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THE WIFE OF BATH'S TALE, Its Sources and Analogues. By C. F. Maynadier. Pp. xii-l-222. 6s. All rights reserved Sohrab and Rustem THE EPIC THEME OF A COMBAT BETWEEN FATHER AND SON A Study of its Genesis and Use in Literature and Popular Tradition By Murray Anthony Potter, A.M. London : Published by David Nutt At the Sign of the Phoenix Long Acre 1902 Edinburgh : T. and A. CoNSTAntn, (late) Printers to Her Majesty UNIVERSn Y OF CALIFORNIA S/iiN'lA iiAKiiARA PREFACE The following pages appeared in their original form as a doctorate thesis offered to and accepted by the authorities of Harvard University in 1899. As will be seen, I have tried to prove that the epic theme of a combat between father and son has its origin in certain primitive customs. I do not believe that it can be traced back to any one place ; though in saying this, I do not wish to assert that there has been no travelling, and that each variant stands by itself. I do think that in many parts of the world condi- tions have been favourable for the birth of the tale, so that a number of variants are in all likelihood of indepen- dent origin. When they once appear they may wander indefinitely and affect each other, but this side of the ques- tion I have not thought necessary to discuss. The variants offered range from the folktale to the episode in a very artificial romance. Naturally it is upon the former that I have based my theories, and I hope that in the body of the work I have made clear my opinion as to their relative importance. The others I have included, partly for the sake of completeness, and partly because, in spite of any amount of inventiveness on the part of the author, there is always a possibility of some old tradition being preserved. vi SOHRAB AND RUSTEM Among those to whom I am indebted for suggestions and advice, I must first mention Professor Royce of Harvard. It was he who suggested that possibly the custom of Matriarchy might explain the theme. Should the theory I advance obtain some currency, he should be given full credit; should it fail, he is, of course, by no means responsible. I wish also to thank Mr. Arthur Richmond Marsh, Mr. G. Hamilton, Dr. Robinson, and Dr. Schofield, and by no means least of all Mr. Alfred Nutt for his help, and kindness in pubUshing the book. CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE APPEARANCE OF THE THEME IN LITERATURE PAGE A brief analysis of the theme — Its actual occurrence in real life I — Its appearance in Ta.ssd's Jerusalem Delivered — in Shake- speare's Henry VI. — in Voltaire's Henriade — in Lilo's Fatal Ctiriosity — in Miiller's Derneun und ztoanzigste Februar — in Werner's Der vier uud zwanzigste Februar — in the dramas of Victor Hugo. CHAPTER II THE APPEARANCE OF THE THEME IN POPULAR LITERATURE PAGE Attention first called to the theme by the Brothers Grimm — 6 Subsequent lists of parallels — The method followed in dis- cussing the different variants — The theme appears in its most complete form in the Sohrab and Rustem story — Classifica- tion of the other variants — In the first and most im- portant CLASS THE FATHER MARRIES AWAY FROM HOME AND THE UNION IS TRANSITORY — First subdivisioH, in which the father is a mortal — Variants of Kokako — Hotonui — Tu-huruhuru — Peha and Peho — Arawak story — Cuchulainn — Ilya Murometz — ^Jeruslan Lasarewitch — Nur al-Din All — Odysseus and Telegonus — Odysseus and Eurya- los — An-Bui — Arjuna and Vabhruvahana — Doon — Milun — Gawain — Richars li biaus — Ider — Sir Degarre — Sir Egla- mour — Jan ut den Vergiere — Bauduin de Sebourc — Tristan de Nanteuil — Sir Generydes — Launcelot and Galahad — Renaud and Guidon — Two cases from the Spanish romances viii SOHRAB AND RUSTEM of chivalry — Second subdivision, in which the father is not an ordinary mortal — Variants of Hercules and Zeus — Nectanebus and Alexander the Great — Ortnit and Albe- rich — Robastre and Malabron — Eliaures and Carados — Kurdish tale of the Leprous Prince — A variant which stands alone, a Transylvanian Gypsy Ballad — Second class of VARIANTS IN WHICH THE UNION SEEMS INTENDED TO BE PERMANENT— First and most important subdivision, in which separation is caused by the father's being called away from home — The Hildebrandtslied and its different forms — Biterlof and Dietleib — King Saul and Constantin — Sain Batyr and Kiijiik Bai — ^Joloi and Bolot — A Servian Ballad — Tsamathos and his son — Jen Kuei — Tale of the deposed Prince — Tale of the Merchant and his Sons — Olger Dansk — Demantin — Guillaume de la Barre — Varocher — Finn and Oisin — Collective cases in Gui de Bourgogne and Gaydon — Second subdivision of variants, in which separation is brought about by some mishap befalling the child or its mother, or both — Andronikos — Bernier and his son — Raynouart and Maillefer — Florent and Octavien — Wigamur — The cases in Maugis — Tristan de Nanteuil and Garcion — The ten Wazirs — Leandro and Lepolemo — Floris Kongs Saga— Mstislaw and Valdimir — Floovant — Raymond and Hugues — Sir Tryamour — Third subdivision, in which the child is exposed — Oedipus and Laius — ^Judas— A Finnish tale — A Servian-Croatian tale — St. Julien— King Ibrahim and his son — Apollo and Sadoc- Brutus — A few variants in which the combat is a mere episode — Isembard and Bernard — King Hoel and Kahedin — Paravasu. ♦ CHAPTER III PAGE Explanations of the Father and Son Combat theme given by 97 Uhland, Orest Miller, Liebrecht, and Miss Weston — These theories unsatisfactory — A few other tales which possess the same formula settling without the tragic meeting, and in CONTENTS ix which the son seeks his father — Iravat — Bres — Mudarra — Galien — Morien^Elements in the preceding stories and in the variants of the Father and Son Combat theme which call for explanation — Uncertainty as to paternity connected with the man's marriage away, the prominent role played by the woman either in wooing or in other ways, and the callous abandonment of mother and child by the father — These peculiar features find their explanation in certain customs among primitive races — The man's marriage away from home paralleled in Exogamy — The custom among the Hindus, Khonds, Kalmucks, Circassians, Yurak Samoyeds, Cis-Natalian Kaffirs, Bantus, Maoris, and American Indians — Traces of it among the Romans, Picts, and Russians — The ephemeral nature of the marriages or unions, the ambiguity as to paternity, and the important position of the women to a great extent explainable by Matriarchy — The theories of Bachofen and McLennan as to the causes of Matriarchy — The custom among primitive tribes — The Nairs of the Malabar coast, in Timur-Sumatra, Ceylon ; among the Kocch, the Kassias, the Bush Negroes in Surinam, the Damaras, Bechuanas, the Kumites and Kroki, in New Zealand, the Arawaks, North American Indians, and Transylvanian Gypsies — Traces of it in the civilised nations, the Greeks, Lykians, Egyptians, in ancient India, among the ancient Arabians, Iberians, Picts, Celts, and Germans — Other customs which might lead to ambiguity of paternity — Polyandry and Polygamy — Trial marriages among the American Indians, in Africa, Ceylon, and India. In Europe among the Tatares, Czechs, Germans, and Irish — Handfasting in Scotland — The custom of Bundling in New England, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, and Afghanistan — Degeneration of Bundling in England, Wales, and New England — Temporary marriages among the North American Indians, Yakouts, Aleuts, Aztecs, and Berbers; in Tasmania, Australia, and Persia ; among the Arabs, and in the Caucasus— Divorce in different tribes and countries, especially where the children remain with the mother : among the North American Indians, in Nicaragua, Yucatan, b SOHRAB AND RUSTEM India, and Ceylon — Sexual Hospitality of the Comanches, Cumanas, JaUipanos, and Eskimos ; in Africa, in the Philippines, in Birma, in Kamul, and among the Mere- kede — Traces of it in Ancient India, in France, Germany, and Norway — The lending of wives to secure nobler off- spring — Among the North American Indians, the Hot- tentots, Chukchis, and Koriats — Traces of it in Ancient India and Greece — The wooing and lack of chastity of •women in literature; in the Mahabharata, in the Shah Nameh — Maori stories, Russian Epic Poetry, Celtic litera- ture, the Chansons de Geste, the French and Spanish Romances — Lack of regard for chastity among primitive tribes, and the nations of antiquity ; among the Nau- dowessies. Hill tribes of Northern Aracan, and in Lapland — Religious prostitution — Ordinary prostitution in Africa, Thibet, and America — Prostitution for dowry in Ancient Egypt, among the Etruscans, Benguelas, and in Nicaragua — The Svayamvara or choosing of husbands by maidens — In Literature ; in the Mahabharata, in the Shah-Nameh ; the legend of the founding of Marseilles ; the wooing of Olaf Trygvason, the story of Crescentia — Its appearance among primitive tribes ; in India, Africa, Polynesia, Sandwich Islands, and Tierra del Fuego ; among the Moquis, Zuili and Tarahumari Indians ; in Bohemia and the Ukraine. CHAPTER IV PAGE The appearance of customs already discussed in the variants of i8o the Father and Son Combat theme — In the oldest and most important tales the hero marries or lives with his mistress away from home — This custom finds its analogy in Exogamy — Other traces of Exogamy in Popular Litera- ture — The transitory union of father and mother in the different variants paralleled in tribes who live according to Matriarchy — Patriarchy and Matriarchy appear to exist side by side in the versions of the theme — -Examples of such a state CONTENTS of affairs in real life — The father may serve the family of his wife and yet be the master of her and his children. The sister's brother occupies a prominent position in the family together with the husband — Principal thing to note in the matriarchal family is the fact that the wife does not leave her family — Numerous parallels in our stories — Matriarchy seems to explain the courting of the heroines — The most striking instances of it to-day in primitive peoples are found among matriarchal tribes like the Garos, the Zuni, and the Tarahumari Indians — Presumable existence of the same custom among the Arawaks and Maoris — The appearance of the sister's son and mother's brother in the variants — A maternal uncle variant of the theme — The matriarchal tribe must be on the way to Patriarchy before the sto:y can arise — This explains the fact that no variant contains all the features of Matriarchy — An example of Father and Son Combats in tribes living according to Matriarchy — An instance among the Iroquois in which the son spares the father because he had been affected by his relations with the whites — If we accept the conclusions of Robertson Smith, in Arabia at the time of Mohammed Patriarchy and Matriarchy existed side by side ; under such conditions the story of Niir-al-Din — Three peoples or tribes which show undoubted traces of Metocracy where we find variants of the theme, the Transylvanian Gypsies, the Maoris, and the Arawaks— An explanation of the development of the theme. APPENDIX A PAGE A List of combats between other relations and between friends . 207 APPENDIX B Name-giving .... xii SOHRAB AND RUSTEM PAGE APPENDIX C The Maternal Uncle ...... 212 APPENDIX D Bibliography of works cited in the thesis . . . 215 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM THE EPIC THEME OF A COMBAT BETWEEN FATHER AND SON A HISTORY OF ITS GENESIS AND USE IN LITERATURE AND POPULAR TRADITION The story of the combat between father and son is most familiar to the general reader as it appears in the Hilde- brandslied or in Matthew Arnold's version of the Sohrab and Rustem episode in the Shah Nameh. It has touched and inspired every nation which has produced an epic or ballad of an epic character. The skeleton of the tale is as follows : A man departs from home, in war service, in search of adventure or for purposes of trade, leaving behind him his wife and a son, perhaps unborn, or already quite a lad. He is absent for years. The boy grows up, and for some reason or other seeks his father, or the latter may finally return. In either case, the two meet and, through lack of recognition, fight. The outcome may be either tragic or happy. In the former case the relationship is not discovered till one of the two combatants is mortally A 2 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM wounded ; in the latter the contest is brought to a close by explanations. This may be called the Father and Son Combat proper. It forms a distinct class by itself, but at the same time, closely allied to it, are many other stories of a similar nature, for while in the telling of the former a more or less set scheme is followed, the kernel of the tale is that two people, who are connected by ties of closest affection, indeed, would lay down their lives for each other, through some misunderstanding, slay or try to slay each other. They may be parents and children, brothers, cousins, intimate friends or lovers ; the situation is always the same, and always tragic. Unlike some epic themes, it may occur at any time, and at any place. It has not happened once for all, and then, on account of the force and pathos of its telling, travelled far and wide, and been adopted into the literatures of every land ; wherever there has been war, or commerce, or any- thing to call a man away from his hearth for years, oppor- tunity arises for the same catastrophe. Especially is this the case in civil war. In the Maha- hharata, which tells of the battle of Kurukshetra, between members of the same family, the poet cries out again and again, that in the heat of the battle, such was the cruelty of Fate, that, blinded by confusion and passion, fathers, sons, brothers, and other relatives slew each other merci- lessly. And once more, in a newspaper published in Pittsburg during the Civil War, at the head of a bit of doggerel verse describing the death of a man at the hands of his brother, the remark is made that, ' In this fearful struggle between North and South there are hundreds of cases in which fathers are arrayed against sons, brothers SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 3 against brothers.' But long separation is not alone respon- sible for the tragedy. It may be brought about by dark- ness, which prevents the accurate recognition of face and form ; by sudden terror from fear of attack ; by the mistake of a man hunting ; in a word, in almost any fashion, and as a result, we are continually meeting with some variant of the tale. It appears in its oldest forms in the Indian Mahabharata, in the Greek story of Ulysses and Telegonus, in the Irish Cuchulainn Saga, in the Persian Shah Nameh, in the German Hildebrandslied, in the Russian Ilya ballads, and else- where. Later, it is found in the Chansons de Geste, the French Lais, and the Romances. Indeed, two of the late French epics, which are more properly to be called romances, fairly riot in meetings and combats of this nature. In collections of popular literature made during this century, we come across it in tales and in ballads, some of which may be very ancient, sung in Greece, among the Transylvanian gypsies and the Siberian tribes. Like all themes of enduring interest, it is by no means limited to popular literature. It appears in the twelfth canto of Tasso's Jencsalem Delivered^ in the combat be- tween Tancred and the woman he loves, Clorinda. The latter, an Amazon fighting on the side of the Pagans, anxious to destroy a wooden tower which has been used to make a breach in the walls of Jerusalem, steals out at night clad in black armour. She makes her way to the tower, scatters its defenders, and sets it on fire. On her way back she is overtaken by Tancred, who challenges her to single combat. During the course of the long and equal fight, Tancred, like the great epic heroes, asks in 4 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM vain the name of his opponent, only to learn it when she lies dead at his feet.^ The tragedy of the situation impressed Shakespeare also, who made use of it in Henry VI. as an example of one of the horrors of civil war. First a son enters dragging the body of his father, whom he has slain and intends to rob, and immediately afterwards a man with his dead son in his arms. 2 In the eighteenth century we have the same combat in the episode of ' Les Deux d'Ailly ' in Voltaire's Henriade.^ Edelestand du Meril ^ has called attention, among other cases, to the appearance of the theme in a different form in three plays : Lillo's Fatal Curiosity, Miiller's Der neun und zwanzigste Februar, and Werner's F)er vier und zwan- zigste Febricar, all of which he traces back to a pamphlet entitled News from Perin in Cornwall, published in 1618, and a story by Vicenzo Rota, published by Count Bor- romeo in his Notizia dei Novellieri Italiani.^ The plot of Der vier ufid zwanzigste Februar, considered by Carlyle to be a piece 'nowise destitute of substance and a certain coarse vigour,' ^ is, in brief, as follows : A rich merchant comes to the house of an impoverished old couple and puts up with them for the night. They murder him for his money, and discover too late that they have ^ In the Amadigi di Gaula (lxii.) there is a similar combat be- tween two lovers, Mirinda and Alidoro, only here the outcome is not so tragic, as neither perishes. Multineddu, Le Fonte delta Gerusa- lenime Liberata, p. 131. '■^ King Heyiry VI., pt. iii. act ii. scene v. ^ La HeJiriade, chant viii. Paris : Firmin Didot, 1801, p. 139, etc. ■* Histoire de la Poisie Scandinave, p. 460. 5 P. 461. ® Essay on German Playwrights. