fox on a bench and sat down, when, lo! the fox said, "Look here, Jussi Juholainen, wouldn't you like to get married?" The lad replied, "Why should I marry, poor fox? I couldn't live with a poor woman, and a rich one wouldn't have me." "Marry one of the royal family, and then you'll be rich." The lad said that it was all nonsense; but the fox declared he could do it, and then the story goes on very much like Prince Csihan, shewing the king how rich the suitor for his daughter's hand was, and frightening the dependents of the snake into declaring that they belonged to Jussi Juholainen. At last they reach the snake's castle, "the like of which is not in the whole country, nay, not in the wide world. An oak was growing by the wayside, and a holly tree in the courtyard, all the leaves were golden coloured, and golden feathered birds sang among the branches; and in the park was a magnificent elk with gold and silver hairs."

The fox frightens the snake by telling of the coming of a great king, saying, "O poor snake, the king is coming to destroy your house, and kill you." The snake at once hurried off to the store-house[1] where the linen was kept, and hid there, and in due course was burnt up with the stores, by the fox, who set fire to the whole. The king was "giddy" with delight at his son-in-law's wealth, and stayed many days. When he prepared to return home, the fox proposed that Jussi Juholainen and his man should now visit the king, much to the king's chagrin, who tried to make excuses; but as this failed, calves and dog-like creatures, and so forth, were made to jump about the wayside, and in the courtyard, so as to be something like the palace of his son-in-law. But all failed; and the fox, having shown how much greater and wealthier a man Jussi Juholainen was, disappeared. See Suomen Kansan Satuja ja Tarinoita. Part ii. HelsingissÄ, 1873:[2] where, under head "Kettu kosiomiehenÄ" (the fox as wooer for some one), page 36, another variant (Kehnon koti), "the Evil One's home," is given.

In the Karelian story, "Awaimetoin Wakka" (the Keyless Chest), S. ja T. i. p. 151, a lad, when walking in the wood one day, heard his dog barking, and saw that it was a wood-grouse it had found. He drew his bow and was about to shoot when the bird begged him not to do so, and promised to reward him. The lad kept the bird for three years, and at the end of each year a feather fell from the bird's tail, first a copper one, then a silver one, and lastly a gold one; which feathers in the end brought wealth and greatness.

In the Finnish story of "the Golden Bird," a story very much like "Cinder Jack" (in this collection), p. 149, a wolf brings fortune and power to the hero because he fed her and her young ones.

In another Finnish story, "Oriiksi muutettu poika" (The Enchanted Steed), in Suomalaisia Kansansatuja, i. (HelsingissÄ, 1881), a fox assists the fugitives to defeat the devil, who pursues them. This tale is very much like the latter part of "Handsome Paul," p. 33. Compare also a variant from near Wiborg in Tidskriften Suomi, ii. 13, p. 120.

In a Lapp story a little bird helps. See "JÆtten og Veslegutten," from Hammerfest. Lappiske Eventyr og Folkesagn ved. Prof. Friis, Christiania, 1871,[3] p. 52, &c.

It is a cat in "JÆtten, Katten og Gutten," from Alten, Friis, 63; and a fox in "BondesØnnen, KongesØnnen og Solens SØster," from Tanen, Friis, 140.

Mr. Quigstad reports another variant from Lyngen, in which also a cat helps the hero.

See also Steere's Swahili Tales: "Sultan Darai"; Dasent's Tales from the Norse: "Lord Peter," and "Well done, and ill-paid."

Old Deccan Days: "The Brahman." "The Tiger and the Six Judges."

Mitford's Tales of Old Japan: "The Grateful Foxes." "The Adventures of little Peachling"; and a Bohemian story of the Dog and the Yellow-hammer in Vernaleken's In the Land of Marvels.

Ralston's Puss in Boots in XIXth Century, January, 1883. A most interesting and exhaustive article.

Ralston's Russian Folk Tales: "The water King and Vasilissa the Wise." A story which in the beginning is very like "The Keyless Chest."

Benfey's Pantschatantra, i. 208, and passim.

Kletke, MÄrchensaal aller VÖlker: "Gagliuso."

Perrault, Contes des FÉes: "Le maitre chat."

HyltÉn-Cavallius and Stephens. Svenska Folksagor, i. Stockholm, 1844: "Slottet som stod pÅ Guldstolpar."

Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, vol. i. 193; vol. ii. 134, 157.

Grimm's Household Tales, Bohn's ed. vol. i. "the Golden Bird," p. 227; vol. ii. pp. 46, 154, 323, 427, 527.

Mentone Stories, in the Folk-Lore Record, vol. iii. part 1, 43.

Denton's Serbian Folk-Lore, 51, 296.

Naake's Slavonic Tales: "Golden Hair," p. 133, a Bohemian Tale.

Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales: "The Demon and the King's Son," 180.

Payne's The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, "Abou Mohammed," vol. iv. p. 10.[4]