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Gypsy Folk Tales, by Francis Hindes Groome, [1899], at sacred-texts.com
Once upon a time there was an old King, who had three sons. And the old King fell very sick one time, and there was nothing at all could make him well but some golden apples from a far country. So the three brothers went on horseback to look for some of those apples to recover their father. The three brothers set off together; and when they come to some cross-roads, they halted and refreshed themselves a bit. And there they agreed to meet on a certain time, and not one was to go home before the other. So Valentine took the right, and Oliver 1 went on straight, and poor Jack took the left. And, so as to make my long story short, I shall follow poor Jack, and leave the other two take their chance, for I don't think they was much good in them. Well, now, poor Jack rides off over hills, dales, valleys, and mountains, through woolly woods and sheepwalks, where the Old Chap never sounded his hollow bugle horn, further than I can tell you to-night, or ever I intend to tell you. 2
At last he came to some old house near a great forest, and there was some old man sitting out by the door, and his look was enough to frighten the Devil. And the old man said to him, 'Good-morning, my king's son.'
'Good-morning to you, old gentleman,' was the answer by the young prince, and frightened out of his wits, but he did not like to give in.
The old gentleman told him to dismount and to go in and have some refreshments, and to put his horse in the stable, such as it was. After going in, and Jack feeling much better after having something to eat, and after his long ride, began
to ask the old gentleman how did he know that he was a king's son?
'Oh dear!' said the old man, 'I knew that you was a king's son, and I knew what is your business better than what you do yourself. So you will have to stay here to-night; and when you are in bed, you mustn't be frightened when you hear something come to you. There will come all manner of snakes and frogs, and some will try to get into your eyes and into your mouth. And mind,' the old man said, 'if you stir the least bit, then you will turn into one of those things yourself.'
Poor Jack did not know what to make of this, but however, he ventured to go to bed; and just as he thought to have a bit o’ sleep, here they came around him, but he never stirred one bit all night.
'Well, my young son, how are you this morning?'
'Oh! I am very well, thank you, but I did not have much rest.'
'Well, never mind that. You have got on very well so far, but you have a great deal to go through before you can have the golden apples to go to your father. So now you better come to have some breakfast before you start on your way to my other brother's house. Now you will have to leave your own horse here with me, until you come back here again to me, and to tell me everything about how you got on.'
After that out comes a fresh horse for the young prince.
And the old man give him a ball of yarn; and he flung it between the horse's two ears. And off he goes as fast as the wind, which the wind behind could not catch the wind before, until he came to his second oldest brother's house. When he rode up to the door, he had the same salute as he had from the first old man; but this one was much uglier than the first one. He had long grey hair, and his teeth was curling out of his mouth, and his finger and toe nails were not cut for many thousands of years. So I shall leave you to guess what sort of a looking being he was, but still his Rómani speech was soft and nice, much different to his younger brother. He puts his horse in a much better stable, and calls him in, and gives him plenty to eat and drink, and lots of tobacco and brandy. And they have a bit of chat
before they goes to bed. When the old man asks him many questions: 'Well, my young son, I suppose that you are one of the King's children, and come to look for the golden apples to recover him, because he is sick?'
Jack.--'Yes; I am the youngest of the three brothers, and I should like well to get them to go back with.'
Old Man.--'Well, don't mind, my young son. I will send before you to-night to my oldest brother, when you go to bed, and I will say all to him what you want, and then he will not have much trouble to send you on to the place where you must go to get them. But you must mind to-night not to stir when you hear those things biting and stinging you, or else you will work great mischief to yourself.'
The young man went to bed, and beared all, as he did the first night, and got up the next morning well and hearty, and thought a good deal of the old man's Rómani way the night before. After a good breakfast, and passing some few remarks, What a curious place that was, when the old man should say, 'Yes' to him, 'you will see a more curious place soon; and I hope I shall see you back here all right.' When out comes another fresh horse, and a ball of yarn to throw between his ears. The old man tells him to jump up, and said to him that he has made it all right with his oldest brother to give him a quick reception, and not to delay any whatever, as you have a good deal .to go through in a very short and quick time.'