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 5 killed their own son, who had returned home to comfort their old age. Curiously enough, later in this century the same dramatic situation found especial favour with Victor Hugo. He employs it in at least four of his works. EngUshmen and Americans are probably most familiar with it in Tom Taylor's drama, the Fool's Revenge, so often played by the late Edwin Booth, and Verdi's Rigoktto, both adapta- tions of Le Roi s'avmse. Here the jester Triboulet plots to kill Francis the First, who has violated his daughter. The latter, overhearing the plot, substitutes herself for the intended victim, and when Triboulet opens the sack to gloat over his enemy, he is overcome with horror to find in it his dying child. In Lucrezia Borgia the last scene is a struggle between Lucrezia and her son, who wishes to avenge the death of his five comrades. It is only when he has struck her with his dagger that she tells him whom he has killed. In Les Burgraves, Job, imprisoned in a dungeon, learns from the lips of the woman whom he has wronged, that he is to die at the hands of his son, who has been lost to him for years. The youth enters, and is only prevented from slaying him by the timely appearance of the Emperor. Finally, there is a hint of it in Noire Dame de Paris, where Paquerette la Fleurie does not discover that Esmer- alda, the gypsy whom she has so hated and persecuted, is her daughter until just before the unfortunate girl is dragged to the scaffold. The above cases have been selected merely at random. A closer examination of hterature, and also of historical records and newspapers, would doubtless reveal many others ; those given are perhaps sufficient to show that 6 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM the theme is one of perpetual interest. Were everything that is written, or which lingers in the minds of men, in the form of folk-tale and song suddenly obliterated, actual daily experience would offer enough new instances to cause its reappearance. II Having glanced summarily at the Father and Son Combat theme as it appears in later literature, we may now turn to its presence in purely popular and mediaeval romance literature. Considerable attention was first devoted to it in the little book written by the Brothers Grimm, and published in 1812, entitled, 'Die beiden altesten deutschen Gedichte aus dem achten Jahrhundert : Das Lied von Hildebrand und Hadubrand und das Weissenbrunner Gebet.' The authors gave not merely the text and textual criticism, but variants of the Hildebrandslied in German, Norse, and other languages. Later, other parallels were added by Edelestand du Meril,^ Orest Miller,- Reimann,^ Liebrecht,"* Reinhold Kohler,^ and others.*^ ^ Histoire de la Podsie Scandinave. p. 417. - (a) Ilya Miirometz and the Heroes of Kiev (Russian), ch. I. (b) Archiv fiir das Studium der tieue^-en Sprachen, xxxiii. 257. ^ Stengel's Ausgaben und Abhandlungen^ iii. 105. ■* Ziir Volkskunde, p. 406. ' Revue Critiqtie, 1868, p. 412, and in Warnke's Lais der Marie de France, p. xcvii, etc. ^ Paris, Revue Critique, 1868, p. 414 ; Richars li biaus, Foerster, p. xxiii ; Busse, Sagengeschichtliches zum Hildebrandsliede : Halle, 1900. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 7 As none of these men, with the exception of Miller, have devoted special study to the matter, the lists have neces- sarily been neither complete nor classified. It was seen from the first that the theme was not to be limited merely to a fight between father and son, but should include other cases where a combat occurred, which recognition would have avoided. The cases cited in the following pages are undoubtedly far from exhausting the number in existence, but they are enough, I think, to establish the general character. A fairly sharp division will be made between those con- cerned merely with father and child and those which have to do with other parties. Short analyses of the former will first be given, a discussion of the problems they suggest will follow, and finally, attention will be paid to the second class. An attempt will be made in quoting the different versions, to follow, more or less closely, an order which will bring out the points to be discussed later. The story which seems to me to exhibit most clearly all the characteristics of the Father and Son Combat theme is not the famous Hildebrandslied, for, fine as the eighth century poem is, it is nevertheless a fragment — but the Persian Shah Nameh episode of Sohrab and Rustem.^ It deserves, I think, to be given in detail. Like the rest which follow, it is, of course, considerably abbreviated, but as far as possible, the language of Mohl's translation of the original is preserved. ^ The Shah Nantch, by Firdusi, born 941, died 1020, who worked up older legends, the majority of which have been preserved by him only. I have used the French translation of Jules Mohl, Le I.ivre des Rois, vol. ii. p. 75, etc. 8 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM SOHRAB AND RuSTEM Rustem arose one morning, prepared for the chase, put on his belt and filled his quiver with arrows. He mounted Raksh, and started for the frontier of Turan, where, near the city of Semengan, he found a plain filled with wild asses : one of these he killed and ate, and then he fell asleep. Eight Turks passing by, saw his steed, captured it, and carried it off to the city. When Rustem awoke and was unable to find his horse, with a breast full of care, he directed his steps toward Semengan. There he was kindly received by the king, and entertained as an honourable guest. That night, after he had gone to sleep, suddenly the door of his chamber opened, and a slave entered, followed by a veiled woman, as beautiful as the sun. In response to the questions of the astonished Rustem, she said, ' I am Tehmineh, the only daughter of the King of Semengan. The tales which I have heard recounted of your prowess have filled me with wonder. Till now no man has seen me unveiled, has heard the sound of my voice, yet my love for you has reduced me to such a state that I sacrifice reason to passion. I am yours if you will but have me, and perhaps God will permit that I may bear a son who will become like you brave and strong.' Rustem foreseeing that the adventure could not but turn out gloriously, sent a Mobed to ask her hand from her father. The next morning he gave her an onyx to bind upon the arm of her son, should one be born, and then pressing her to his heart, and kissing her eyes and forehead many times, he took leave of her and returned to Zabulistan, relating to no one what he had seen and heard. Nine months later Tehmineh gave birth to a son. At the age of ten years SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 9 no one in the country dared to contend with him. One day he said to his mother, ' Since I am taller than my foster brothers, tell me to what race I belong, and the name of my father, or I will slay you.' ' Listen to my words and rejoice,' answered his mother. ' You are the son of Rustem, but let Afrasiab know nothing of your secret, for he is your father's enemy and would slay you. Besides, if your father should see you as I do, he would call you to him and my heart would break.' Sohrab swore that he would place his father on the throne of Iran, and collected a great host. Afrasiab, hear-.; ing of the expedition and of Sohrab's relationship to the mighty hero, sent two crafty counsellors, Barman and Houman, to be by Sohrab's side and hinder him from recognising Rustem, in order that the two men might meet in combat and one of them be slain. With Sohrab, his mother sent her brother Zendeh Rezin to point out Rustem to his son, but when the two armies were drawn up before each other, Zendeh, while trying to bring about an interview with Rustem, was slain by the latter as a spy before he could explain himself. The next morning Sohrab called a captive aside and promised him his freedom if he would point out Rustem, but the captive fearing for Rustem's life swore that he was not present in the Iranian army.^ Sohrab then challenged the warriors of the opposite side to single combat. Only one man dared to come forward ^ The cataloguing of generals introduced here appears frequently in epic poetry. Cf. Helen and the elders at the Skaian Gates in the Iliad; Mac Roth, the Connaught herald, and Medhbh in the Irish epic ; Ogier and Didier in the Carolingian Epic. Examples also in the Mahabharata. lo SOHRAB AND RUSTEM to meet him, his father. When Rustem saw his son, his heart was touched. ' O youthful warrior,' he cried, ' the earth is dry and cold, the air is sweet and warm. I am old, I have seen many a battlefield, I have destroyed many an army. Many a Div has fallen by my hand, and never have I been beaten ; but I have pity upon you and I would not deprive you of life.' While Rustem spoke thus, Sohrab's heart was drawn to him, and he exclaimed, ' One question I desire to ask you, and do you answer that truthfully. Tell me frankly what is your birth ? I believe that you are Rustem, that you are of the race of the illustrious Neriraan.' Rustem responded, ' I am not Rustem. I am a man of the common people, I have neither throne, palace, nor diadem.' Sohrab, who had been full of hope, gave way to despair, and the brilliant aspect of day grew dark before his eyes. The two heroes attacked each other fiercely. They fought destitute of affection and tenderness. Animals know their little ones, whether they be the fishes in the sea or the wild asses of the desert ; but man in his trouble and his passion does not distinguish his son from his enemy. The duel was indecisive, and the next day they met again, Rustem once more refusing to give his name. This time Sohrab threw his father to the ground, and crouching upon his breast, dagger in hand, demanded a third time an answer to his question. Rustem feared that he should have to divulge his secret, but craftily persuaded Sohrab that it was contrary to the laws of chivalry to slay a man the first time he fell to the ground. The third day they met again, but before going into the SOHRAB AND RUSTEM ii combat Rustem begged of God the whole of his strength, part of which he had given up as being too onerous a burden.^ In the last meeting Sohrab was mortally wounded, and from his laments over his failure to find his father, and the onyx discovered under his armour, the horror-stricken Rustem awoke to the fact that he had slain his son. He cried aloud, tore his hair, covered his head with dust, and his face streamed with tears. ' There is no remedy ; weep not ! ' said Sohrab. ' I saw the signs which my mother pointed out to me, but I did not believe my eyes. My lot was written above, and I was to die by the hand of my father. I came like the thunder- bolt ; I pass away like the wind.' The interesting things to note in the story are as follows : The hero travelling away from his country ; a woman falling in love with him ; offering herself and desiring a son from him ; their brief stay together ; the token left behind for the possible offspring; the child wishing to know \vhy he is not like his fellows ; his search for his father and their instinctive feeling of relationship when they meet ; the hostile encounter ; the asking of names and the final recognition. Few stories have all these features, but in arranging the ^ It is not an uncommon characteristic for other heroes to be gifted with such remarkable strength. Sviatogor gives such powers to Ilya until the latter refuses to receive any more, because the earth could hardly hold him {Ramhaud, 47-51). Cf. also the ' Song of Tsamathos ' on a following page ; cf. also Rustem's remark in a Kurdish story, ' Prym and Socin,'p. 131. 'Ich bin so stark, dass Fliesen von Marmor, wenn ich darauf trete und meine Knie darauf stemme, unter meinen Handen und Fiissen auseinandergehen,' etc. 12 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM different variants, I shall begin with those which contain the greatest number. They fall into three classes, in the first of which, for reasons which will be made clear later, I have placed versions where the hero visits the home of the woman, and where the union, marriage or otherwise, seems to be transitory. It will be noted that with the exception of a few cases the son seeks the father. Usually the latter is a mortal, but in a few instances, grouped together, he is a supernatural being. The second class begins with the Hildebrandslied. Here the marriage is apparently a permanent one and the child is born in wedlock. The separation is brought about in nearly every case in one of three ways. Either the father absents himself from home on account of war service and may be captured (this is by all means the most important sub-division) ; or the wife and child are stolen or banished, or finally the child may be exposed on account of in- auspicious auguries attending his birth. In the third and last class there are a number of cases where the formula features are lacking, and the meeting is purely episodic. Returning now to the first and decidedly most important class, the version which follows most closely the formula, after Sohrab and Rustem, is the Maori tale of Kokako.^ KOKAKO Kokako went on a journey from Wai-kato to Kawhia. He observed how comely looking the women of the Kawhia people were. One evening he said to some of his com- ' The Ancient History of the Maori, his Mythology and Traditions, by John White: Wellington, l888, vol. iv. p. 171, etc. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 13 panions, ' Ask that female to go and fetch some water for me.' The name of the woman spoken of was Whaea-tapoko. At this time Kokako was a bitter enemy of Mahanga. It was said that Whaea-tapoko was expecting to become a mother, and in due course she had a son. The child, according to the request of Kokako, was called Tama-inu-po. The mother nursed and tended her son till he was a great lad, and could join in the games of his companions, of whipping-top, throwing fern-stalks (niti), and playing at pirori (hoops). The whipping-tops used by the boy were made for him by his uncles. Now when Tama-inu-po was w^hipping his top, he chal- lenged his playmates to try and whip their tops to a certain place. He succeeded. His companions were jealous of his victory, and said, ' Yes, the whipping-top of this bastard has really gone far.' He heard the sneer, and went to his mother, and told her what he had heard. She said, ' It is true ; those children speak the truth.' He returned to his playmates and joined in a game of ' niti,' and his was the one that flew the longest, which called forth the remark from some of the boys, 'This bastard's niti flies to a greater distance than ours.' He went to his mother, and repeated to her what he had heard, and asked, ' O mother, where is my father ? ' She answered, 'Look at the peak of yon distant mountain which is nearly hidden by the clouds ; it is beyond it where he is.' He asked, ' Who is my father ? ' His mother said, ' He is called Kokako.' Tama-inu-po kept in his memory the taunts of his com- panions and the words of his mother, and when he became a man he left Kawhia and went in the direction of the 14 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM mountain pointed out to him by his mother. He travelled over the country and came out on the Waikato River, and met a party of people who were spearing pigeons and preserving them in their own fat for Mahanga. Tama-inu- po at that time wore a dog-skin mat, and one of the daughters of Mahanga, To-kotuku, on arriving home said to her father, ' A most noble-looking youth is coming here with the party who are bringing the preserved birds for you ; and I will have him as my husband.' The party arrived at the pa, and Tama-inu-po with them, but his name or his parentage was not known. He kept the name of Kokako a secret, as he was in dread of Mahanga's knowing that he was a son of Kokako, lest Mahanga should kill him, as at this time Mahanga was collecting provisions for a war-party to attack Kokako. Tama-inu-po took To-kotuku as his wife. The time came when the warriors of Mahanga were to proceed to war. They attacked the pa of Kokako, and the besieged came out on to the open ground before it. Mahanga ran his spear through one of them, and three times ordered his men to get the dead body. Tama-inu-po alone dared. He pressed on : he killed another and another, and the warriors of Kokako fled and were pursued. When near the entrance of the pa of Kokako, Tama- inu-po overtook his father, Kokako, who was in full flight, and took hold of i.the skirt of his red mat ; and Tama- inu-po gave a smart jerk to the mat, which broke the hold of the 'au-rei' (breast-pin made of a whale's tooth), and the mat fell into the hands of Tama-inu-po ; but as Kokako was his father, he would not pursue or attempt to kill him. And Tama-inu-po went back to Mahanga. Mahanga was pleased with the bravery of Tama-inu-po. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 15 He asked, ' Who is your father ? ' Tama-inu-po answered, ' I am by Kokako.' But now that he had to say who he was, as he had done the deeds of a brave man, and had also a child by Tu-kotuku, who was called Wai-rere, he was not killed by Mahanga. Tama-inu-po had a great desire to see his father, Kokako. He went towards the pa. Kokako was not in the pa, nor had he ever heard that Whaea-tapoko had given birth to a son, nor had he heard of this son by the name of Tama-inu-po. Tama-inu-po, instead of sitting down where he was told to, went on and entered the house of Kokako and sat down on his seat and mats, for which the tribe wished him killed. When Kokako heard of it he thought within himself, 'Who can this man be? What impertinence to go and sit on my mats.' When he entered his house, the people clamoured and said, 'Send him out here that we may kill him ' ; but Tama-inu-po sat still ; and Kokako asked, ' Who are you ? ' Tama said, ' I am of you.' Kokako said, ' What is your name ? ' Tama said, 'Tama-inu-po.' Then Kokako thought of the words he had spoken to Whaea-tapoko, and the name he had given for the child she might bear. Then Kokako wept over his son ; and all the people were driven out of the house, as it had now become sacred on account of the presence of Tama-inu-po. All the pa was now sacred, because Tama-inu-po had not yet been baptized by his father. When he had been baptized he returned to his wife, the daughter of Mahanga, and his children. i6 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM The variants of this tale are many,^ but not all contain the meeting of father and son in actual combat. - HOTO-NUI In the story of Hoto-nui, who came across the sea from Hawa-iki, in the canoe Tai-nui, the hero stays some time at Kawhia and marries the daughter of the chief, Mahanga. He is accused of theft, and the charge weighs so heavily upon him, that he decides to seek another home. He tells his wife if she has a son to name him Maru- tuahu, if a daughter, Pare-tuahu. A boy is born, is later called a bastard by his playmates, and goes in search of his father. He arrives at his father's pa. When Hoto-nui puts forth his hand to take his food, Maru-tuahu puts his hand over that of Hoto-nui. Hoto-nui was angry because of this act of lifting cooked food over his hand, as his hand was sacred; but Maru- tuahu said, 'It is thine; I am your son.' Old Hoto-nui thought that this young man was perhaps the child of his wife, the daughter of Mahanga. When they had sat in silence for some time, Hoto-nui asked Maru-tuahu, ' What is your name ? ' Maru-tuahu answered, ' Did you say to your wife, " If, after I am gone, you have a child, let the child be named ^ The Ancient History of the Maori, his Mythology and Tradi- tions, vol. iv. pp. 39, 195, and 204, for the story of Hoto-nui. I have combined the different versions in order to bring together all that is most essential. Other stories where the same scheme is followed, with the exception that no combat or misunderstanding occurs, will be given later. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 17 in regard to the plot of land I had made into little hills, but which I did not plant ? " ' The old man said, ' I did say so,' and recognised that this young man was his son, and that his name was Maru-tuahu. He wept over him till evening.^ While in both these tales of Kokako and Hoto-nui women make advances to the heroes (this time to the sons and not to the fathers, as in Rustem and other episodes), the better instance is in the story of Hoto-nui. Not only does the chiefs daughter swear she will marry Maru-tuahu, but she imitates Tehmineh's procedure. When all had partaken of the feast, they arose and went from where the food was eaten. In the evening fires were lit in the house, and all slept. That night the younger sister sought for Maru-tuahu and became his wife.- One more tale of the Maoris deserves to be cited, for it is the only case that I know of in the Father and Son Combat theme where, instead of the father, we have the mother and maternal uncle pitted against the child. It is the pathetic story of the little Tu-huruhuru.^ TU-HURUHURU The fame of the nobleness of Tini-rau was heard by Hine- te-iwaiwa, and she determined to go and see him, and, if pos- sible, obtain him as her husband. She was successful, but he soon left her and went to live with another woman. When Hine-te-iwaiwa's child was born she called upon her brother ^ The Ancient History of tin Maori, his Mythology and Traditions, vol. iv. p. 44. ^ Ibid. vol. iv. p. 208. ^ Ibid. vol. ii. pp. 134 and 141, etc. There is one more case of an encounter between uncle and sister's son in the Robin Hood Ballads. See Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, vol. iii. p. 144. B i8 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM Rupe to come down and take her away and her son, Tini-rau begged Rupe to leave both, but only succeeded in getting possession of the child. When the boy, Tu-hururu, was old enough he joined in the games of his companions, and excelled them all in the game of niti. He was called a bastard because he had no mother. When he told his father that he wished to find her, Tini-rau told him how to act when he arrived at Rupe's/a. If he was asked to fetch water for Rupe, he should pour it, not into his mouth but on his nose ; and if Hine-te- iwaiwa and her sisters joined in the evening dance, he was to repeat a certain chant. When Tu-huruhuru arrived at Rupe's pa he was soon sent to fetch water, and on his return, as Rupe put his two hands together to form a cup for the boy to pour water into, while Rupe drank it, the child poured it on Rupe's nose. Rupe lifted his head in a rage and said, ' This slave pours the water on my nose, so that I am not able to drink.' Then he struck the child, who, as he sat weeping, murmured to himself, ' I thought when I came that Rupe was my relative, and Hine-te-iwaiwa was my mother, and Tini-rau was my father.' Rupe heard him uttering these words as he wept, and said, ' Why, this slave is grumbling as he weeps ! ' When night came, Hine-te-iwaiwa and her companions began to haka, and as the boy saw them, he shouted his incantations and said — ' The band of Hine-te-iwaiwa Is loose — loose. The apron of Hine-te-iwaiwa Is loose — loose.' Hine-te-iwaiwa heard the words, so she turned herself SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 19 away and arranged her apron securely, as it had become a little loose ; but one of her sisters said : ' This slave is uttering some charm in regard to your apron,' Hine-te- iwaiwa went and slapped the boy, who again began to cry and to say, 'I thought when I came that Rupe was my relative, and Hine-te-iwaiwa was my mother, and Tini-rau was my father.' Then he ran out of the house to weep. But when Hine-te-iwaiwa heard his words as he wept, she followed, but could not lay hold of him because he still fled, repeating the same words. At last she exclaimed, ' Oh ! it is my own child I have been beating.' Now when the boy found that he was recognised, he fled to the water and dived into the mud to drown himself. Hine-te-iwaiwa, seeing this, called out, ' O Rupe, rescue your child ! ' Rupe then rushed after the boy and caught him, and brought him back to the settlement. Hine-te-iwaiwa was then convinced that he was the child she had forsaken, and wept over him and said, ' I thought that he had died.' When she had ceased to weep, she asked the boy, * What did your father say to you ? ' The child answered : ' He said Rupe and you were to come with me to witness my baptism.' Rupe and his sister, Hine-te-iwaiwa, agreed to this, and rose and took the child to Tini-rau. Peha and Peho The story of Peha and Peho belongs also to the same class. ^ 'Peha came from the east to Kawhia and lived ^ White, op, cit.^ vol. v. p. 18. 20 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM with a woman of Kawhia, and had a child called Manu- tonga-tea, but this child was a bastard.' When the child was strong enough to play games, he excelled his comrades, and was naturally called a bastard. The usual interview with his mother followed, and when he was grown up, with ' twice seventy of his tribe ' he went to see his father. They took him to the settlement of Peha, where the son and his attendants were not recognised as being related to them ; and the people of Kai-ahi, his grandfather, killed them all, but they spared the life of the boy Manu-tonga-tea that day, with the intention of killing him next morning. They tied his hands and feet, and that night dragged him out of the house quite naked. He lay there, tied, all that night, and the cold south wind blew on him, and as he felt chilled, he talked to himself in regard to the chill of the wind thus nipping him. . . . The next morning Peha recognised him as his son and cried over him. But how could he make amends for the insult offered to the boy? ' The boy lived with his father some time, and then returned to the home of his mother. All the time he lived with his father he did not say anything to the people, but as soon as he returned to his mother, he meditated on the insult offered to him by his father in the murder of the people of his mother. He collected a war-party with whom he would go and kill his father. They entered the /a, and though the people there were numerous, the people of Manu-tonga-tea killed the people of Peha, and thus obtained revenge for the murder of the people of Manu-tonga-tea's mother. Now the son of Manu-tonga-tea was Kokako, and his son, Tama-inu-po, and the tale about them we already know. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 21 Another equally important variant, which also has the great merit of being a popular tale, comes from quite another quarter of the globe, from the Arawak tribe in South America.^ In this story we have, with the possible exception of the mother of Tu-huruhuru, the only appear- ance of a swan-maiden in our different versions. It is also one of the very few instances in this first class where, instead of the boy seeking his father, the latter is killed on returning to his wife. The Arawak Hunter A bold young Arawak hunter once captured a beautiful royal vulture. She was the daughter of Anuanima, sovereign of a race which had its country above the sky. When at home there, they ceased to be birds, and assumed the form and habits of human beings. The captive, smitten with love for her handsome captor, laid aside her feathers and appeared before him as a beautiful girl. She became his wife, bore him above the clouds, and after much trouble persuaded her father and family to receive him. All then went well until he expressed a wish to visit his aged mother, when they discarded him, and set him on the top of a very high tree, the trunk of which was covered with formidable prickles. He appealed pathetically to all the living creatures around. Then spiders spun cords to help him, and fluttering birds eased his descent, so that at last he reached the ground in safety. Then followed efforts extending over several years to ' Legends and Myths of the Aboriginal htdians of British Guiafia, p. 29, William Henry Brett, B.D. : London. I have quoted almost verbitim. 22 SOHRAB AND RUST EM regain his wife whom he tenderly loved. Her family sought to destroy him, but by his strength and sagacity, he was victorious in every encounter. The birds at length espoused his cause, assembled their forces, and bore him as a commander above the sky. He was at last slain by a valiant young warrior, resembling himself in person and features. It was his own son, born after his expulsion from the upper regions, and brought up there in ignorance of his father. An equally tragic story, in some variants of which the mother, if not a swan-maiden, is at least immortal, is the Irish tale of Cuchulainn and Conlaoch.^ CUCHULAINN AND CONLAOCH Cuchulainn went to meet Aiffe (the hardest woman warrior in the world), and asked what it was she had ever loved most. Scathach said, ' This is what Aiffe loves most, her charioteer and her two chariot horses.' Then they fought upon the path, Cuchulainn and Aiffe. Then she broke Cuchulainn's weapon, so that his sword was no longer than its hilt. Then Cuchulainn said, ' Woe is ^ This story forms a portion of the ancient Irish saga, entitled Tochtnarc Emire, or the Wooing of Emer; a fragmentary text, assigned by the editor, Professor Kuno Meyer, to the eighth century, is printed in the Revue Celtiqiie, xi. 451, etc. The same scholar has translated a completer text found in a thirteenth century manuscript, ArchiCological Review, vol. i., which translation has been reprinted with omissions and modifications in Miss Hull's Cuchullin Saga. The story is alluded to by the tenth century Irish poet, Eochaid hua Flainn. For the conclusion of the tale (the early texts do not describe Conlaoch's death), see D'Arbois de Jubainville, Cours de littSrature celtique, vol. v. p. 52, etc. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 23 me ! Aiffe's charioteer and her chariot have fallen down the glen, and all have perished.' At that Aiffe looked up. At that Cuchulainn approached her, seized her under her breast, threw her across his shoulder like a burden and went to his own host. He threw her upon the ground. ' Life for life ! ' she said. ' My three wishes to me ! ' said he. ' Thou shalt have them ' ' These are my three wishes. Thou to give hostages to Scathach, without ever again opposing her ; to be with me this night before thy own dun, and to bear me a son.' It is granted thus and was all done. Then she said she was pregnant. She also said it was a son she would bear, and that the boy would come to Erin that day seven year ; and he left a name for him. Before returning to Ireland after having learned from Scathach,^ the feats of dexterity of warriors, Cuchulainn went to say farewell to Aiffe. He gave her one of those large rings which are worn on the thumb ; recommended her to give it to her son as soon as his thumb should be large enough to fill it, and then to send his son to Ireland. Before parting, he left three magic prohibitions for his ^ Alfred Nutt speaking of Cuchulainn, Fionn and Peredur being brought up by a wise and powerful woman, says, ' Scathach corre- sponds to the sorceresses of Gloucester, to the Fiacail and Bodhmall of the Boyish Exploits, and to the Bodhmin of Kennedy's version. She has her counterpart in the "gruagach" who plays such a prominent part in the Gaelic folk-tale, and in the Groach of Breton tradition. The latter name was given to the Druidesses who had colleges in an island near the coast of Brittany (Campbell, vol. i. p. 24).' — Folklore Record, iv. p. 31: Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula in the Folk and Hero Tales of the Celts. 24 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM son. The first was never to turn out of his way for another ; the second, never to give his name through fear to any warrior ; the third, never to refuse single combat. When the son had grown up and learned all the feats of dexterity from Scathach, he went to Ireland to become acquainted with his father. When he landed, he found assembled on the shore, Conchobar and the Ulate nobles. Conchobar sent a warrior of his household, named Conaire, to find out who the new-comer was. Conaire asked his name. ' I will not tell it to any warrior who is on the face of the earth,' replied Conlaoch. Conaire returned to Conchobar and told him the answer. Then Cuchulainn went himself for information and obtained the same answer. A combat began between them — blood flowed. Conlaoch was the stronger of the two. Cuchulainn, who had shown so much vigour and courage in all his preceding combats, was obliged to retire to a neighbouring ford and ask his charioteer, Laech, for the marvellous weapon called gae-bolg. He pierced the body of Conlaoch, and the death of the young man soon followed. A number of important variants of this tale exist. In that contained in the Dean of Lismore's book, there seems to be an instinctive feeling of relationship between father and son. Cuchulainn says ^ — ' "Tell us now and tell at once, Thy name, and where 's thy country?" ^ The Book of the Dean of Lismore, p. 50, etc. The Dean of Lismore's book is a manuscript compiled in Gaelic Scotland at the end of the fifteenth century. SOHRAB AND RUST EM 25 " Ere I left home I had to pledge That I should never relate ; Were I to tell to living man, For thy love's sake I 'd tell it thee." " Then must thou with me battle do, Or tell thy tale as a friend. Choose for thyself, dear youth ; But mind, to fight me is a risk. Let us not fight, I pray thee, Brave leopard, pride of Erin, Boldest in the battlefield, My name I would tell unbought. ' ' In the combat which followed Conlaoch was fatally wounded. Then, and then only, in response to Cuchulainn's request did he tell who he was. ' Conlach I, Cuchulainn's son, Lawful heir of great Dundalgin. It was I thou left'st unborn, When in Skiath thou wast learning. Seven years in the east I spent, Gaining knowledge from my mother ; The pass by which I have been slain, Was all I needed still to learn.' In the note appended to this version it is said, ' Conlach's mother, in revenge for Cuchulainn's forsaking her, had laid her plans for securing this object, and had sent her son into Ireland under vow never to disclose his name until overcome in battle.' Another variant ^ says, ' Cuchulainn left a lonely wife behind him on his return to Uladh. This was Eve, daughter of Scathach. When Conlaoch received his death ^ The Bardic Stories of Ireland, Patrick Kennedy, 1871, p. 45. 26 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM wound the bystanders loosed his lorica, and underneath was seen an amulet Cuchulainn recognised as once worn by his deserted wife.' Again/ ' The Feinn were all in Islay to drive away the Lochlanners, and when they had succeeded, Cuchulainn fell in with a fairy sweetheart, who had flocks and herds, and he stayed while the rest went north to fight the Lochlanners in Skye. The fairy sweetheart bore a son, and by desire of his father called him Conlaoch. Then follows the leav- ing of the ring, the departure of the father, and the search of the son. Both heroes meet and fight. They go out into the sea, to the bands of their kilts, to try ' Cath builg,' and they cast their spears at each other, but the son casts his shaft foremost. At last he is pierced by his father, and discovers himself. They curse the fairy-mother. In still another version," it is said that Cuchulainn lived in Dunscaith, in the district of Sleat in Skye. Some say he was apprenticed to a smith in the locality, and was taught all the arts of war. Here he left his wife, and told her that the child to be born, if a male child, should be named Conlaoch, should be trained in arms, and when of age, should go to Ireland, and not tell his name to any one except under compulsion. Cuchulainn departed, and years later Conlaoch appeared in Ireland, and at a meeting of nobles, there proved himself superior to any present in feats of arms. As he would not tell who he was, Cuchulainn challenged him to a trial of skill 1 Popular Tales of the West Highlands, 1863, J. F. Campbell, p. 184, vol. iii. Another version, Carleton, Ii-ish Stories, 1S46, p. ilT, etc. 2 The Fiajis, Gaelic and English, J. G. Campbell. D. Nutt, 1S91, p. 6. All these versions are from the oral tradition of the last hundred years. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 27 in javelin-throwing. Conlaoch, who knew his father did not recognise him, threw his spear with the blunt end foremost, but Cuchulainn threw his point foremost. Conlaoch was wounded and fell, and when Cuchulainn stooped over him to ascertain his name, he said — ' " I am Conlaoch, the son of the Dog, The rightful heir of Dun Telva, The loved one left in the body In Dunscaith to be taught." " My curse, son, upon the mother From Dunscaith to the tower of learning ; It was the love that was in her heart That has now left my heart-strings (?) so red ' " 111 was your recognition of me, Noble, haughty, loving father. When I threw aslant and feebly. The spear wrong end foremost."' The dead body of his son was carried by Cuchulainn to the shelter of a tree, and for many days no bird dared to perch on the tree, or any man to come near : he ate no food. At last a crow or raven was observed to settle on the tree, and the people knew that Cuchulainn was dead. Two things in these stories are of especial interest. First, the different accounts of the boy's mother : now she is an Amazon like Aiffe; now the daughter of Scathach, or perhaps in Kennedy's version, Scathach herself; now a fairy, and finally a simple mortal. Second, the son's throw- ing his spear shaft foremost in the combat.^ We shall find ' In considering the late variants, it must always be borne in mind that whilst they may represent independent variants of the story found in the Tochmarc Emire, the differences therefrom may be due to caprice or forgetfulness on the part of the later story-tellers. 28 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM both in two Russian variants : the former in the ballads of Ilya Murometz ; the latter in the story of Jeruslan Lasare- witch and the beautiful Princess Anastasia. The combat between Ilya Murometz and his son, Falcon the Hunter, is told in a large number of ballads. I shall use here an abbreviated form of Miss Hapgood's translation,^ pointing out at the end some important varia- tions in the other versions. IlyA Murometz and Falcon On the road to Kief, town of courteous Prince Vladimer, stood a great barrier and strong — a force of seven mighty heroes, bold warriors all, and lesser knights. The first was Ilya of MUrom, our old Cossack of the Don ; the second, Dobrynya Nikitich ; the third, Aly6sha Pop6vitch ; the fourth, Chun'lo Plenk6vitch ; the fifth, Mikailo the Rover; the sixth and seventh, the Agrikanof Brothers. They pitched their pavilions and slept until the white dawn. Then late at even passed young Falcon the Hunter. He asked no leave at the barrier, but leaped across and roamed the open plain. The next morning, right early, at dawn of day, our Cossack of the Don went out to the white court to refresh himself, and espied the traces of a horse's hoofs, the marks of a heroic rider and a black steed. He held council as to ^ The Epic Songs of Russia, by Isabel Florence Hapgood. New York : Charles Scribners Sons, 1886, p. 206, etc. The ballad as she gives it is a combination of different versions. The Russian epic poetry is the North Russian survival of South-West Russian stories, which, in their extant form, may date back to the fourteenth and twelfth centuries. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 29 who should go to seek the rash intruder, and finally decided upon Dobrynya. ' Dobrynya Nikitich must go. If the knight be Russian, then shall Dobrynya swear brotherhood with him ; but if he be an infidel knight, he shall challenge him to single combat.' Dobrynya sprang to his nimble feet, saddled and mounted his good steed, and rode forth to Father Sakatar River by the blue sea. As he looked along the straight road, he beheld a knight riding before him with youthful valour. The knight sat his good steed well, and diverted himself in noble wise, hurling his steel mace to the clouds and catching it as it fell in his white hands, without permitting it to touch the damp earth. As he thus played, he conjured his mace, ' Lightly as I now twirl this mace aloft, even so lightly will I twirl Ilya of Murom.' Then Dobrynya shouted : 'Ho, thou, Falcon the Hunter ! Turnest thou not back before our barrier ? ' Cried Falcon, ' 'Tis not for thee to pursue me in the open plain ; high time is it that thou wert in the village herding the swine ! ' At that heroic cry Dobrynya fell to the earth, where he lay as in a heavy sleep for the space of three hours. When he awoke he returned to the barrier and told Ilya of Murom all. Said the old man : ' There is none to take my place, the place of this turbulent old head.' Then he saddled his good charger Cloudfall, sprang upon his back, and rode forth to meet the intruder, 'Thief! Dog! Braggart!' he shouted in piercing tones. ' Why hast thou past our barrier, doing no reverence to me, asking no leave ? ' When the braggart hunter heard that he turned and rode at Ilya ; and Ilya's heart died within him. 30 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM First they fought with their maces, then with their sharp swords, and so hkewise with their sharp spears ; and when these were shattered they Hghted down from their good steeds and fought hand to hand. All day they fought till even, till midnight, till the white dawn ; and so they did to the second day, likewise the third, and sank to their knees in the earth. Then Ilya waved his right hand and his left foot slipped from under him. Falcon the Hunter planted himself upon Ilya's white breast, snatched out his dagger of damascened steel, and would have pierced that white breast, but his arm stiffened from the shoulder down, and he could not move it. ' O Lord ! ' said Ilya, ' it is written on my right hand that I shall not die in battle.' And to Falcon he said, ' O brave, good youth, tell me from what land art thou, from what horde ? Who are thy father and thy mother ? ' Then the hunter began to curse, ' Full time is it, thou old dog, that thou shouldst shave thy head and go to a monastery ! ' Ilya's heroic heart grew hot at that, and he hurled Falcon to the sky, and when he fell to the earth he sat upon his black breast. Once more he asked the question, and once more was he answered with insults. Then he drew forth his dagger. The youth perceived that misfortune was close at hand, and answered : ' I come from the blue sea, from the palaces of grey stone, from mighty Zlatigorka, and my father I do not know. When I rode forth upon the open plain my mother enjoined me to greet the old Cossack, Ilya of Miirom, if I should chance to meet him, but without approaching, to dismount from my good horse and do reverence to him, touching my forehead to the ground.' SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 31 Then the old man felt compassion, for he knew that this was his own Falcon, by that fierce Zlatig6rka whom he had overcome in single combat, and to whom he had given his golden ring with an inscription and set with a rich jewel. He took Falcon by the hand, kissed his sugar lips, and called him his son, weeping greatly as he looked upon him. Then he blessed him, and told him to ride back to the blue sea and greet his mother from the old Cossack Ilya of Miirom. The secret of his birth overwhelmed the good youth as a great misfortune, and he rode straightway to the blue sea, to the palaces of grey stone. There he called her forth and slew her with his sharp sword, for he liked it not that he should be the son of a peasant and of dishonour. Then he rode back to the pavilion of white, fitted a burning shaft to his stout bow and sent it at Ilya's breast as he lay buried in sleep. But it glanced aside from the wondrous golden cross which Ilya wore, and roused him from his slumber. He leaped forth from the tent, all unclothed as he was, seized Falcon by his yellow curls, flung him upon the damp earth, cut out his little heart, and scattered his four quarters over the plain. Here we have the three days' fight and the son victorious at first, as in the Shah Nameh episode. It may be said that the outcome is not always tragic,^ and in many versions, instead of a son, it is a daughter who fights with her father. * See Ilya Murontetz and the Heroes of Kiev (Russian), by Orest Miller: St. Petersburg, 1S69, pp. 13 (note 32), 31, 35, etc. 32 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM In the case just cited, the mother, Hke Aiffe, is an Amazon, but elsewhere she is either mentioned by name only, or is said to have been a widow. In one of the Onega ballads^ Falcon says, ' I come from the blue sea, my name is Falcon, my mother is Natalya, but I know not who my father was.' ' You are my beloved son,' says Ilya. ' Come, cease fighting — better is it for us to eat and to drink.' And again,2 the child says : ' My mother is a widow, a calatch-baker. She brought me up, and when I grew mighty in strength she procured me a heroic horse, and sent me to holy Russia to seek my father and tribe.' Ilya kisses her sugar lips, calls her his beloved daughter, and says : ' When I was in the land of Talyansk, I stayed there three years and lived with the excellent widow, the calatch-baker, and slept with her in her swansdown feather- bed.' The girl is furious that he has called her mother a harlot, and herself the child of a harlot, and so decides to kill him. Not only in these Russian ballads does Ilya enter into relations with a woman of a foreign tribe, but it is expressly stated sometimes that she is a Tartar, and so we have him here, like Rustem, living with a woman of a hostile people.^ The other Russian story referred to is that of the prowess of the famous powerful knight Jeruslan Lasarewitch and the incomparable beauty of the Princess Anastasia.* ^ Ballads of Onega (Russian), collected by Hilferding, 2nd ed. : St. Petersburg, 1894-96, vol. i. p. 321. ^ Ibid. vol. ii. p. 41. ^ Ibid. vol. ii. p. 273. * Dietrich, Russisc/ie Volksmdnhen : Leipzig, 1831, p. 208. Trans- lated into English, Russian Popular Tales: London, 1856, p. 187, SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 33 Jeruslan Lasarewitch The hero, Jeruslan Lasarewitch rode, two, three months. Then he came to a white tent in which were the three beautiful daughters of the Czar Bugrior. He entered, took the eldest by the hand and ordered the other two to leave them by themselves. 'Beautiful Prodera,' said he, 'is there a fairer woman in the world than thou, a braver knight than I ? ' Then answered Prodera : ' My lord Jeruslan Lasare- witch, how can you call me fair ? In the city of Dobri, there is a maiden, the Princess Anastasia, and she is the most beautiful woman in the world. In comparison with her we are as night is to day. In the Indian kingdom of Czar Dalmat there is a knight named Irashka ; no one can pass by him, neither man nor beast. But what a knight art thou to drive us maidens out of the tent ! ' Jeruslan rose up in wrath, bent down the head of the princess and struck it off with his sword, and threw it under the bed. He asked the second princess the same question, and she too perished. The third princess paid the same tribute to Anastasia's beauty, but knew not which of the two heroes was the mightier. Jeruslan spared her life, bade her farewell and promised to return. After many adventures he went to the city of Dobri, which he rescued Vogl, Riissiscke Volksmdrchen : Wien, 1841, p. 213, etc. The prose Russian tales have a less specifically national and heroic character than the ballads. Busse (p. 22) following '^\.v^%oi {Vjestnik Evropy, 1868, p. 183 ff. ) considers this version to be a working over of the Shah Nameh, and of no independent value. While this is possibly true, it is by no means certain, and in my opinion the story decidedly merits quoting at length. 34 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM from the ravages of a dragon; the latter gave him a precious stone as a guarantee that he would never again attack the inhabitants. So great was the Czar's gratitude that he offered Jeruslan the rule of his kingdom and the hand of his daughter Anastasia. After the marriage had been performed, Jeruslan said to his wife : ' Tell me frankly, beloved one, is there a fairer woman in the world than thou, a braver knight than I ? ' ' Dear one,' said Anastasia, ' no one is braver than thou, but in the City of the Sun, in the country of the Amazons, the ruler, Polikaria, is so beautiful that in the whole world she has not her peer.' Night and day the Princess Polikaria was never out of Jeruslan's thoughts, and one morning he said : * Beloved Anastasia, I am about to ride away to a foreign land, to a foreign city. Take this gem which I won from the dragon, and if a little daughter be born to you give it to her as a dowry. If I remain alive, I shall return to you, but should I meet an evil death, have Masses sung for the welfare of my soul.' In spite of her tears, he rode away a nine-months' journey to the City of the Sun, When the Princess Polikaria learned who her visitor was, she took him by his white hands, and said : ' Mighty and brave hero, Jeruslan Lasarewitch, not alone shall you rule over my kingdom, but over me as well.' He took her by the hand, kissed her sweet eyes, and from that time dwelt with her. In the meantime Princess Anastasia had a little son whom they named Jeruslan Jeruslanovitch. When he was six years old he went to the palace to play, but the boys mocked him, saying : * Jeruslan, thou hast no father.' This pleased him little, and he beat them. When he SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 35 seized one by the head, his head fell off; when he seized one by the hand, his hand fell off; and when he seized one by the foot, his foot fell off. Then he went to his mother, and said : ' My dear mother, Anastasia, tell me truly, have I a father whom I know not ? ' With sighs and tears Anastasia answered : ' Thou hast a father indeed, the mighty hero, Jeruslan Lasarewitch, but he has gone to the City of the Sun.' Jeruslan Jeruslanovitch donned his armour in order to seek his father, and his mother gave him a golden ring in which was set the precious stone. One morning he arrived in the country of maidens. Jeruslan Lasarewitch, hearing the hero's voice as he lay in bed, called out, ' I hear that a young hero has entered my kingdom ; I will go out and slay him.' He ordered his horse to be saddled, took his shield in his hand, and his lance under his arm, and rode into the open field. The two heroes attacked each other like two falcons, and, as they met, Jeruslan Jeruslanowitch struck his father with the butt-end of his lance, and nearly threw him from the saddle. Jeruslan Lasarewitch cried : ' O youth, you jest ill ! ' A second time they met, and this time Jeruslan Lasare- witch struck his son with the butt-end of his lance, threw him from the saddle, and his horse pinned him to the earth. Then Jeruslan Lasarewitch turned the point of his lance downward, and was about to kill him, when he saw the ring on his finger. ' Young man, whence comest thou, the son of what parents art thou, and what is thy name ? ' When his son told him, he leaped from his horse, lifted 36 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM him up, kissed him upon his sweet eyes, pressed him to his breast, and called him his beloved son. Then both mounted their steeds and returned to the city of Dobri and Princess Anastasia. In these two Russian variants we have one of the characteristics of the English and French versions, the child espousing his mother's cause, and bringing his parents together once more. In one of the Ilya ballads cited above, the child wishes to kill his father, on account of the slur cast upon his mother,^ and in the case of Jeruslan, for the first time, so far, except in the tale of Tu-huruhuru, the son re-unites his father and mother. Interesting also in the Jeruslan story is the small hero's roughness; the same thing, and the instinctive feeling between parent and offspring, appear in the tale of ' Niir al-Din All, and his son Badr al-Di'n Hasan. '- NuR AL-DiN Ali and Badr al-Din Hasan Just before Nur al-Di'n died he directed his son to betake himself to Cairo, and ask for his uncle, the Wa Shams al-Di'n. He gave also a paper which would establish his identity. Now in the meantime, the Sultan of Egypt, because Shams al-Di'n had refused to give him his daughter, had ordered that she should marry a hunchback groom. Fortunately, a Jinnyah, who pitied the girl, saw Nur al-Di'n ^ Pjesiii, collected by Rybnikoff : Moscow, 1861, vol. i. p. 65. * The Book of the Thotisand Nights and a Night, Richard F. Burton, vol. i. p. 195, etc. See Wesselofsky, Slav. Archiv., vol. iii. p. 558, for roughness of heroes ; and cf. the stories of Christ's childhood in the Apocrypha Gospels. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 37 on his way to Cairo, and, struck by his beauty, carried him off sleeping to the Wazir's daughter as a substitute for the real bridegroom. He stayed but one night with the bride, for, before morning broke, the Jinnyah carried him off again to Damascus, clad in nothing but his nightclothes. When the Wazir came to his daughter next morning and heard her story, he examined the clothes and found the written paper which told him that his son-in-law was his own nephew. He took the garments and locked them up in safe keeping against the return of Badr al-Din Hasan, and when a son was born to his daughter he adopted him as his own child. The lad was named Ajib the Wonderful. His day was as a month, and his month was as a year ; and when seven years had passed over him, his grandfather sent him to school, enjoining the master to teach him Koran-reading and educate him well. He remained at the school four years, till he began to bully his school-fellows, and abuse them, and thrash them and say : ' Who among you is like me? I am the son of the Wazir of Egypt.' At last the boys went and complained to the monitor, who devised a clever scheme for the discomfiting of the child. When morning dawned, the boys came to the school, Ajib being one of them, and all flocked round him, saying : ' We will play a game wherein none shall join save he can tell the name of his mamma and his papa ' ; and they all cried : ' By Allah ! good ! ' Then quoth one of them : ' My name is Majid, and my mamma's name is Alawiyah, and my daddy 's Izz al-Di'n.' Another spoke in like guise, and yet a third, till Ajib's turn came, and he said : ' My name is Ajib, and my mother's is Sitt al-Husu, and my father's Shams al-Din, the Wazir of Cairo.' 