Part 4 (1/2)

One story more, of how a Giant was outwitted by a maiden. It is told in the island of Islay. There was a widow, who had three daughters, who went out to seek their fortunes. The two elder ones did not want the youngest, and they tied her in turns to a rock, a peat-stack, and a tree, but she got loose and came after them. They got to the house of a Giant, and had leave to stop for the night, and were put to bed with the Giant's daughters. The Giant came home and said, ”The smell of strange girls is here,” and he ordered his gillie to kill them; and the gillie was to know them from the Giant's daughters by these having twists of amber beads round their necks, and the others having twists of horse-hair. Now Maol o Chliobain, the youngest of the widow's daughters, heard this, and she changed the necklaces, and so the gillie came and killed the Giant's daughters, and Maol o Chliobain took the golden cloth that was on the bed, and ran away with her sisters. But the cloth was an enchanted cloth, and it cried out to the Giant, who pursued them till they came to a river, and then Maol plucked out a hair of her head, and made a bridge of it; but the Giant could not get over; so he called out to Maol, ”And when wilt thou come again?” ”I will come when my business brings me,” she said; and then he went home again. They got to a farmer's house, and told him their history. Said the Farmer, who had three sons, ”I will give my eldest son to thy eldest sister; get for me the fine comb of gold and the coa.r.s.e comb of silver that the Giant has.”

So she went and fetched the combs, and the Giant followed her till they came to the river, which the Giant could not get over; so he went back again. Then the farmer said he would marry his second son to the second sister, if Maol would get him the sword of light that the Giant had. So she went to the Giant's house, and got up into a tree that was over the well; and when the Giant's gillie came to draw water, she came down and pushed him into the well, and carried away the sword of light that he had with him. Then the Giant followed her again, and again the river stopped him; and he went back. Now the farmer said he would give his youngest son to Maol o Chliobain herself, if she would bring him the buck the Giant had. So she went, but when she had caught the buck, the Giant caught her. And he said, ”Thou least killed my three daughters, and stolen my combs of gold and silver; what wouldst thou do to me if I had done as much harm to thee as thou to me?” She said, ”I would make thee burst thyself with milk porridge, I would then put thee in a sack, I would hang thee to the roof-tree, I would set fire under thee, and I would lay on thee with clubs till thou shouldst fall as a f.a.ggot of withered sticks on the floor.” So the Giant made milk porridge and forced her to drink it, and she lay down as if she were dead. Then the Giant put her in a sack, and hung her to the roof tree, and he went away to the forest to get wood to burn her, and he left his old mother to watch till he came back. When the Giant was gone Maol o Chliobain began to cry out, ”I am in the light; I am in the city of gold.” ”Wilt thou let me in?” said the Giant's mother. ”I will not let thee in,” said Maol o Chliobain. Then the Giant's mother let the sack down, and Maol o Chliobain got out, and she put into the sack the Giant's mother, and the cat, and the calf, and the cream-dish; and then she took the buck and went away. When the Giant came back he began beating the sack with clubs, and his Mother cried out, ”Tis I myself that am in it.” ”I know that thyself is in it,” said the Giant, and he laid on all the harder.

Then the sack fell down like a bundle of withered sticks, and the Giant found that he had killed his mother. So he knew that Maol o Chliobain had played him a trick, and he went after her, and got up to her just as she leaped over the river. ”Thou art over there, Maol o Chliobain” said the Giant. ”I am over,” she said. ”Thou killedst my three bald brown daughters?” ”I killed them, though it is hard for thee.” ”Thou stolest my golden comb, and my silver comb?” ”I stole them.” ”Thou killedst my bald rough-skinned gillie?” ”I killed him.” ”Thou stolest my glaive (sword) of light?” ”I stole it.” ”Thou killedst my mother?” ”I killed her, though it is hard for thee.” ”Thou stolest my buck?” ”I stole it.”

”When wilt thou come again?” ”I will come when my business brings me.”

”If thou wert over here, and I yonder,” said the Giant, ”what wouldst thou do to follow me?” ”I would kneel down,” she said, ”and I would drink till I should dry the river.” Then the poor foolish Giant knelt down, and he drank till he burst; and then Maol o Chliobain went off with the buck and married the youngest son of the farmer.

CHAPTER VI.--CONCLUSION: SOME POPULAR TALES EXPLAINED.

This brings us towards the end--that is, to show how some of our own familiar stories connect themselves with the old Aryan myths, and also to show something of what they mean. There are four stories which we know best--Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack the Giant Killer, and Jack and the Bean Stalk--and the last two of these belong especially to English fairy lore.

Now about the story of Cinderella. We saw something of her in the first chapter: How she is Ushas, the Dawn Maiden of the Aryans, and the Aurora of the Greeks; and how the Prince is the Sun, ever seeking to make the Dawn his bride, and how the envious stepmother and sisters are the Clouds and the Night, which strive to keep the Dawn and the Sun apart.

The story of Little Red Riding Hood, as we call her, or Little Red Cap, as she is called in the German tales, also comes from the same source, and refers to the Sun and the Night. You all know the story so well that I need not repeat it: how Little Red Riding Hood goes with nice cakes and a pat of b.u.t.ter to her poor old grandmother; how she meets on the way with a wolf, and gets into talk with him, and tells him where she is going; how the wolf runs off to the cottage to get there first, and eats up the poor grandmother, and puts on her clothes, and lies down in her bed; how Little Red Riding hood, knowing nothing of what the wicked wolf has done, comes to the cottage, and gets ready to go to bed to her grandmother, and how the story goes on in this way:--

”Grandmother,” (says Little Red Riding Hood), ”what great arms you have got!”

”That is to hug you the better, my dear.”

”Grandmother, what, great ears you have got!”

”That is to hear you the better, my dear.”

”Grandmother, what great eyes you have got!”

”That is to see you the better, my dear.”

”Grandmother, what a great mouth you have got!”

”That is to eat you up!” cried the wicked wolf; and then he leaped out of bed, and fell upon poor Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her up in a moment.

This is the English version of the story, and here it stops; but in the German story there is another ending to it. After the wolf has eaten up Little Red Riding Hood he lies down in bed again, and begins to snore very loudly. A huntsman, who is going by, thinks it is the old grandmother snoring, and he says, ”How loudly the old woman snores; I must see if she wants anything.” So he stepped into the cottage, and when he came to the bed he found the wolf lying in it. ”What! do I find you here, you old sinner?” cried the huntsman; and then, taking aim with his gun, he shot the wolf quite dead.

Now this ending helps us to see the full meaning of the story. One of the fancies in the most ancient Aryan or Hindu stories was that there was a great dragon that was trying to devour the sun, and to prevent him from s.h.i.+ning upon the earth and filling it with brightness and life and beauty, and that Indra, the sun-G.o.d, killed the dragon. Now this is the meaning of Little Red Riding Hood, as it is told in our nursery tales.