He flung the ball, and off he goes as quick as lightning, and comes to the oldest brother's house. (I forgot to tell you that the last old man told him not to be frightened at this one's looks.) Well, to make my long story short, the old man received him very kindly, and told him that he long wished to see him, and that he would go through his work like a man, and return back here safe and sound.
'Now to-night I shall give you rest; there shall nothing come to disturb you, so as you may not feel sleepy to-morrow. And you must mind to get up middling early, for you've got to go and come all in the same day. For there will be no place for you to rest within thousands of miles of that place; and if there was, you would stand in great danger never to come from there in your own form. Now, my young Prince, mind what I tell you. To-morrow, when you
go in sight of a very large castle, which will be surrounded with black water, the first thing you will do you will tie your horse to a tree, and you will see three beautiful swans in sight. When you will say, 'Swan, swan, carry me over for the name of the Griffin of the Greenwood'; and the swans will swim you over to the castle. There will be three great entrances, before you go in. The first will be guarded by four great giants, and drawn swords in their hands; the second entrance lions and other things; and the other with fiery serpents and other things too frightful to mention. You will have to be there exactly at one o'clock; and mind and leave there precisely at two, and not a moment later. When the swans carry you over to the castle, you will pass all these things, when they will be all fast asleep, but you must not notice any of them. When you go in, you will turn up to the right, you will see some grand rooms, then you will go downstairs and through the cooking kitchen, and through a door on your left you go into a garden, where you will find the apples you want for your father to get him well. After you fill your wallet, you make all the speed you possibly can, and call out for the swans to carry you over the same as before. After you get on your horse, should you hear any shouting or making any noise after you, be sure not to look back, as they will follow you for thousands of miles; but when the time will be up and you near my place, it will be all over. Well, now, my young man, I have told you all you have to do to-morrow; and mind, whatever you do, don't look about you when you see all those dreadful things. Keep a good heart, and make haste from there, and come back to me with all the speed you can. I should like to know how my two brothers were when you left them, and what they said about me.'
'Well, to tell the truth, before I left London, my father was sick, and said I was to come here to look for the golden apples, for they were the only things would do him good. And when I came to your youngest brother, I could not understand him well: his speech was like the English Gypsies and not like yours. 1 You speak the same as the
[paragraph continues] Welsh Gypsies, and so I understand your second brother well. He told me many things what to do before I came here. And I thought once that your youngest brother put me in the wrong bed, when he put all those snakes to bite me all night long, until he [i.e. the middle brother] told me, "So it was to be," and said, "So it is the same here," but said you had none in your beds, but said when I came to you I should find you a fine dear Rómani old man.'
The Old Man.--'So ’tis, my daddy. My youngest brother ran away when he was young with the English Gypsies, and their speech is not the same as our speech. Well, let's take a drop more brandy and a little tobacco, and then let's go to bed. You need not fear. There are no snakes here.'
The young man went to bed, and had a good night's rest, and got up the next morning as fresh as newly caught trout. Breakfast being over, when out come the other horse, and, when saddling and fettling, the old man began to laugh, and told the young gentleman that if he saw a pretty young lady, not to stay with her too long, because she may waken, and then he would have to stay with her, or to be turned into one of those unearthly monsters, like those which he will have to pass by going into the castle.
'Ha! ha! ha! you make me laugh that I can scarcely buckle the saddle-straps. I think I shall make it all right, my uncle, if I sees a young lady there, you may depend.'
'Well, my daddy, I shall see how you will get on.'