38 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM ' By Allah ! ' cried they, ' the Wazir is not thy true father' . . . Then the boys all laughed and clapped their hands at him, saying : ' He does not know who is his father ; get out from among us, for none shall play with us except he know his father's name.' Aji'b's breast was straightened, and he was well-nigh choked with tears and hurt feelings. He ran to his mother and begged her to tell him who was his father. ' Do not lie to me,' he cried. ' The Wazir is thy father not mine. . . . Except thou tell me the very truth, I will kill myself with this very hanger,' When the Wazir heard of the insults of the boys, he took his daughter and grandson, and went in search of his absent nephew. Now the party came in time to Damascus, and it so happened that one day while Ajib was walking through the bazaar with his eunuch, he stopped before his father's cook-shop. When the so-called Hasan of Bassorah saw his son, his heart fluttered and throbbed, and blood drew to blood, and natural affection spake out, and his bowels yearned over him. He entreated him to enter his house and solace his soul by eating of his meat. When Ajib heard his father's words, his heart also yearned towards him, and he said to the eunuch : ' Of a truth, O my good guard, my heart yearns to this cook : he is as one that hath a son far away from him : so let us enter and gladden his heart.' They went into the shop, and Hasan ladled into a saucer some conserve of pomegranate-grains, wonderfully good, dressed with almonds and sugar. ' O my son,' quoth he, ' hast thou then been afflicted in thy tender years with parting from those thou lovest?' Quoth Ajib : ' Even so, O nuncle mine : my heart burns for SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 39 the loss of a beloved one who is none other than my father ; and, indeed, I come forth, I and my grandfather, to circle and search the world for him. Oh, the pity of it, and how I long to meet him ! ' When they were satisfied they went out, and Hasan followed them, for he could not lose sight of the boy albeit that he knew not that Ajib was his son. The boy perceived this, and was angered at the cook's persistence. He turned and looked at Hasan of Bassorah, and found his eyes fixed on his own, for the father had become a body without a soul ; and it seemed to Ajib that his eye was a treacherous eye, or that he was some lewd fellow. So his rage redoubled, and stooping down, he took up a stone weighing half a pound, and threw it at his father. It struck him on the forehead, cutting it open from eyebrow to eyebrow, and causing the blood to stream down ; and Hasan fell to the ground in a swoon, whilst Ajib and the eunuch made for the tents. When the father came to himself he wiped away the blood, and tore off a strip from his turband, and bound up his head, blaming himself the while, and saying, ' I wronged the lad by shutting up my shop and following, so that he thought I was some evil- minded fellow.' The story goes on to tell how Hasan's identity was recognised like Nala's in the Mahabharata by his skill in cooking, and how he was at length united with wife and child. Although this tale of Niir al-Di'n differs somewhat from the preceding stories, in all essential respects it is the same theme. It is true, husband and wife are related, yet they are 40 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM ignorant of their relationship, have never seen each other before the bridal night, and are almost immediately separated. Their child is insulted by his comrades, goes in search of his father, and when he does find him, through a misunderstanding wounds him. Odysseus and Telegonus In the next story, that of Odysseus and Telegonus,^ the combat is more conventional in form. Odysseus, returning home to Ithaka after the fall of Troy, landed with his companions in the Isle of Aedea, where lived the enchan- tress Circe. He alone resisted her charms and spells. As he was about to sla^ her, she clasped his knees, and said to him, 'Verily, thou art Odysseus, the man of many a shift, whom he of the golden wand, the slayer of Argos, full often told me was to come hither, on his way from Troy, with his swift, black ship. Nay, come, put thy sword into the sheath, and thereafter let us go into my bed, that meeting in love and sleep we may trust each other.' A full year abode he with her, and then left with his companions for Ithaka. Sometime after his return home, Telegonus, his son by Circe, appeared. He was seeking his father. As he plundered the island, Odysseus attacked him, and was mortally wounded by the sting of a ray, which Circe had given her son to serve as a spear-head. It is said that afterwards Telegonus married Penelope and Telemachus Circe. ^ Griechische Mythologie, L. Preller : Berlin, 1875 ii. pp. 468-9 ; and Odyssey, Butcher and Lang's translation, x. p. 164. The story would seem to have figured in the cyclic poetry of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., which occupies the same position towards Homer as the late Carolingian romances to the Chanson de Roland. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 41 One more story of this nature is told of Odysseus,^ only in it the son and not the father dies. After he had slain the suitors, Odysseus went to Epirus on account of some oracles, and while there seduced Euippe. She bore him a son who was called Euryalos. When he came to maturity, his mother sent him to Ithaka, giving him a token to establish his identity. As it happened, when he arrived, Odysseus was not present, and Penelope, becoming acquainted with the matter, persuaded Odysseus on his return, before he knew how things were, to slay Euryalos, on the pretence that he was plotting against him. Thus Odysseus became the murderer of his own son. An and Drisa A Norse variant, that of An,- resembles rather strikingly the story of Odysseus and Telegonus. An, when banished by King Ingiald, put up for a time at the house of an old man, and became intimate with the latter's daughter, Drisa. One day at the beginning of spring. An said to the father, ' It is not to be concealed that thy daughter is with child, and I am its father. If it be a girl, thou shalt bring it up here ; if it be a boy, send it to me. Here is a gold ring to be worn as a token.' Then An went away to the East, and the following spring he came to a town where lived a rich widow named Jorun. He served her first, and so well did he please her, that he finally married her, and became a wealthy and important man. ^ Favihenms Nicaaisis, Lipsiae, 1896; Mythographi Graeci, ii. i fasc. pp. 8-9. The second century Parthenius summarises earlier legendary romance. ^ Nordiske Kdmpadater, E.' J. Bjorner : Stockholm, 1737. The story, in its extant form, may date back to the fourteenth century. 42 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM One night, years later, he saw smoke arising on an island near the shore, and thinking that perhaps the king's men or thieves had come there to steal his possessions, hastened thither. When he reached the island, he saw there a man whom he did not know, sitting before a fire and eating out of a silver dish. Wishing to intimidate him, he shot away the piece of meat which he was about to put into his mouth. The stranger, unmoved, put the arrow down by his side, and took out another piece. An shot once more, and the silver dish was cut in two. A third time he split the handle of the man's knife. The stranger then arose, saying, 'This man wishes to destroy my things — he must be punished,' and he placed an arrow in position. An sought for protection behind a tree. Had he stood before it, the three arrows would have struck him in the middle of his body, in the breast and in the eye. Then the two men fought together. An was the first to need a rest. He asked the opponent his name, and learned that he had been contending with his own child, the son who was born of Drisa. The two men went back to An's house. Jorun received the new-comer well, and told her husband that he was better off than she had thought. In the Kjalnesinga Saga^ we have another variant of the formula more tragic in character. Here, as in the case of Odysseus and Circe, the woman makes the advances. Bui and FrkIr Bui came as an ambassador from Harold to King Dofri. Not only was he kindly received by the latter, but by his 1 islendinga Sogur, 1847, vol. ii. p. 395, etc., like the preceding of the thirteenth or early fourteenth century in its extant form. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 43 daughter as well. When night came he went with her to her room. Fridr said to him, ' It may seem to you that I speak like one eager to marry, Bui, but which would you rather do, lie alone, or sleep with me ? ' Bui said, ' It is lonely to sleep alone, and I prefer that we should be together.' ' So shall it be, Bui,' said Fridr, and they lay down together. Bui abode with Dofri all winter, but when summer came, it was time to return. Fridr said to him, ' It has come to pass, Bui, as I said to thee, that I am with child by thee, and now will I say what will happen in the future : if a girl be born she Avill remain with me, if a boy I will send him to thee when he is twelve years old. Thou must do well by him ; if thou failest, it will go hard with thee. How- ever it may be with me, fare thee well.' After that, they parted. A boy was born to Fridr : he was named JokuU. When he was twelve years old he went north to Eyjafjorth, and in the morning went to see his father. He said, ' It has been told to me that thou art my father. Fridr is my mother, the daughter of King Dofri.' Bui said, 'That is not a likely tale that thou art my son ; it has seemed to me that our offspring would be a strong fellow and thou art rather a weakling.' Jokull said, ' I have not many winters behind me, but my mother bade me to say to thee as a sign, what she had said to thee, that it would go hard with thee if thou didst not accept my friendship. Bui said, ' I never heard thy tale before, and it strikes me as unlikely ; it is my wish that we fight, because thou art not our son if the stuff of a man be lacking to thee.' Jokull said, 'That is a thing unheard of, that I, but twelve years old, should fia;ht with thee.' 44 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM They went east to a place under a hill, armed themselves for the combat, and fought hard, but neither fell. Bui was a strong man. Jokull said, ' Let us strive no more, but accept my friendship.' 'Nay,' said Bui, ' one of us must fall' They fought once more, and Bui fell wounded. Then Bui said, ' Thine errand here has not been a seemly one, but thou hast shown thyself the equal of a man, and now a tale about me will go out among men . After that he was borne home on a red shield, and lived three nights, and afterwards died. Jokull thought his work so ill that he immediately rode away to the ship which was being prepared at Eyrarbakk, and went out there for the winter. In this story of Bui, father and son really know each other ; only the former's stubbornness will not allow him to recognise the boy until he has tried him. The same painful position of the child appears in the Indian version contained in the Mahabharata?- Arjuna and Chitrangada While Arjuna was wandering in exile he came to the city of Manipura. There he saw Chitrangada, the daughter of King Chitravahana, and desired to marry her. When the king heard his request, he said, 'Only one child is born to every successive descendant of my race ; my ancestors have each had a male child, but I possess ^ Mahabharata, English translation : Protap Chandra Roy, Adi Parva, s. ccxvii. ; A9vamedha Parva, s. Ixxix. In its extant form, this poem represents the accretions of fully eight centuries, from about 400 li.c. to 400 A.D. SOHRAB AND RUST EM 45 only a daughter, therefore one amongst the sons begotten by you upon her, O Bharata, shall be the perpetuator of my family. If you choose, you can have her with this understanding.' Arjuna accepted the conditions of the king, married Chitrangada, and lived with her for three years. AVhen she at last gave birth to a son, he embraced her affectionately, and taking leave of the king set out on his wanderings again. After the close of the great war on the holy field of Kurukshetra, between the Pandus and the Kurus, when Arjuna was going about the country as the protector of the sacrificial horse, ^ he came once more to the city of Manipura. The ruler, Vabhruvahana, hearing that his sire had arrived, went out humbly to meet him. Far from being pleased, Arjuna exclaimed angrily, 'Thy conduct is not becoming, and thou hast certainly fallen away from the duties of a warrior. I have come here as the protector of Yudhishtira's sacrificial horse. Why, O son, wilt thou not fight me; thou actest like a woman.' Ulupi, Arjuna's Naga wife, hearing the words of her husband, arose from the waters, and ordered Vabhruvahana to fight with his father. Greatly against his will, the son donned his armour, and in the ensuing combat, Arjuna was slain. The terrible grief of Chitrangada and Vabhruvahana was ended by Ulupi's bringing the dead man to life again with the magic gem of the Nagas. ^ A horse of a particular colour was consecrated by the perform- ance of certain ceremonies, and was then turned loose to wander at will for a year. The king, or his representative, followed the horse with an army, and when the animal entered a foreign country, the ruler of that country was bound either to fight or to submit. — Dowson, A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology, p. 28. 46 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM We come now to a number of variants in lais, romances and remaniements of epics, French, English and Spanish, where the form is hardly as primitive as it seems to be in the previous cases. They are not to be passed over, since they follow the formula very closely, and it is by no means unlikely that some among them contain old and important elements. Particularly is this the case in the /ais of Doon and Milun, and possibly also in the story of Gawain's encounter with his son, Doon In the ' Lai of Doon,' ^ it is said that the knight Doon married a maiden of Edinburgh. The fourth morning after the marriage, he had his horse brought to him, told his wife that he longed to return home, and commended her to God's care. Her grief and reproaches were of no avail. 176. ' Car tart 11 est du departir ; "Dame," fet il, "je m'en irai ; Ne sai se mes vos troverai. Vos estes engainte de moi, Un fils avrez, si con je croi ; Mon anal d'or li garderoiz ; Quant il ert granz si li donroiz, Bien li conmandez a garder, Par I'anel me porra trover." When the boy grew up, he was sent to France, was there knighted, and in a tournament in Brittany jousted with his father. ^ Romania, vol. viii. p. 59, etc. This/az, in its extant form, belongs to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 47 228. ' Le filz a le pere abatu : S'il seust que son pere fust, Molt li pesast que fet I'eust,' After the close of the tournament Doon sent for the young man, and asked to see his hands. When he saw the ring he knew that he had been fighting with his son ; they returned to England together. 278. ' Li filz a le pere mene A sa mere, qui molt I'amot Et durement le desirrot.' We have in this /«/, a not infrequent feature of these stories, the father's gift of clairvoyance as to the future birth of a son, and also the child bringing its parents together again after their long separation : the latter appears in rather a droll manner in the lai of Milun.^ Milun was the bravest of knights. In his country there was a baron, whose daughter, hearing of his prowess, fell in love with him, and sent him word of her affection. Some time later a boy was born to them. Milun took him to his sweetheart's sister in Northumberland with a ring hung around his neck, and a letter in which — 79. ' Escriz i iert li nuns sun pere, E I'aventure de sa mere.' The lovers then parted for years ; she to marry another man, and he to fight in different lands. When the boy grew up, his aunt gave him the ring and the letter, and he went in search of his father. Such fame ^ Die Lais der Marie de F)-ance, Karl Warnke : Halle, 1885, p. 152, etc. Marie versified her lais from existing stories, 1150-1175. 48 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM did he win in tournaments that Milun's one desire before he tried to find his son was to overthrow the strange knight. They met, and Milun was unhorsed. He caught sight of the ring on his opponent's hand, and asked him who he was. Recognition was brought about, and both went home to the mother, whose husband had very fortunately died. When they arrived — 527. ' lur fiz amdous les assembla, la mere a sun pere dona. En grant bien e en grant dulgur vesquirent puis e nuit e jur.' A variant of great interest in spite of the lateness of its form is the story connected with Gawain, found in the twelfth century Conte du Graal. Wandering one day in the forest, he came to a beautiful pavilion, in which was seated a young girl. When she learned that he was Gawain she said — 12,118. ' Amis, fait elle, h bandon Vos mec mon cors et vos present M'amour ^ tous jors loiaument.' Her offer was accepted, and before he departed 12,134. ' Le terme li noma et dist Que il requerre le venra Et ensamble od lui I'enmenra.' Years afterwards, he met and fought with the son who was born of their ephemeral union. Such was the lad's prowess, that his father marvelled at it and asked his name. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 49 The boy was unable to give it, and could only say that at home he was called — 20,671. ' Le neveu son oncle, et messire Me faisoit issi h tous dire ; Maintes fois me conta ma mere Qu'ele ne sot nomer mon pere El castel, por le grant damage Ou'il avoit fait de son lignage.' ^ Of less importance, but to be mentioned here for the sake of completeness, is a second encounter in Claude Patin's romance, L^histoire de Giglan, filz de messire Gauvainr' We are told that once when Giglan had just arrived at Arthur's Court, a maiden appeared accompanied by a strange knight with closed visor, who wished to exculpate himself of having killed Gawain by treason. Giglan demanded and obtained permission to avenge his father. They fought until the strange knight raised his visor and showed that he was Gawain himself. Especially interesting in the story of Gawain's first fight with his son, is the boy's remark that he had always been called 'his uncle's nephew.' Twice before we have had the mother's brother mentioned; the first time, it is Zendeh, Sohrab's uncle ; the second time, Rupe, uncle of Tu-huruhuru. It will appear again, and deserves notice as being a point of considerable importance. Interesting also is the fact that while in this instance the mother offers herself freely to Gawain, when the latter tells the story to his uncle. King Arthur, he gives a different version ; he says — 1 Perceval le Gallois, ed. Potvin, 6 vols. : Mons, 1865-71. ^ Histoire Littiraire, vol. xxx. pp. 197-8. D 50 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 17,094. ' Sire, si grant outrage fis Qu'k force le despucelai, Cains por son plorer nel laissai ; Ele faisoit .1. duel si grant C'onques a nule rien vivant Tel vie ne vit nus mener.' This violation of the girl occurs also in Richars li Biaus ^ and two other variants, the Ider ^ and Sir Degarre. The abstract of the story in Richars li Biaus is as follows : — Clarisse, daughter of the king of the Frisians, while sleeping in her garden, was violated by a passing knight. Her child, when born, was exposed, and found by a baron who chanced to be riding near by. When he arrived at maturity the baron was anxious to have him marry his daughter, and his wife said — 719. ' Car nulle riens tant ne desir, Mais c'unne nuit peust iesir Awec ma fille, si c'un hoir Peust de lui ma fille avoir.' When Richart learned that he was an adopted child, he went in search of his parents. First he found his mother, and later in a tournament unwittingly jousted with his father. The latter on being unhorsed was asked to recount one of his adventures and told of his having violated Clarisse. Richart full of joy brought him home to his mother — 41 1 5. ' Richars prent par le poing sa mere. Si le donna Loys son pere, 1 Richars li Biaus, Wendelin Foerster : Wien, 1874. " Histoire Littiraire, vol. xxx. p. 201, etc. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 51 ,1. archevesque a on mande, Se li a Richars commande Que les noches fache. Si fist.' The story of Ider resembles closely that of Richart. Ider was born in the city of Cardueil as the result of the violation of a young girl by a strange knight, who disappeared immediately after the deed, and remained unknown. At the age of eighteen years, Ider, learning the circumstances of his birth, left home to find his father, and bring him back to marry his mother. Among his many adventures, he fought unwittingly with his missing parent, a German duke named Nuc. The latter had always desired to find the girl whom he had wronged, and was delighted to find in his son the noblest knight in the world. Shortly after Ider's marriage, he accompanied the young couple to Cardueil, and married the mother of his child. A very similar variant of the theme is that of Sire Degarre.^ A princess of England while in a forest was violated by a fairy knight. The latter, on parting, left her a sword with a broken point. 113. ' Lemman, he seide, gent, and fre, Mid schilde I-wot that thou schalt be ; Siker ich wot hit worht a knave, Forthi mi swerd thou sschalt have ; And whenne that he is of elde, That he mai himself bi-welde ; Tak him the swerd and bidde him fonde. To sechen his Father in eche land.' Later he sent her a pair of gloves which she alone could ^ Sire Degarrt, Abbotsford Club Publications, 28 : Edinburgh, 1849. 52 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM wear. These with a letter she placed upon her son when she abandoned him near a hermitage. The boy grew up and was sent by the hermit to seek his mother. He fought in tournaments, overthrew his grandfather and finally married his mother. Before the consummation of the marriage he tried the gloves upon her and discovered who she was. He received the broken sword and once more started on his wanderings, this time to find his father. On entering a certain forest he was challenged by a strange knight, and fought till his opponent noticing his sword ^ called for a truce and asked him who he was. Degarre, though unable to state who his father was, gave his name to the great joy of the other. 1057. ' Certes Ich am Fader thine ; And bi thi swerd I knowe hit here, The point is in min aumenere.' Degarre took his father to his mother — 1 100. ' And soone after sykerlye The Knyght wedded that Lady.' In the story of Degarre, we have two new elements : the supernatural character of the father and a hint of the Vergogna theme. Both are of not uncommon occurrence in the Father and Son Combat stories, and the latter appears in much the same form in the romance of Sir Eglamour of Artoys. Sir Eglamour, a poor knight, fell in love with Crystabelle, ^ See for part played by sword, Fr. Kauffmann, Das Ilildebrandslied, Festgabefiir Ednard Sievers, p. 164: Halle, 1896. ' Ellis, Early English Metrical Romances, 1848, p. 527 ; Bishop Percys Folio Mantiscript, vol. ii. p. 338, etc. ; also Thornton Romances, ed. Halliwell, p. 121, etc. SOHRAB AND RUST EM 53 daughter of Count Prinsamour. Her hand was promised to him provided he could accomplish three feats. So successful was he in performing the first two that he and his sweetheart anticipated the marriage ceremony, and before he returned from his third adventure Crystabelle gave birth to a son. Her indignant father put both her and her child on board a ship to be carried away from his kingdom. The mother eventually landed on the shores of the kingdom of Egypt, whose monarch fortunately turned out to be her uncle, and the boy was carried off by a dragon to Israel, where he was brought up by the sovereign and given the name of Degrabelle. Years later he won the hand of his mother in a tournament, but discovered his true relationship to her in time. In another tournament, he fought with Sir Eglamour, who had given up his wife as dead, and who had been wandering about the world fighting unbelievers. In the combat — ' . . . syr Egyllamowre turnyd hys swerde flatt, And gafe hys sone soche a patte, 1240. That to the erthe he ys gone.' The recognition in this case is delayed till the dinner, when Eglamour discovers the identity of his wife. One more story, that of Jan ut den Vergiere,^ follows almost exactly the same Hnes. Robrecht, Count of Artois, fell in love with Isabella, sister of King Louis of France. She became pregnant, and the count decided to take her to his country. On the way there she gave birth to a son, and her lover was obliged to leave her in an inn, and the * Sammhing Bibliothekswissenschaftlichen Arbeitcn^ herausgegeben von Karl Dziatzko, 8 Heft, 1S93, P- I7» etc. 54 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM boy in the garden of the Emperor of Rome. Isabella was carried back to her brother, while her child was brought up by the Emperor and given the name of John of the Garden. One day he was called a foundling, and learned that he was not the Emperor's son. He immediately decided to seek his father. After many adventures, he came to Aquitaine, and was there challenged by an old knight, who was angered because Jan bore his arms. The old knight was van- quished. He asked Jan to tell him his name, and learned that he had been contending with his own child. All doubts were dispelled by his producing the half of a ring to which the youth supplied the missing part. As usual, the story ends with the union of the long-separated father and mother.^ As might be expected in that joyous, cynical epic or romance, Bauduin de Seboiirc"- whose hero has children scattered about in every country through which he has passed, we find another variant. ' Or dirai dou Bastart comment il s'ariva Car de son p&re vir durement desira.' " The Bastard of Sebourc and a number of his half-brothers armed themselves and left their homes to find Bauduin. On their way they rescued the lady Oriande, who was about to be burned by the orders of her husband, Thieri. ^ In all these stories, dating back as they do to the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the possibility that they are hack minstrels' variations on a traditional theme, and that the differences have no independent evidential value, must be borne in mind. - Le Romans de Bandttin de Seboiirc: Valenciennes, iS6i. ^ Vol. ii. p. 397. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 55 Thieri was killed, and Bauduin decided to avenge him. The bastards meet him and his men. 555. ' Dont i vont, li bastard, chascuns lance abaissie : A lor p^re assalir, qu'il ne connoissent mie.' ^ A single combat was arranged between Bauduin and the Bastard of Sebourc, in which the latter was worsted. In another French romance, in Tristan de Nanteuil,^ the hero came to the palace of Walerant, comte de Saines, the evening before the latter's daughter, Clarisse, was to marry a traitor named Persant. Clarisse immediately noticed him, and as promptly sent him meats and her golden goblet full of wine. Later she sent him her ring with the message that he should not depart without her permission She also arranged for him to come to her, and that night was engendered Grevesson, later called Garcion, When morning came she rather tardily asked him his name, and learned, with a surprise not shared by those familiar with the conventional romance machinery, that she had been sleeping with her cousin. They sepa- rated without delay, and years later, when Garcion had come to manhood, he met his father in battle and wounded him mortally. 'Who art thou?' he asked. 'Thou hast killed Tristan, the son of Guy.' 'A brave knight has brought him to his end ; I am called Garcion.' ' Come forward and kiss me — I forgive thee for slaying me. I am thy father, Tristan, son of Guy of Nanteuil.' ^ Vol. ii. chap. xxv. 555. ^ Paul Meyer, 'Notice sur le roman de Tristan de Nanteuil' in the Jahrbuch fiir Romanische und Englische Literatiir, vol. ix. pp. 353 and 396. 56 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM In the English romance of Sir Generydes ^ we once more have a heroine who does not hesitate to make the frankest advances. Aufeniis, King of India, while hunting one day was separated from his friends, and came to a house where he was kindly received by a 'fayre mayde.' She told him that she had come thither with an old man, the wisest of the seven sages of Rome, and added, ' to telle the mater playne.' 107. ' Of every trougth and make no more delayes, This night thcr shall be goten betwix us twayne A child that shall do mervelys in his dayes.' The child was begotten, and the next day the king and the maiden Sereyne separated. In time, Sereyne, who shortly afterwards had become Queen of Syria, gave birth to a son christened Generydes. One day the boy, who had been brought up by a nurse, asked who his father and mother were. The queen hearing of it, sent for him, and informed him, but told him to keep the matter ' husht and pece.' The lad later served his father without disclos- ing his identity, and finally fought against him in an opposing army. Though there was no actual encounter, the poet must have been thinking of similar situations, for he says : 2182. ' But of on thing he had no knowlaching, That his fortune was suche withoute lese To figtit ayenst his sone Generydes.' A variant contained in the Morte d'ArlJu/r," in that 1 Generydes, ed. by W. Aldis Wright, E. E, T.: London, 1873-8. - Le Morte d' Arthur, Bk. xi. ch. ii.-iii.; Bk. xiii. ch. xvii. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 57 portion of the work based upon the thirteenth century Roman de Lancelof, is of interest on account of the role played by the girl's father. After slaying the dragon, Lancelot went to the palace of King Pelles and feasted. 'Fayne wold kynge Pelles have fond the meane to have hadde syre Launcelot to have layne by his doughter fayre Elayne. And for this entent, the kinge knewe wel that syr launcelot shold gete a chyld upon his doughter, the which sholde be named sir Gala- halt, the good knyghte by whome alle the forayn countrey shold be broughte oute of daunger and by hym the holy graale shold be encheved.' Dame Brysen brought this to pass by her magic, making Lancelot believe that he was sleeping with Queen Guinevere. When Lancelot discovered the imposture the next morning he would have slain Elayne, had not her entreaties, and her telHng him that she had in her womb a child by him who would be the noblest knight in the world, induced him to spare her. One day, when Sir Galahad had arrived at maturity, he met, on leaving the Castle of Maidens, Sir Launcelot and Sir Percyvale. ' Ryghte so syr launcelot, his fader, dressid his spere and brake it upon Sir Galahad, and Galahad smote hym so ageyne that he smote doune hors and man.' In this case the recognition does not occur till much later. From time to time, in these stories, the combat between father and son is brought about by the father's wishing to try the mettle of his son, or the latter's desiring to prove himself worthy of his father's affection. We have seen this already in the tale of Bui. It is evidently reason of Gawain's second fight with Guinglain, and there is a trace 58 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM of it in the Cuchulainn stories. It also appears in a marked manner in the Regina Ancroja.^ Renaud, on his way back from the Holy Land, rested at a castle belonging to the Saracens. While there he fell in love with Constance, the king's wife, and had by her a son, called Guidon le Sauvage. When the boy grew up his mother revealed to him the secret of his birth, and gave him a ring which would convince his father of his identity. Guidon went to France to seek him. Wishing to show himself worthy of Renaud, he challenged and vanquished many of Charlemagne's knights, until his own father came forward as his adversary. For a time the ensuing combat was equal, but, finally, seeing that he was about to be beaten. Guidon leaped to the ground, opened his visor, and said, ' If we are not among savages {e7i pleine barbaric) you will be courteous enough not to refuse to embrace me.' For the sake of completeness, mention should be made of two variants found in the Spanish Romances, in Las Sergas del Caballero Esplandian^- where again the father tries to prove his son's valour, and in Amadis of Greece? There remain now, before beginning with the second class, a number of versions, already referred to, and antici- pated in the story of Sir Degarre, where the father is not an ordinary mortal. He is a god, a gnome, a giant or magician, and in four out of the six cases he wishes to test his son. Again, four of the versions have the merit of being older or more popular in character than the pre- ceding ones. ^ Du Meril, Histoire de la Poisie Scandinave, p. 423. " Chapter xv. ^ Dunlop, i. p. 36S. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 59 The oldest of this sub-division of variants is probably that told of Hercules and Zeus.^ It is said that when Hercules founded the Olympian Games, he challenged any one of those present to come forward and meet him. As no one dared, Zeus appeared in disguise. According to one account the combat was indecisive, but Nonnos says that the father consented voluntarily to acknowledge himself as vanquished. The theme is also connected with Alexander the Great. According to the Pseudo-Callisthenes,- the Egyptian Nectanebus persuaded Olympias, the wife of Philip of Macedon, to lie with him, making her believe that he was the god Ammon. The offspring of their amours was Alexander. One night, when he was twelve years old, Nectanebus took him out to show him the stars. In the course of conversation Nectanebus told him that he him- self was to perish at the hands of his son. Whilst his eyes were fixed on the heavens, Alexander mercilessly pushed him over into a pit, and taunted him, saying, ' I blame thy lack of knowledge in that thou didst say that thy death would happen by the hands of thy son, and thou didst not know that thou shouldst die by my hands.' Then Nectanebus said, ' I did indeed say that I should die through my son, and I have not lied in what I said, ^ See Liebrecht, Ziir Volkskiinde, p. 406, quoting Tsetzes, Lye. 41. — 'E;/ T£Jj K'arapxas oh reOhri Trpwrijj dywi't 'HpaA;\T7S irpoeKaX€no els TToKyjv Tov ^ovkbfxevov. ov8ev6s 8e roXfiuPTos 6 Zei)s iraXaLcrTri eiKaadels ffwifXL^ep 'HpaK-Xet. Kal fJ-ixPh toXXoC' ttjs irdXrjs iVoTraXous yevo/jL^vTjs 6 Zevs (pavepol iavrov rQ iraidL " Pseudo-Call., ch. Ixxiv. inc. I have introduced some details from The History of Alexander the Great, being the Syriac version of the Ps.-Cal. by Ernest A. Wallis Budge, Cambridge, 1889, especially pp. 15 and 16. 6o SOHRAB AND RUSTEM for thou, thyself, art my son.' Alexander, moved by tardy affection, carried his father out of the pit and buried him as a son should do. Of the more modern variants that of Ortnit and Wolf- dietrich ^ is decidedly important. Ortnit longed to leave home in quest of adventures. When he parted from his mother, she gave him a ring, in which was set a precious stone of great virtue. This ring he was on no account to give to any one, and should he go to a certain linden- tree, it would provide him with adventures to his heart's content. Ortnit went there and found a little child, richly dressed, and to all appearances about four years old. II. lOl. ' Er wolde in zuo dem rosse in kindes wise tragen. des wart im zuo der briiste ein grozer slac geslagen.' Man and child struggled together until the latter, weak with laughter, was overcome and on the point of being slain by Ortnit. Then the little dwarf, who was none other than Alberich, promised him gold and jewels, and merely asked for the little ring. Ortnit handed it over to him on the condition that he should return it. As soon as Alberich got it, he immediately vanished and taunted Ortnit, but soon returned it, with the stipulation that he should not be angry at what he was told. He then informed him that his mother had had two husbands at the same time, calming his fury by adding that the king and queen had long been childless. ^ Ortnit und die Wolfdietriche, herausgegeben von Arthur Amelung und Oskar Janicke : Berlin, 1871. This poem belongs in its extant form to the thirteenth century. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 6i II. 171. ' Ich gedahte in minem muote und stirbet nu der man, So wirt zehant verstozen diu frouwe wol getan.' II. 172. ' An ir schoenem bette si eines tages saz. Si wunscht nach liebem kinde, ir ougen wurden naz.' II. 173. ' Do stuont ich vor ir bette und hort waz si do sprach. da von wart ich ir gwaltic, daz si mich nicht ensach.' The interesting feature in this variant is the case of a man's raising seed upon another man's wife from disin- terested motives. It is lacking in another version of the theme, which otherwise resembles it closely, in the Robastre and Malabron episode of Gaufrey.^ Robastre, watching at night by the body of Aliaume in Castle Perilous, is attacked by a lictin, who first enters the coffin and strains him to his breast, making use of the dead man's arms. Then he appears successively as a horse and as a bull. Finally, in the morning, he appears as a gallant youth. ' I am your father,' he says to the delighted Robastre. ' Your mother died when you were born, and you were taken to Berart de Vaucomble.' The fight here is purely a test of the son's valour, as it seems to be an episode in Perceval le Gallois,^ a variant of Gawain and the Green Knight. Eliavres, like Nectanebus, by the aid of magic, sleeps three nights with the wife of King Caradoc. The offspring is christened Caradoc, brought up as the king's son, and ^ Gaufrey, ed. M. F. Guessard : Paris, 1859, p. 167, etc. The poem belongs to the late twelfth century. ^ Perceval le Gallois, Potvin, iii. p. 117, etc. This part of the Perceval dates from the late twelfth century. 62 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM sent to Arthur's Court. There, one day, a strange knight appears and offers to allow any one to cut off his head, providing he shall be permitted to return the compliment at a later date. Caradoc performs the feat. At the ap- pointed time Eliavres comes back, but instead of behead- ing him, takes him aside and acquaints him with the particulars of his birth. One more story remains, an excellent one too, in which the father is not an ordinary mortal. It occurs in a Kurdish tale entitled the ' Leprous Prince.' * A certain prince, while travelling with his wife and two judges, was attacked by a giant, who bound the men in the party and threw them into a cistern. The woman he carried off and lived with her as his wife. Sometime later a merchant discovered the prince and his friends, and drew them out of their prison. Their first thought was to return home, but they finally decided to look for the wife. When found she was pregnant by the giant. She escaped with them, and when her child was born, it was brought up as the prince's own son. He inherited his father's strength, and was so strong that no one could overpower him. The giant on returning home and discovering his mistress gone, went mad and sought her from town to town. At last he came to the town where the prince lived, and killed three of its inhabitants. Word was carried to the prince that there was a giant before the gate who was killing his people. The prince had his supposed son called, and said, ' Go, there is a giant before the gate ; he has come to clean 1 Ktirdische Sanwilungen. Ersti Abtheilung. Erzdhlungen und Lieder in den Dialekteti des T{tr 'Al>din, etc., Eugen Prym und Albert Socin : St. Petersburg, 1S87, p. 32. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 63 out the tower ; go and kill him.' Thereupon the young man seized a sabre and went out to meet the giant. When his father saw him, he recognised that it was his son. His hands became powerless to wueld the sword. The youth, who was entirely ignorant of the identity of his opponent, killed him. When he returned home, he announced to the prince: 'Father, I have killed the giant.' ' Good, my son,' answered the prince. One of the most interesting examples of the formula is a ballad of the Transylvanian Gypsies published by Wlis- locki.^ While many of the conventional episodes are lack- ing, it belongs, decidedly, as I shall attempt to show later, to the class of the preceding variants. I give it in the form presented by Wlislocki : - ' Auf der Aue, auf der Flur Folgt ein Knab des Mannas Spur. Folgt ein Knab dem Wandrer sacht, Der ein Tuch mit sich gebracht. Und der Knab ihn todtet bald. In dem finstren, oden Wald ; In des heil'gen Flosses Fluth Wirft er ihn mit freschem Muth : Ach ! er hjitte nicht gedacht, Dass den Thagar er umgebracht. Drauf der Knab im raschen Lauf Sucht das Weib Bakilo auf, Froh das Tuch der Mutter zeigt. Die erstaunt sehr lange schweigt, Ihren Sohn drauf laut verflucht : " Werd' vom Ungliick heimgesucht ! 1 Eine Hildebrand:- Ballade der transylvanischen Zigeuiier von Heinrich von Wlislocki, p. 7. ^ Cf. the poem of 'Edward,' Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, vol. i. p. 169 B. 64 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM Hast den Vater umgebracht Ihm geraubt sein Thagartuch." ' We have now come to the end of the first class of stories, where the father meets the mother away from home and where the union is more or less ephemeral. In the second class, which contains some very noteworthy variants, the marriage, whatever it may have been in previous versions of the stories, resembles our own present system. The husband marries at home, and to all appearances the union contracted is meant to be permanent. As I have stated before, I have divided this class into three subdivisions : first where the father is called away from home, usually in war service, and is perhaps captured ; second, where wife or child, or both, are banished or stolen ; and third, where the child is exposed on account of inauspicious auguries. Of these three subdivisions the most important is by all odds the first, and I shall begin with a modern German translation of the famous Hildebrajidslied. As is well known, the oldest version, that of the eighth century, is a fragment which leaves the outcome of the combat uncertain. ' Ich hoerte dasz erzahlen dasz sich herauszforderten einzein zum Kampfe Hildibrand und Hadhubrand zwischen zwei heren. sohn und vater sorgsam ihre riistung richteten, sie bereiteten ihre kampfhemde, giirteten sich ihre schwerter an die helden iiber die ringe (panzer), da sie zu dem kampfe ritten. Hildibrand sprach, Heribrandes sohn — er war der weisere mann, des lebens der altere — zu fragen er begann mit wenigen worten, SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 65 wer sein vater waere in der menschen volke, "oder welches geschlechtes kind du seist. wenn du mir einen sagst, weisz ich mir die andern. im konigreiche ist mir kund alles Irminvolk." Hadhubrand sprach, Hildibrandes sohn, " dasz erzahlten mir unsere leiite alte und weise die langst hinnen fuhren (starben) dasz Hildibrand hiesze mein vater. ich heisze Hadhubrand. einst zog er ostwarts — er floh Odakars hasz — hin mit Dietriche und seiner degen vile, er liesz im lande hiilflos sizen dasz weib im hause, dasz kind unerwachsen. erbenlos (ohne erbfolger) liesz er zuriikke sein volk. seit Dietrich der verlust traf meines vaters, so war dasz ein freiindloser mann. er war auf Odakar ohne masz erziirnt, der degen werdester. mit Dietriche war er staets an des volkes spize, ihm war staets gefecht zu lieb. kund war er kiihnen mannern. nicht waehn' ich dasz er dasz leben hat." "Zum zeugen ruf ich Irmingott," sprach Hildibrand, " oben vom himmel dasz du mit so verwantem manne streit nie fiihrtest." da wand er vom arme gewundene reife ausz keiseringen gemacht, wie ihm sie der Hune herr gab. — " disz ich," sprach er, " Hadhubrand, dir nun ausz huld gebe." Hadhubrand sprach, Hildibrandes sohn, "mit dem gere (spere) soil der mann gabe empfangen, spize wider spize. du bist dir ein alter Hun, ohne masz schlauh lokst du mich mit deinen worten, willst mich mit deinem spere werfen. du bist so gealtet, mein' ich, dasz du ewig trug fiihrtest. dasz erzahlten mir sefahrer dasz man krieg vernahm von osten iiber den wendelse, tot ist Hildibrand, Heribrandes sohn." E 66 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM Hildibrand sprach, Heribrandes sohn, " weh nun, waltender gott, wehschiksal geschiht ! ich wallte der sommer und der winter sechszig als fliichtling, wahrend man mich staets stellte in dasz volk der schiizen, ohne dasz man mir bei einer burg (statt) den tod bereitete. nun soil mich dasz eigne kind mit dem schwerte hauen, hinstrekken mit seinem beile, oder ich ihm zum toeter werden. doch magst du nun leicht, wenn dir deine kraft taugt, an so altem manne riistung gewinnen, raub erbeuten, wenn du da einig recht hast." " Wol seh' ich," sprach Hadhubrand, "an deiner riistung dasz du hast da heim einen guten herren, dasz du nicht wurdest fliichtling unter seiner herschaft. " Der sei doch nun der schlechteste," sprach Hildibrand, " der ostleiite der dir nun kampf weigere, da dich des so sehr liistet. dasz gemeine kriegsrecht versuche der kampf, wer von beiden sich der gewander heiite mdge riihmen oder diser briinnen (panzer) beider walten." Da begannen sie erst mit den eschen (speren) zu streiten unter scharfen stoeszen dasz sie in den schilden stunden. dann schritten sie zusammen die steinbortspalter, hiewen entsezlich die weiszen schilde. bisz ihnen ihre linden (schilde) zerstiikkelt wurden, kampften sie mit den schwertern.' ^ Two things are striking in this fragment : first, the son, when asked for his name, gives it freely, and the tragedy of the situation is heightened by the fact that the father has knowingly to fight his own child, on account of the latter's obstinacy and distrust ; second, there seems to ^ Dasz Hildebrandslied, herausgegeben von Al, Vollmer und K. Hofmann, p. ii. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 67 me to be an implied reproach, worth noticing, in the boy's saying that Hildibrand had left his wife and child helpless behind him. Quite different in tone is the version contained in the Thidrekssaga.^ There Hildibrand, when he sets out to return home, is counselled by Konrad to address his son Alibrand courteously when he meets him. To prevent any mistake arising, Konrad also gives an accurate description of the youth's appearance. Hildibrand laughs and says, ' However mighty my son may consider himself, it is very possible that, old as I am, he will give his name before I do.' On his way to Berne the father meets his son, and as he fails to bow at all, Alibrand rides at him. Both fight hard until they are obliged to pause for a rest. Alibrand asks his opponent's name. Hildibrand says that he will not give his first. Once more they fight, rest, and question each other. The third time they fight the son is wounded, and offers his sword. As Hildibrand puts out his hand to receive it, Alibrand tries to cut it off. ' A woman, not your father, taught you that stroke,' cries Hildibrand, and this time he gets him completely at his mercy. ' If you wish to preserve your life, tell me immediately whether you are my son, AUbrand. If so, I am your father.' The youth confesses that he is Alibrand, the two men embrace each other, and ride home to Frau Ute, Hildibrand's wife. The next morning, after a night of great joy at the reunion, father and son ride away to Berne. ^ Thidrckssaga, pp. 406-409. This work is a thirteenth century re-telling by an Icelander of continental Teutonic hero tales. 68 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM In the VoJkslied ' Vom alten Hildebrandt.'^ Hildebrandt, in answer to the Duke Amelon's counsel, says — ' Rennet er mich denn ane, in solchem iibermut, ich zerhaw jhm seinen griinen schild, es thut jhm nimmer gut, ich zerhaw jhm seine bende in einem schirmenschlag, das er ein gantzes jare seiner mutter zu klagen hat.' He meets his son, who asks him what he seeks in his father's land. After an exchange of the usual amenities they fight. ' Ich weis nit wieder junge dem alten gab ein schlag, das sich der alte Hildebrandt von hertzen sehr erschrack, er sprach (sprang) hinder sich zu rucke, wol sieben klaffter weit, nun sag du mir viel junger, den schlag lehrt dich ein weib.' The son resents the imputation, and says that there are knights and squires in his father's land ' und was ich nicht gelernet hab, das lern ich aber noch.' Hildibrand seizes him by the waist, throws him down and makes him confess that he is his son. They return home, and Hildibrand convinces his wife of his identity by that old epic device of dropping a ring in a goblet. The song of Kaspar von der Roen, 'der vater mit dem ' Die deutsche Heldensage, August Raszmann : Hanover, 1858, vol. ii. p. 646. The Volkslied belongs to the fifteenth century in its present form. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 69 sun,'^ elaborates a little the preceding. For instance in the fight — * Der jung, der gab gar palde so gar ein herten slagk, das Hilprant der alte von herzen ser derschrack. Zurucksprang hin der junge zweintzk Klafftern mit seim leib; Hilprant sprach; "dissen sprunge, denn leret dich ein weib.'" * Lert ich von weiben fechten, das war mir immer schandt : ich han(s) von rittern, knechten, in meines vaters land, von freien und von greffen, an meines vaters hoff, mit schwert, degen und glessen, der ich mich noch bekloff.' When the boy sees his mother after the fight he thanks her for teaching him the leap and the stroke. This in- cident, of course, reminds one of Conlaoch's studying the feats of dexterity ; and the leap recalls those wonderful salmon leaps of the Irish heroes. Hildibrand's seizing his son by the waist is not unlike Ilya's treatment of his son, and we have again the conventional asking of the name three times before it is given. Another German version is that of Biterolf und Dietleibr Biterolf leaves his wife and two-year-old son to visit Etzel, the report of whose greatness has filled him with curiosity. So long is he absent that his wife believes him to be dead. When Dietleib is a lad, it is said that — 2032. 'dem kinde tete daz dicke we : swa er ander kindel bi im sach, ir etelichez "vater" sprach ; so fragte er ie der maere w4 sin vater waere.' ^ Die beiden dltesten deutschen Gedichte, etc., Briider Grimm: Cassel, 18 1 2, p. 49, etc. - Biterolf und Dietleib, herausgegeben von Oskar Janicke : Berlin, 1S66. The poem belongs to the late twelfth century. 70 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM He runs to his mother, and learns from her about the departure of his father from home. Like the usual epic hero, he makes up his mind to find him. He takes his father's left-off armour, and leaves with three companions. At last he reaches Etzel's land, where Biterolf is staying under an assumed name. In a warlike expedition which is made, father and son meet each other, and not recognising that they belong to the same side, fight bitterly, until separated by Ruedeger (11. 3632-3681.) While exchanging blows — 3692. ' der alte sich do wol versan, do er gehorte den klanc des swertes scharf unde lane, deme geliche getan daz er da heime hate Ian, an ir beider klange.' Here was an opportunity for recognition, but it was not till later that that was brought about. Father and son seem to have been instinctively drawn together, like Hasan and Ajib. Ruedeger, noticing how often 4083. ' si weliselten doch dicke vil giietliche blicke,' has his suspicions, makes them both tell him who they really are, and then brings them together. Eventually Biterolf returns home to Dietlinde. In the Russian story of King Saul and his son, Con- stantin,^ the husband leaves his wife with more reason than Biterolf, and we again have features noted before in the variants, Jeruslan Lasarewitch and Nur al-Di'n. ' A. Wesselofsky, Beitrdge ztir Erklarung des russischen Helde- nepos, Archiv fiir Slavische Philologie, vol. iii. p. 589, etc. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 71 King Saul left home with an army to fight three king- doms, the Latin, the Lithuanian, and the Saracen. He told his pregnant wife that if she gave birth to a daughter, she must bring her up well, if a son, she must send him to him when he was nine years old. A boy was born. When he was seven years old he was as strong as a twenty-year-old youth. At school, whenever he touched a playmate by the hand, the hand fell off; whenever he trod on any one's foot, the foot was separated from the body. Princes, nobles, and merchants complained to his mother. The lad himself asked her who his father was, and when he learned went in search of him. The Saracens, hearing of his approach, released King Saul, who had long been a prisoner, and sent him to fight the new comer. The combat was long and indecisive. Finally the father threw his son to the earth, knelt upon his white heart, and demanded his name. 'Not upon my side was God's help during the fight,' said Constantin. ' Had I won, I should have hewn off thy head from thy mighty shoulders. A father I had named Saul, son of Leo, who left to win three kingdoms — but he has vanished.' King Saul wept, raised his son by his white hands and said, 'Welcome, heroic youth — I am thy father.' Con- stantin wrote a letter, and sent it by a messenger to his mother. ' Rejoice, mother,' it said, ' I have found my father.' Two other variants, where the father is imprisoned, come from Siberia. In the first, the Song of Sain Batyr,^ the ^ RadlofF, Prohen der Volkslitteratur der tilrkischen Stdninie Sud-Siberiens : St. Petersburg, 1870, vol. iii. p. 205, etc. 72 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM hero, fearing lest he may be called uxorious, rides forth with forty followers to attack an army of Kalmucks. So intoxicated is he with his strength that he fails to call upon God to stand by him. As a result he becomes weak and defenceless, and is led away into captivity. The forty followers return home with the bad news. Thereupon his two sons, with an old friend named Kublanda, go out to rescue him. One of them, Kiijiik Bai, has just sacked a Kalmuck village, when — 1768. ' Da kommt ein Mensch geritten, Eine Fahne halt er wie eine Jurtendachdecke, 1772. Da sprach der Held Kublanda : " Kiijiik Bai, Held, geh dort bin ! Was fiir ein Feind ist es (sieh nach) ! Reite von vorn und hinten um ihn herum ! " Darauf Kiijiik Bai Stiess wie ein kleiner Falke umher, Ergrimmt, um ihn zu fassen, Ritt er ihm entgegen. Da kommt Er Sain, Lebendig geworden auf der Todesstatte. Die versammelten Kalmak Werde ich wohl trefifen ? dachte er ergrimmt, Kiijiik Bai kennt diesen nicht, Denkt nicht, dass es sein Vater, Das junge Kind zog gegen den Vater. " Du Haupt der Hunde-Herzen ! spricht er, Dies ist deine Todesstatte ! " Sich stemmend, legt er die Lanze ein, Seinen Vater, den Sain, Kennt dieses Kind nicht. Da sprach Sain, der Held : "Ich bin dein Vater Sain. Komm, lass uns ein ander begriissen, Bist du gesund ? " spricht er.' SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 73 The son begs his father's pardon, and is forgiven. The second Siberian variant is the ballad of Joloi and his son Bolot.i The hero is made drunk and cast into a pit. While in this condition, his wife, Ak Saikal, gives birth to a boy, who is called Bolot. She flees with the child because Joloi's sister and her paramour are so cruel. Bolot grows up away from home, returns, and kills the sister and her paramour, and then with a companion, named Tschetschan, seeks his father. 