Pelicans may occasionally be seen in the South of Hungary, but upon the whole the bird is unknown to the common people. The story-teller represents it as a little bird that sings most beautifully.

The hypercritical reader may be shocked at another natural historical blunder, viz., when the whale is described as "the king of fishes." But then we must remember that our own Sir Walter Scott speaks of the phoca as a fish in the last sentence of chapter xxxvii. of The Antiquary.

The Emperor Joseph II.'s edict expelling the Jesuits is still valid, we believe, but is not enforced. The Order has one or two houses in the country, and nobody disturbs them.

In a Finnish tale one half of a castle weeps while the other half laughs. Cf. also another Finnish story "The Golden Bird," where a king's son goes in search of a splendid bird which his father longs for. The hero is assisted by a wolf, which, amongst many other strange things, by rolling three times on the ground on its back, becomes a shop full of precious goods.[78] After many trials, chiefly due to the perfidy of his brothers, the hero, by the assistance of the wolf, wins the golden bird and a lovely princess. The golden bird will not sing till the youngest prince appears, just as in the present tale.

Page 251. "The old Beggar." This incident is common in folk-tales.

Page 252. "Dragon's milk," a favourite compound of mighty power in the magic formulÆ of Finnish and Magyar folk-medicine.

Page 255. "Owls' feathers." Vide p. 398, ante, and Notes and Queries, 6th S. X. p. 401.

Page 256. "Traced triangle," ante, p. 370.

Page 257. "Pleiades." Stars and their lore is one of the most interesting branches of Folk-Lore. Space forbids more than passing allusion to it here. In a note sent by Mr. Haliburton, he points out the important part this group of stars plays in the history of Primitive Man. There appears to be a mass of primitive traditions amongst savages, as to a primÆval paradise with its Tree of Life and Knowledge being situated in the Pleiades. See also legends current amongst the Polynesians, Kiowas of the Prairies, the Abipones of the Pampas, Dyaks, &c. We may also compare the Cabeiric brethren in Phoenician tradition.

In the seventh star, say the Finns, is the sign of the slave; the ancient Finns having regulated their rising by the seven stars. A Finnish friend, Mr. K. Krohn, says he has obtained some forty old Finnish star names from an old woman, and hopes, by comparison of the same with the Arabic names, to obtain valuable results.

See also Sagas from the East, p. 53, and Gubernatis, vol. i., p. 228. Cox, Mythology of the Aryan Nations, "Pleiades."

Page 258. Just as the hero here goes to seek in an unknown land for what he needs, so does the hero in the Finnish tale, "Antti Puuhaara"; S. ja T. 2, go to Pohjola. (Darkness, i.e. the Northern Part). Cf. also Dasent's Tales from the Norse "Rich Peter the Pedlar," p. 236. Vernaleken, In the Land of Marvels, "For one Kreuzer a hundred." Pentamerone, "The Seven Doves," &c. and pp. 107 and 371 in this work.

Page 259. The threshold is a most interesting object in the lore and tales of the people. In Finland it is regarded as unlucky if a clergyman steps on the threshold when he comes to preach at a church. A Finnish friend told me of one of his relations going to preach at a church a few years ago, he being a candidate for the vacant living, and that the people most anxiously watched if he stepped on the threshold as he came in. Had he done so, I fear a sermon never so eloquent would have counted but little against so dire an omen.[79] In the Lapp tales the same idea appears, see Friis, "Ulta-Pigen," the lad returning from a visit to his wife's parents (who are fairy folk) is ordered to step quickly over the threshold, and so saves his life. In the same story we read that a nail driven into the threshold will prevent a fairy wife from running away.

Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, "The Fiend." Here Marusia gets entangled with the evil one, and death comes into her family; in terror she asks her granny what she is to do, and is told, "Go quickly to the priest and ask him this favour—that if you die your body shall not be taken out of the house through the doorway, but that the ground shall be dug away from under the threshold, and that you shall be dragged out through that opening." Rink, Eskimo Tales, "The Angakok from Kakortok," p. 391. Napier, Folk-Lore from West Scotland, p. 46, where, in the description of marriage ceremonies, we read "The threshold of the house was disenchanted by charms, and by anointing it with certain unctuous perfumes, but as it was considered unlucky for the new-made wife to tread upon the threshold on first entering her house, she was lifted over it and seated upon a piece of wood, a symbol of domestic industry."

Cf. 1 Samuel, v. 5, "Therefore neither the priests, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day." Priests and dervishes in India still leap over the threshold of their temples, as they are considered too sacred to be trodden upon.[80]

Page 261. "The Organ Playing." Cf. a similar incident in the Finnish story of the Golden Bird.

Page 262. In the Finnish "Alder Block," the hero's father and mother have their age at once reduced by one-half, when the lovely Catherine embraces them. In the romance of Ogier le Danois sweet singing banishes all care and sorrow. "Et quand Morgue approcha du dit chasteau, les Faes vindrent au devant dogier, chantant les plus melodieusement quon scauroit jamais ouir, si entra dedans la salle pour se deduire totallement," and so time is destroyed. "Tant de joyeulx passetemps lui faisoient les dames Faees, quil nest creature en ce monde quil le sceust imaginer se penser, car les ouir si doulcement chanter il lui sembloit proprement quil fut en Paradis, si passoit temps de jour en jour, de sepmaine en sepmaine, tellement que ung an ne lui duroit par ung mois."