So he mounts his Arab steed, and off he goes like a shot out of a gun. At last he comes in sight of the castle. He ties his horse safe to a tree, and pulls out his watch. It was then a quarter to one, when he called out, 'Swan, swan, carry me over, for the name of the old Griffin of the Green-wood.' No sooner said than done. A swan under each side, and one in front, took him over in a crack. He got on his legs, and walked quietly by all those giants, lions, fiery serpents, and all manner of other frightful things too numerous to mention, while they were all fast asleep, and that only for the space of one hour, when into the castle he goes neck or nothing. Turning to the right, upstairs he runs, and enters into a very grand bedroom, and seen a beautiful Princess lying full stretch on a beautiful gold bedstead, fast asleep. It will take me too long to describe the
other beautiful things which was in the room at the time, so you will pardon me for going on, for there was no time to lose. He gazed on her beautiful form with admiration, and looked at her foot, and said, 'Where there is a pretty foot, there must be a pretty leg.' And he takes her garter off, and buckles it on his own leg, and he buckles his on hers; he also takes her gold watch and pocket-handkerchief, and exchanges his for hers; after that ventures to give her a kiss, when she very near opened her eyes. Seeing the time short, off he runs downstairs, and passing through the cooking kitchen, through where he had to pass to go into the garden for the apples, he could see the cook all-fours on her back on the middle of the floor, with the knife in one hand and the fork in the other. He found the apples out, and filled his wallet well; and by passing through the kitchen the cook did very near waken, and she did wink on him with one eye; he was obliged to make all the speed he possibly could, as the time was nearly up. He called out for the swans, and off they managed to take him over, but they found he was a little heavier than when he was going over before. No sooner than he had mounted his horse, he could hear a tremendous noise, and the enchantment was broke, and they tried to follow him, but all to no purpose. He was not long before he came to the oldest brother's house; and glad enough he was to see it, for the sight and the noise of all those things that were after him near frightened him to death.
'Welcome, my daddy, I am proud to see you. Dismount and put the horse in the stable, and come in and have some refreshments; I know you are hungry after all you have gone through in that castle. And tell all what you did, and all what you saw there. There was other kings' sons went by here to go to that castle, but they never came back alive, and you are the only one that ever broke the spell (for me to go from here). And now you must come with me, and a sword in your hand, and must cut my head off and must throw it in that well.'
The young Prince dismounts, and puts the horse in the stable, and then goes in to have some refreshments, for I can assure you he wanted some. And after telling him everything that passed, which the old gentleman was very pleased to hear, they both went for a walk together, the young
[paragraph continues] Prince looking around and seeing the place all round him looking dreadful, also the old man. He could scarcely walk from his toe-nails curling up like ram's horns that had not been cut for many hundred years, and big long hair. And although his teeth was curling out of his mouth, he could speak the Rómani language better than any other. They come to a well, and he gives the Prince a sword, and tells him to cut the old man's head off; and to throw it in that well. The young man, through him being so kind to him, has to do it against his wish, but has to do it.
No sooner he does it, and flings his head in the well, than up springs one of the finest young gentlemen you would wish to see; and instead of the old house and the frightful-looking place, it was changed into a beautiful hall and grounds. And they went back, and enjoyed themselves well, and had a good laugh about the castle, when he told him all about what had passed, especially when he told him about the cook winking on him and could not open the other eye. The young Prince leaves this young gentleman in all his glory, and he tells the young Prince before leaving that he will see him again before long. They have a jolly shake-hands, and off he goes to the next oldest brother; and, to make my long story short, he has to serve the other two brothers the same as the first, and he has to take to his own horse to go home.
Now the youngest brother there was a good deal of the English Gypsy in him, and begun to ask him how things went on, and making inquiries and asking, 'Did you see my two brothers?'
'Yes.'
'How did they look?'
'Oh! they looked very well. I liked them much. They told me many things what to do.'
'Well, did you go to the castle?'
'Yes, my uncle.'
'And will you tell me what you see in there? Did you see the young lady?'
'Yes, I saw her, and plenty other frightful things.'
'Did you hear any snake biting you in my oldest brother's bed?'
'No, there were none there; I slept well.'
'You won't have to sleep in the same bed to-night. You will have to cut off my head in the morning.'
