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166

Von Hahn, Griechische und Albanesische Märchen. Gesammelt, ubersetzt und erlautert von J. G. von Hahn. Leipzig, 1864. vol. i, p. 191. Story No. XXVII. (From Zisa, in the Province of Epirus.)

"ALLERLEIRAUH."

ABSTRACT

Unnatural father--Father puts enigmatic question to bishop, and tells daughter he has sanctioned marriage--Counter-tasks-- Magic dresses--Heroine flight--Heroine demands deep pit to be dug; gets into this, and earth opens further to receive her. Wears animal's fell--Heroine disguise--Hunting prince finds heroine, and takes her to palace as gooseherd--Menial heroine-- Meeting-place (ball) --Threefold flight -- Ducats scattered to detain pursuers--Lost shoe--Shoe test--Heroine brings water to prince, who sees magic dress through slit in fell--Happy marriage.

TABULATION

(1) A widowed king desires to marry his only daughter. She is averse, but at length says she will consent if the bishop will sanction it.-- (2) The father asks the bishop,¹ "If one brings up a lamb and fattens it, is it better to eat it oneself or to let another eat it?" The bishop replies that it is better to eat it oneself; and the father repeats to his daughter that the bishop has sanctioned the marriage.-- (3) The heroine demands first two dresses of pure gold, the pockets filled with ducats, and requires bed and a pit to be made which goes ten fathoms deep into the earth.-- (4) When these are ready she gets into the bed, goes thereon into the pit, and says: "Earth, open further!" The earth obeys; she enters and comes to another place, and stays there.-- (5) The king's son, hunting, finds her wrapped in the fell of an animal. He asks "Art thou human?" Finding that she is, he takes her home and makes her gooseherd.-- (6) One day the king gives a feast. The heroine slips out of her fell, and in her golden clothes goes to the feast and dances. The king's son wonders who she is. After the dance he follows her; but she escapes by scattering ducats, which he stops to pick up. The king's son gives another feast, when the adventure is repeated.-- (8) The king's son gives a third feast; and after the dance he pursues the heroine again. In running away she loses a shoe, which he picks up, she escaping the while. The king's son tries the shoe on all maidens, but cannot find whom it will fit.-- (9) As the maid-servants are going to bring water to the king that he may wash before eating, the heroine s her fell at the knee, so that when she kneels her golden dress is seen through it. She then goes to the servants and asks permission to carry the water to the king. They refuse. The king hearing the altercation, interferes in her favour; and when she kneels before him with the water, her golden dress gleams through the slit. The king's son sees it, and cries out: "It is you, then, that have tormented me!" He marries her.

[Note.--A variant from Witza makes the father a priest, who asks his bishop: "I have an apple-tree standing before my door; who is to eat the fruit-- I or a stranger?" The heroine desires from her father fine clothes and a wooden chest in human form with a key. She encloses herself in this, and runs away. She is attacked by sheep-dogs; but they cannot bite her, and the shepherds wonder at her as a wooden man.]

NOTES

1: See Note 36.

Note 36

(P. 246.) With the enigmatical question which the father puts to the bishop, compare a similar question in Gonzenbach, No. 25, vol. i, p. 154.
Return to place in text.

Cox, Marian Roalfe. Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap O' Rushes, abstracted and tabulated. London: David Nutt for the Folklore Society, 1893.

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