Page:The Grateful Dead.djvu/70

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54

The Grateful Dead.


together more beautiful than ever. The helper then threw off his gaberdine, and showed himself to be St. George.

In the two stories just summarized The Grateful Dead is clear enough, though in VI. St. George has ousted the ghost from part of its proper functions, just as the angel does in Tobit, Russian II., and Simrock IV., God in Siberian, and various saints elsewhere. The introduction in VI. is a unique trait, as far as I know. In both the variants the main features of the theme appear without distortion, including the picturesque cleansing of the woman by actual division. The Poison Maiden, however, has been replaced by a story of similar character, but of different content, which I have not elsewhere found compounded with The Grateful Dead. A vampire infests a church (or a churchyard). A soldier is sent to watch nights, and to try to dislodge her. He successfully counters her tricks, and finally gets hold of something belonging to her, which he refuses to return. Thereupon she is reduced to submission, promises him happiness, and is married to him with the consent of the king.[1] This tale, it will be evident, bears a strong likeness to The Poison Maiden in the figure of the

  1. ↑ References to this story have been collected by G. Polívka, and printed in Archiv f. slav. Phil. xix. 251, in citing our Russian V. He says: "Vgl. Романовъ., iv. S. 124, Nr. 65; Weryho, Pod. bialoruskie, S. 46; Худяковъ, i. Nr. 11, 12; Садовниковъ, S. 44, 310; Манжура, 61; Драгомановъ Мапор. Преп, S. 268 f.; Dowojna Sylwestrowicz, ii. 129 f.; Karlowicz, Nr. 19; Kolberg, viii. S. 138 f., Nr. 55, 56; xiv. S. 72 f., Nr. 16, 17; Ciszewski, i. Nr. 128; Kulda, iii. Nr. 14; Strohal, Nr. 18, 19; Kres, iv. S. 350, Nr. 19; Th. Vernaleken, Oesterr. K.H.M. S. 44 f.; Ul. Jahn, i. 92, 356; Pröble, Märchen für die Jugend, S. 42; Wolf, D.H.M. 258 f.; Sébillot, Contes des marins, S. 38." As far as I have been able to ascertain, these references are all to the tale sketched above, uncompounded with The Grateful Dead. I must thank Professor Wiener for my knowledge of the Slavic forms, which he very generously examined for me as far as the books were available, viz. Romanov, Khudyakov, Sadovnikov, Manžura, Dragomanov, Sylwestrowicz, and Kolberg.
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