The young Prince had a good night's rest, and changed all the appearance of the place by cutting his head off before he started in the morning, having a good breakfast, and supplying himself with a little brandy and a good lot of tobacco for the road before starting, for he had a very long way to go, and his horse had not the same speed as theirs had. A jolly shake-hands, and tells him it's very probable that he shall see him again very soon when he will not be aware of it. This one's mansion was very pretty, and the country around it beautiful, after having his head cut off. And off he goes, over hills, dales, valleys, and mountains, and very near losing his apples again. (I forgot to tell you that he give some to each of those brothers before leaving.)
At last he arrives at the cross-roads where he has to meet his brothers on the very day appointed. Coming up to the place, he sees no tracks of horses, and, being very tired, he lays himself down to sleep, by tying the horse to his leg, 1 and putting the apples under his head. When presently up comes the other brothers the same time to the minute, and found him fast asleep. And they would not waken him, but said one to another, 'Let's see what sort of apples he has got under his head.' So they took and tasted them, and found they were different from theirs. They took and changed his apples for theirs, and hooked it off to London as fast as they could, and left the poor fellow sleeping.
After a while he awoke, and, seeing the tracks of other horses, he mounted and off with him, not thinking anything about the apples being changed. He had still a long way to go by himself; and by the time he got near London he could hear all the bells in the town ringing, but did not know what was the matter until he rode up to the palace, when he came to know that his father was recovered by his brothers' apples. When he got there, his two brothers went off to some sports for a while. And the king was very glad to see his youngest son, and was very anxious to taste his apples. And when he found that they were not good, and thought that they were more for poisoning him, he sent
immediately for the head butcher to behead his youngest son; and was taken away there and then in a carriage. But instead of the butcher taking his head off, he took him to some forest not far from the town, because he had pity on him, and there left him to take his chance. When presently up comes a big hairy bear, limping upon three legs; and the Prince, poor fellow, climbed up a tree, frightened of him, and the bear telling him to come down, that it's no use of him to stop there. With hard persuasion poor Jack comes down; and the bear speaks to him in Rómani, and bids him to 'Come here to me; I will not do you any harm. It's better for you to come with me and have some refreshments. I know that you are hungry all this time.'
The poor young Prince says, 'No, I am not very hungry; but I was very frightened when I saw you coming to me first, when I had no place to run away from you.'
The bear said, 'I was also afraid of you when I saw that gentleman setting you down from that carriage. I thought you would have some guns with you, and that you would not mind killing me if you would see me. But when I saw the gentleman going away with the carriage, and leaving you behind by yourself; I made bold to come to you, to see who you was; and now I know who you are very well. Isn't you the King's youngest son? I seen you and your brothers and lots of other gentlemen in this wood many times. Now, before we go from here, I must tell you that I am a Gypsy in disguise; and I shall take you where we are stopping at.'
The young Prince up and tells him everything from first to last, how he started in search of the apples, and about the three old men, and about the castle, and how he was served at last by his father after he came home; and instead of the butcher to take his head off; he was kind enough to leave him to have his life, and to take his chance in the forest, live or die; 'and here I am now, under your protection.'
The bear tells him, 'Come on, my brother. There shall be no harm come to you as long as you are with me.'
So he takes him up to the tents; and when they sees ’em coming, the girls begin to laugh, and says, 'Here is our Jubal coming with a young gentleman.'
When he advanced nearer the tents, they all begun to know that he was the young Prince that had passed by that way many times before; and when Jubal went to change himself; he called most of them together in one tent, and tells them everything all about him, and tells them to be kind to him. And so they were, for there was nothing that he desired but what he had, the same as if he was, in the palace with his father and mother. He was allowed to romp and play with the girls, but no further, through his princely manners and the chastity of the girls hindered all bad thoughts. Him having lessons on the Welsh harp when a boy by some Welsh harper belonging to the Woods or Roberts family, who were Welsh Gypsies of North Wales, made a little difference to his way of speaking to that of the London magpies, when they used to say, 'Dorda! this young gentleman talks as if he was two hundred years old; we can't understand him.' They used to have a deal of fun with him at night-time, when telling his funny tales by the fire. Jubal, after he pulled off his hairy coat, was one of the smartest young men amongst them, and he stuck to be the young Prince's closest companion. The young Prince was always very sociable and merry, only when he would think of his gold watch, the one as he had from the young Princess in that castle. The butcher allowed him to keep that for company, and did not like to take it from him, as it might come useful to him some time or another. And the poor fellow did not know where he lost it, being so much excited with everything.
