Alexander the Great, according to the well-known Moslem tradition, had horns on his head, and hence he was called Zū'l-Qarnain, "he of the two horns."[1] It is doubtful whether this legend really belongs to the type which we are now considering, but an Armenian story connects them. Alexander, as usual, swears his barber to secrecy. But he, overcome by internal pains as the result of the enforced reticence, whispers the secret into a well and finds relief. A reed springs from the well, and, when it is made into a flute, it reveals the secret. Alexander sends for the unhappy barber, will not listen to his excuses, and has his head cut off.[2]
Perhaps the richest of all the versions is found in what may be called the Mongolo-Iranian type. In its most complete form it tells how the king of Black China, east of India, had never since his accession showed himself to his subjects. Every day he used to send for a barber, and, when he had finished his office, he was executed. At last it became necessary to select a barber by lot, and the turn came of the son of an old woman. She gives him a cake made from flour mixed with her own milk, and warns him to keep nibbling it all the time when he is dressing the king's beard. The youth discovers that the king has the ears of an ass. Meanwhile the king notices that the cake, which the boy is eating, smells very good. So he asks him how it was made. The boy explains,
- ↑ Korān, Sūrah xviii., 82.
- ↑ Revue de l'histoire de Religion, vol. xliii., p. 346, translating a tale told to Professor Ialayan by Armenians at Zanguezour in Russian Armenia.
reference I am indebted to M. E. Cosquin, who remarks that he has illustrated the latter part of the tale in his Contes populaires de Loraine, No. 26. Cf. the tale of the flaying of Marsyas, and the hanging of his skin on a tree, which seems to reflect a ritual practice of flaying the dead god, and hanging his skin on the pine as a means of effecting his resurrection, and with it the revival of vegetation in spring, (Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, pp. 242 et seq.).