He passed off many happy days with the Stanleys and Grays in Epping Forest. But one day him and poor Jubal was strolling through the trees, when they came to the very same spot where they first met, and, accidentally looking up, he could see his watch hanging up in the tree which he had to climb when he first seen poor Jubal coming to him in the form of a bear; and cries out, 'Jubal, Jubal, I can see my watch up in that tree.'
'Well! I am sure, how lucky!' exclaimed poor Jubal, 'shall I go and get it down?'
'No, I'd rather go myself,' said the young Prince.
Now when all this was going on, the young Princess whom he changed those things with in that castle, seeing that one
of the King of England's sons had been there by the changing of the watch, 1 and other things, got herself ready with a large army, and sailed off for England. She left her army a little out of the town, and she went with her guards straight up to the palace to see the King, and also demanded to see his sons, and brought a fine young boy with her about nine or ten months old. They had a long conversation together about different things. At last she demands one of the sons to come before her; and the oldest comes, when she asks him, 'Have you ever been at the Castle of Melváles?' and he answers 'Yes.' She throws down a pocket-handkerchief bids him to walk over that without stumbling. He goes to walk over it, and no sooner he put his foot on it he fell down and broke his leg. He was taken off immediately and made a prisoner of by her own guards. The other was called upon, and was asked the same questions, and had to go through the same performance, and he also was made a prisoner of.
Now she says, 'Have you not another son?'
When the King began to shiver and shake and knock his two knees together that he could scarcely stand upon his legs, and did not know what to say to her; he was so much frightened. At last a thought came to him to send for
his head butcher, and inquired of him particularly, Did he behead his son, or is he alive?
'He is saved, O King.'
'Then bring him here immediately, or else I shall be done for.'
Two of the fastest horses they had were put in the carriage, to go and look for the poor Welsh-harping Prince. And when they got to the very same spot where they left him, that was the time when the Prince was up the tree, getting his watch down, and poor Jubal standing a distance off. They cried out to him, Did he see another young man in this wood? Jubal, seeing such a nice carriage, thought something, and did not like to say No, and said Yes, and pointed up the tree. And they told him to come down immediately, as there is a young lady in search of him with a young child.
'Ha! ha! ha! Jubal, did you ever hear such a thing in all your life, my brother?'
'Do you call him your brother?'
'Well, he has been better to me than my brothers.'
'Well, for his kindness he shall come to accompany you to the palace, and see how things will turn out.'
After they go to the palace, he has a good wash, and appears before the Princess, when she asks him, or puts the question to him, 'Had he ever been at the Castle of Melváles?' when he with a smile upon his face, and gives a graceful bow.
And says my lady, 'Walk over that handkerchief without stumbling.'
He walks over it many times, and dances upon it, and nothing happened to him. She said, with a proud and smiling air, 'That is the young man'; and out comes the exchanged things by both of them. Presently she orders a very large box to be brought in and to be opened, and out come some of the most costly uniforms that was ever wore on an emperor's back; and when he dressed himself up, the King could scarcely look upon him from the dazzling of the gold and diamonds on his coat and other things. He orders his two brothers to be in confinement for a period of time; and before the Princess demands him to go with her to her own country, she pays a visit to the Gypsies' camp, and she makes them some very handsome presents for being so kind to the young Prince. And she gives Jubal an invitation to go with them, which he accepts, also one of the girls for a nurse; wishes them a hearty farewell for a time, promising to see them again in some little time to come, by saying, 'Cheer up, comrades, I'm a Rómani myself; I should like to see you in my country.'
They go back to the King and bids farewell, and tells him not to be so hasty another time to order people to beheaded 1 before having a proper cause for it. Off they go with all their army with them; but while the soldiers were striking their tents, he bethought himself of his Welsh harp, and had it sent for immediately to take with him in a beautiful wooden case. After they went over, they called to see
each of those three brothers whom the Prince had to stay with when he was on his way to the Castle of Melváles; and I can assure you, when they all got together, they had a very merry time of it. The last time I seen him, I play upon the Prince's harp; and he told me he should like to see me again in North Wales. Ha! ha! ha! I am glad that I have come to the finish. I ought to have a drop of Scotch ale for telling all those lies.
As I said in my notes to No. 54, Mr. Joseph Jacobs has also reprinted this story, with alterations (e.g. of 'head butcher' to 'headsman'), additions, and omissions of his own. Especially has he deleted every mention of Gypsies, whilst leaving in references to 'tents,' 'camp,' etc., which thus appear rather à propos des bottes. Such tampering with folk-tales reminds one somehow of your 'restoring' architect, called in about an old church. 'Yes,' he pronounces, 'that window is Late Perpendicular, so will have to come out, and we'll put in an Early English one according to the original design.' Not that he knows the original design, but he pleases his dupes: some there be, however, that curse. But Grimm, Mr. Jacobs pleads, rewrote his fairy-tales. Maybe HE did, but every folklorist is not a Grimm.
After this, Mr. Jacobs remarks that 'the tale is scarcely a good example for Mr. Hindes Groome's contention (in Transactions Folk-Lore Congress) for the diffusion of all folk-tales by means of gypsies as colporteurs. This is merely a matter of evidence, and of evidence there is singularly little, though it is indeed curious that one of Campbell's best equipped informants should turn out to be a gypsy. Even this fact, however, is not too well substantiated.' As I have shown in my Introduction, I have never made such a contention; there, too, I have told all I know about Campbell's informant--Mr. Jacobs, perhaps, may know more. But his oracular judgment, that this story is a poor example for my (real) contention, that is what staggers me, unbacked though it be by one tittle of counter-evidence. The following is all I can adduce in self-vindication.
My friend Mr. Sampson has got from Matthew Wood another Welsh-Gypsy version, called 'I Valín Kalo Pāni' (The Bottle of Black Water). 'This,' he writes, 'is a variant of your "King and his Three Sons," with which it agrees in most particulars, except of course Roberts' own picturesque little touches, and that a bottle of black water takes the place of the three golden apples.' Then, what I did not, could not know when I published In Gypsy Tents (1880), there is a closely parallel non-Gypsy variant in Professor Theodor Vernaleken's In The Land of Marvels (Eng. trans. 1884), No. 52, pp. 304-9 and 360. It is called 'The Accursed Garden,' and comes from St. Pölden in Lower Austria. Here is a summary:--
A king has three sons, the youngest the handsomest. He falls sick, and learns he can only get better by eating a fruit from the
[paragraph continues] Accursed Garden. The brothers set out one after the other; the two eldest lose all their money gaming in an inn, and are put in jail (cf. No. 49, p. 184). The youngest son comes to a hermit's in a great forest, inquires the way to the Accursed Garden, and gets a red ball, which, flung before him, will show the way. He next comes to a black dog, and sleeps three nights with him, then to a red dog, lastly to a white maiden. Before reaching the mountain on whose top is the garden he ties his horse to a fig-tree. He has to enter the garden at eleven, and leave before noon. In a castle in the midst of the garden he finds a sleeping lady, writes down his name and address, departs and is pursued by devouring beasts. Returning to the white maiden, he is desired by her to divide a grape into four parts, and to cast a part into each corner of her dwelling. Immediately it became a splendid palace. The red and black dogs are likewise changed into princes, and the hermit into a king. The prince comes up as his brothers are going to be hanged, buys them off, is robbed by them in the night of his fruit, receiving in its stead a poisoned one, and then is thrown into a valley. The late hermit discovers and revives him, but the king his father, finding his fruit is poisoned, orders him to be shot. But the servant spares him; and the young lady, arriving with a great army, proclaims that if the prince who fetched the fruit be not produced she will besiege the city. Then the servant tells how he spared the prince, who is sought for and brought to the king. He accurately describes the garden, and marries the princess.
This version is markedly inferior to our Welsh-Gypsy one; still, I know in all folklore of few closer parallels. And the two versions are separated by over four centuries and by more than a thousand miles. The ball of yarn on p. 221 recurs in two other Welsh-Gypsy stories, 'The Black Dog of the Wild Forest' ('You follow this ball of worsted. Now it will take you right straight to a river') and 'The Green Man of Noman's Land' ('She . . . gives him a ball of thread to place between the horse's ears'). In Dasent's Norse tale of 'The Golden Palace that hung in the Air' (Tales from the Fjeld, p. 291) an old hag gives the hero 'a grey ball of wool, which he had only to roll on before him and he would come to whatever place he wished.' In Addy's Household Tales, p. 50, there is a curious but poorly told story from Wensley in Derbyshire, 'The Little Red Hairy Man,' a variant of our Mare's Son' (No. 20) and 'Twopence-halfpenny' (No. 58). Here the little man throws 'a small copper ball on the ground, and it rolled away, and Jack followed it until it came to a castle made of copper, and flew against the door.' So with a silver ball and a silver castle, and a golden ball and a golden castle. On which it is just worth remarking that underground castles of copper, silver, and gold occur in No. 58, p. 245, in a story told to Campbell of Islay by a London Gypsy (Tales of the West
[paragraph continues] Highlands, iv. 143), and in Ralston's The Norka, pp. 75-76. In Wratislaw's Hungarian-Slovenish story of 'The Three Lemons,' p. 63, 1 we find castles of lead, silver, and gold, and at each the hero gets dumplings of the same metals, which he afterwards throws before him, when they fix themselves on the glass hill, and permit him to ascend (cf. too, our Three Dragons,' pp. 152-4; Irish folk-tale in Folk-Lore Journal, i. 318; and Folk lore for December 1890, p. 495). In Hahn's 'Filek-Zelebi' (No. 73, ii. 69) the heroine has to follow three golden apples; and in 'The Wicked Queens' (J. H. Knowles's Folk-tales of Kashmir, p. 401) a jogi gives a boy a pebble, telling him to 'throw it on before and to follow its leadings.'
The well-known Sleeping Beauty recurs in two other Gypsy stories--the Moravian one of 'The Princess and the Forester's Son' (p. 147), which offers marked analogies to John Roberts's tale, and that from the Bukowina, The Winged Hero' (pp. 100-104), which is very Oriental in character. Whether she was ever familiar to English or Scottish folklore I do not know; but Scott in chapter xxvi. of The Antiquary alludes to her.
For the three helpful brothers, cf. F. A. Steel's Wide-awake Stories, p. 35-36; and for the prohibition not to look about [behind], Maive Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales, p. 140.
220:1 Valentine and Oliver are both Welsh-Gipsy Christian names.
220:2 See footnote 1 on p. 212.
223:1 This point is lost, of course, in my English rendering of the Rómani portions of this story. In the original ms. the youngest brother uses the broken dialect put by John Roberts in the mouths of all English Gypsies, while the two others speak in the very deepest Rómani.
227:1 The Jacobite engraver, Sir Robert Strange, thus tethered his horse on the eve of Culloden (Life, i. 59).
230:1 Presumably the royal arms of England would he engraved on his watch, and his princely initials embroidered on his pocket-handkerchief.
231:1 In another Welsh-Gypsy story, 'Jack the Robber,' summarised on pp. 48-9, the master says, 'If you can't do that, Jack, I'll be behead you.'
234:1 That story is of very wide and seemingly recent dispersion. It occurs in Norway ('The Three Lemons,' Dasent's Tales from the Fjeld, p. 158); Sicily ('Die Schöne mit den sieben Schleiern,' Laura Gonzenbach, No. 13, i. 73, which offers striking analogies to 'An Old King' and 'The Accursed Garden'); Zacynthus ('Die drei Citronen.' Bernhard Schmidt, No. 5, p. 71), etc.; also in India ('The Bel Princess,' Maive Stokes, No. 21, p. 138).