4061. ' Als sie auf den Hiigel kamen, Biickten sie sich nieder, schauten, Kan Joloi, der Bergesgleiche, Kam da kampfend hergeritten. Sprach da wieder Er Tschetschan : " Dieser Riese, der da her kommt, 1st es nicht dein lieber Vater ? 4071. Sieh, der Vater ohn' Erbarmen, Ich will hinter ihn dann reiten, Wenn dann seine Eisenlanze Deinen Korper trefifen will. 4077. Will die Lanz' in seiner Hand Aus der Achsel ihm dann reissen, Hier erwarte deinen Vater ! " Da erhob sich Er Bolot, Spie sich da in seine Hande, Legt' die Lanze in die A-chsel, Trieb dann an den braunen Hengst, Briillte heftig da Joloi, Schiittelte sein machtig Haupt, Hinter Kan Joloi, dem Helden, Ritt in Eile Er Tschetschan, ^ Radloff, Proben der Volkslitteratur der nordlichen tiirkischen Stdmme : St. Petersburg, 1885, vol. v. p. 372. 74 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM AIs er sah Bolot, den Helden, Da schrie Kan Joloi gewaltig : . . . 4093. " Jiingling, komm' du her zu mir, Lass uns kampfen, da die Herzen Hammergleich im Busen schlagen, Da die Pulse machtig hammern Lasa uns jetzt im Kampf erproben, Zerrend uns wie junge Stiere, Rollend auf die Hosenbeine, Lass im Ringkampf uns versuchen." Lachend sprach da Er Bolot : " Soil den Vater treffen mit der Lanze?" Warf zur Seite seine Lanze. Da erhob sich Kan Joloi, Schwang gewichtig seine Lanze, Fiihrte nach Bolot die Lanze, . . . 41 1 1. Schlug die Lanze Er Tschetschan Ab da mit gewucht'gem Schlage.' Joloi turns upon Tschetschan, who calls to Bolot for help. Meanwhile the steeds of Joloi and Bolot, who are old friends, recognise each other. 4124. ' Jener Hengst und Atsch Budan, AIs sie Beide sich begriissten, Auf den Hals des Atsch Budan Legt der braune Hengst den Hals.' Joloi now recognises Tschetschan, and asks who the youth is. 4155. ' Held Bolot ist's, euer Sohn ! Finden will ich meinen Vater, Will den Atsch Budan besteigen, Sprach Bolot und kam hierher.' SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 75 Joloi embraces Bolot — 4160. 'Von dem Pferde den Bolot Schloss er in die Arme, sprach ; " O, du trauter Held Bolot, Hab' ich wirklich ihn erzeugt ! Mit dem Kocher sich umgiirtend 1st er meiner Spur gefolgt?"' After the first rejoicings are over, Joloi and his son return to the mother. The son's throwing his lance aside, and the father's failing to understand the hint, are, of course, reminiscent of the combats in the Jeruslan Lasarewitch, and one of the Cuchulainn versions. The hot haste of the father to attack the son appears again, and with better cause, in a Servian song,i where the boy Ivan, after killing a Turk, clothes himself in the latter's garments, and rides home. The mother, seeing the supposed Turk approach, believes that her son is slain, and the old father goes out to punish the murderer. His pain and grief over his sup- posed loss make him deaf to Ivan's cry, ' Father, I am no Turk. Father, I am your own Ivan.' At last the father finds out the truth, fortunately before any mischief is done. An interesting variant, not so easy to classify, but which may be placed here without impropriety, is a Greek popular song, entitled ' Tsamathos and his Son.' 2 ^ Orest Miller, Ilya Murometz, pp. 49-50, " IIbo CenKOBnii d ara ox PuOuuKa." ^ Greek Folk Poesy, by Lucy M. J. Garnett : David Nutt, London, 1896, p. 253. 76 SOHRx\B AND RUSTEM ' Among the plane-trees of St. George, a merry feast they 're keeping, Dances on this side and on that, and songs and music playing. A thousand sheep from first to last they for the feast are wasting. O eat and drink, I say, my boys, and dance and sing full gaily, And let not Tsamathos come here, let him not come and fright us I But hardly had the words been said, when Tsamathos ap- proached them. As he came out from 'mid the hills, and to the feast descended. He strode, the hills with fear did quake ; he called, rent were the forests. And on his shoulders as he came he bore a tree uprooted ; And from the branches of the tree were many wild beasts hanging. Then suddenly the dancing stopped, upset were all the tables. And to one side withdrew the folk, and stood in fear and trem- bling. " Who here a breast of marble has, and who has hands of iron ? Let him to wrestle with me come on the threshing-floor of marble." But not a man of them was found, not one, himself who offered. Saving the Widow's Son alone, the Widow's nimble youngster. Forward to come and wrestle there on the threshing-floor of marble, Beneath the tread of Tsamathos, the marble floor sank lower ; And where the youngster placed his feet, it sank, and disap- peared. Where fell the blows of Tsamathos, the red blood flowed a river ; And where the youngster's blows did fall, the bones were cracked and broken. " Stay, then, I say, lithe youngster, stay, I 'd ask of thee a ques- tion — What skyla mother did thee bear, and who was then thy father ? " SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 77 " My mother when a widow left, birth to me had not given ; But to my father like am I, and I will yet surpass him ! " Then Tsamathos did seize his hand, away with him did hasten To seek the mother of the youth, to learn where was her dwelling. The Widow watched them as they came, and set a table ready, And as they ate and as they drank, the Widow filled their wine cups. She filled her son's with rosy wine, but Tsamathos' with poison.' If the foregoing seems to belong more properly to the little group of variants where the father is supernatural, though this may be the case, it should be borne in mind that the extraordinary powers of Tsamathos are common property of nearly all Russian, Greek, Kurdish or Siberian heroes. We now come to several cases where return of the father from a long absence resembles more closely the first version in this second class. In a little Chinese play entitled y^^ Kuei's Return,^ the hero, a Chinese Hildebrand, has been obliged to flee from his country and remain absent from his wife and child eighteen years. One day the wife, Lin-ying-fang, asks her son, Ting, to go forth and spear a few fish or shoot a goose at Ho-wan. While the lad is hunting he sings — P. 81. ' In the world there are thousands of lads poor as me. But, excepting myself, never once did I see A fatherless lad. Oh ! what have I done ? I know not my father, he knows not his son ! ' The father now gallops in, and observing the boy's skill ' The Jade Chaplet, George Carter Stent : London, 1874, p. 72. 78 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM is jealous. He asks his son for the bow and arrow, and then shoots him. Afterwards he says : ' Well, well, I might have spared the lad, but it would never do for a soldier like me to allow another to live who was so much my superior in the very weapons I excel in.' He then pro- ceeds to the house of his wife, and finally persuades her that he is her husband. While she is trying to make him comfortable, he notices a pair of shoes on the floor, which he concludes to be her paramour's. He is furiously jealous, but Lin convinces him that they belong to the son. ' At the time you left I was pregnant, and you had often said, should I ever be- come a mother, if our child was a boy he should be named Ting-shan ; if a girl, she should be called " Golden Lily." These are Ting-shan's shoes.' Jen asks where the boy is, and falls senseless to the earth on learning that he has killed his son. The incident of the father's mistaking his son for his wife's paramour appears in other stories,^ especially in those where a man, on returning home, thinks twice be- fore he gives way to his wrath. For instance, in the Armenian story of the * Poor Widow's Son.' - a man leaves his wife to go in search of wealth. After many years he returns, and, before entering his home, climbs up a tree and looks in. He sees his wife and son sitting on a sofa and embracing each other. Fortunately, before shooting them, he listens to their conversation, and learns the true facts of the case. A more tragic tale is the following Turkish one, given ^ See Liebrecht, Ziir Volkskunde, pp. 212, 213. 2 The Golden Maid, A. G. Seklemian : Chicago, 1898, p. 141. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 79 by Radloff.^ A prince is treacherously deposed by a Kalendar. His wife is stolen by a merchant, one of his sons is abducted by another man, and the other is carried away from him down stream. In his wanderings he comes to a city where the ruler has just died. Pie is chosen king, and, later, his two sons are given to him as slaves. This time no instinctive feeling pro- claims the relationship. One night the prince invites a merchant to spend the night with him, and sends his two sons to guard the man's property. While watching together, the boys pass the time by narrating their adventures. They recognise each other as brothers, and the merchant's wife, who is no other than their mother, overhears them, and joins in their rejoicing. The merchant, when he returns, sees the trio, and complains bitterly to the prince. The latter has the youths beheaded, and finds out afterwards what he has done. As in the case of Arjuna and Vabruvahana, the tragedy is not irremediable, since a hermit restores the children to life. Another similar example of hasty action occurs in the 'Tale of the Merchant and his Sons.'^ A merchant sails from home, leaving his wife big with child. He is away so long that his wife goes in search of him, accompanied by her two sons. One day the latter go to the sea-shore to make some inquiries of the merchants and captains as to the whereabouts of their father. While there they go on board a ship and play among the bales. A merchant, who ^ Radloff, Probe7t der Volkslitteratiir der Nordlichen Tiirkischen Stamme: St. Petersburg, 1886, vi. p. 157. This story also contains the Robert of Sicily theme. - Supplemental Nights, p. 73. 8o SOHRAB AND RUSTEM is none other than the object of their search, annoyed by their shouts, and suspicious of their having stolen his purse, flogs them and throws them overboard. The mother, troubled at her children's long absence, comes down to the harbour, sees her husband, and learns from his lips what he has done. The father cries out in despair, ' I have destroyed my children with my own hand ; I shall never enjoy my life until I light upon news of them.' The rest of the story describes the wanderings of the parents and children, who were not drowned, and the final reunion of the family. We come now, as we did in the first class, to a number of variants where it is difficult to tell how primitive the form is. The first of those is the well-known romance, Olger Danske} Olger like Saul is a captive of the Saracens, and is sent out to fight his own countryman. King Morgulant calls out from the walls of his besieged city for the noblest knight among the Christians to come forward and meet his champion. Olger's son. Gaiter, steps out and accepts the challenge. In the fight which ensues between parent and child, a tragic issue is averted by Gaiter's recognising his father's voice. The same means of recognition appears in the romances of Demantin - and Guillauine de la Barre. In the former, the old knight Gander meets his long-lost son, Geraut, and 1 Olger Danskes Kronike, Kjobenhain, 1842, pp. 211-214. This is a loose rendering of German chap-book rifacimenti of late French Carolingian romances. The particular episode in question does not seem to be contained in any extant French texts. ' Demantin von Berthold von Holle, herausg. von Karl Bartsch {Stuttgart Lit. Verein, cxxiii), pp. 14S-9. SOHRAB AND RUST EM 8i without any preliminary exchange of courtesies, the two men fight. 4880. ' di gast sprach " Alyen munt di sal mich trosten, daz is war, baz dan ich or nu zwenzig jar mit ungemache habe unberen." " der willich dir noch geweren, du salt von or getrostet sin. son, ich binz di vater din." " sit ir di vater min genant, herre, so tut mir bekant von wannen comet ir geretin. daz ich kein uch habe gestretin, daz solt ir, herre, mir vorgebin. saget mir ab si beide lebin Alie und di muter min, adir ab si vorstorbin sin."' Similarly in the fourteenth century Provengal romance Guillaiime de la Barrel a father meets his son, after a separation of years, in single combat, but here, as in Olger Danske, it is the father's voice which is recognised. Three times the son has the father at his mercy, but spares his life because the latter calls out, like Rustem . . . 4383. ' Cavalier, garda que faras. Que, quan ayci murtrit m'auras. No faras degun vassalage ' ; and again, 4442. ' Layssa mi, cavalier, levar, E faras gran cavalaria.' ' Gtiillatime de la Barre, Roman d'Aventures, par Arnaut de Cas- telnaudari : P. Meyer [Socii^t^ ifAnciens lextes Fran^ais), Paris, 1895. 82 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM A minute later he runs upon the youth, crying — 4453. ' " Barra, Barra ! que Dieus o vol ! '' El filh I'entendec y ac gran dol.' 4470. ' Payre, turn volguist enjendra [r], E yeu soy le tieus verays fils, Qu'avem passatz mans greus perils E quet laysse[i] el bosc mieg mort Quan li. xii. lairo per fort El bosc t'aneron assautar.' 4482. ' El paire I'a ploran gardat, E vay son capel delassar E vay lo en ayssi bayzar Que sobre lui ca engoyssatz.' Occasionally the combat is merely a bit of rough horse- play or wrangle of words. This is the case in the thirteenth century French epic, Macaire, and an Irish variant, to which attention has been called by Mr. Alfred Nutt. In the Macaire,'^ the peasant, Varocher, at the close of the war, suddenly remembers that he has left behind him in the forest a wife and two children. He goes to visit them, and, before reaching his hut, meets his two sons walking along with their backs bent under a heavy load of wood. 3536. ' Ouant a sa mason el se fo aprosme, En me la voie oit du ses fils trove, Que venoit del bois cun legne ben carge. A lor s'aprosme, de doso li oit rue. Quando li enfant se vi si malmene, Cascun de lor oit grand baston pile, Verso son per s'en vont aire, Feru I'averoit, quant se retrase are . . . " -Bel fils, fait-il vu no me conose, ^ Hisloire Litt&aire, vol. xxvi. pp. 373-387. SOHRx\B AND RUSTEM 83 Vestre per sui, qe a vos son tome Et tant avoir vos dono amase Richi en seres en vestra vivete, Zascun sera zivaler adobe." ' While there is no actual fight here, the situation is the same, and once more we have a man testing his son, though, in this instance, it takes the form of a rough practical joke. The story of the meeting of Finn and Oisin, from a manuscript of the fifteenth century, as given by Mr. Nutt in his 'Problems of Heroic Saga' (p. 128), published in the volume of the International Folklore Congress, 1891, resembles greatly the incident in Macaire. Finn O'Baisne was seeking his son Oisin throughout Ireland. Oisin had been a year without any one knowing his whereabouts. He was angry with his father. Then Finn found him in a waste cooking a pig. Finn upset it and gave him a thrust. Oisin seized his weapons. He did not recognise him at once. Then Finn said that it was a foolish thing for a young warrior to fight with a grey man. The combat which ensues is one merely of words. Finally, in closing this group of variants, it should be said that in two French epics belonging to the late Carolingian cycle we have instances of a number of sons fighting against their respective fathers. In Gui de Bourgogne the fathers prepare to fight with their sons, and in a similar situation in Gaydon the sons are victorious. The variants of the second sub-division, where separation is brought about by some mishap befalling the child or its mother, or both, are found in nearly every case in late epics and romances, and are of minor importance. One 84 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM fairly good popular version is the Greek ballad of Andr6- nikos, which I shall give in Miss Garnett's translation in Greek Folk Poesy. ^ * The Saracens are pillaging, the Arabs, too, are harrying They're harrying Andr6nikos,his wife, too, they take with them. Nine months within her bosom then had she her baby carried, And in the prison brings it forth, and nurses it in fetters. When one year old he grasped a sword ; when two a lance he wielded : And ere his third year he had passed was held to be a hero. Forth goes he, and his fame is great, and no one him can daunten, Not even Peter Phocas ; no, nor even Nikephoras.' He comes upon some Saracens practising leaping, laughs at them, and asks them to test his strength. They bind his hands, sew up his eyes, place three quintals of lead on his shoulders. ' To ope his eyes he then essays, the three-fold threads are broken ; His infant hands he does but move, the iron chains fall from them ; His baby shoulders then he shrugs, the leaden weight has fallen. . . .' As he rides off his mother calls to him — ' " My son, if to thy sire thou'dst go, tarry, that I may charge thee : The tents of other men are red, a black tent is thy father's. Unless thou art adjured three times, do thou not quit thy saddle."' ^ Greek Folk Poesy, by Lucy M. J. Garnett : David Nutt, London, 1896, p. 230, etc. SOHRAB AND RUST EM 85 The boy arrives at his father's tent, and kicks it, because he sees no door. Andronikos comes forth and addresses him : '"Ah! baby boy and younker bold, now say who are thy kindred? Tell me of what stock thou art come, and say what is thy birthplace." " If three times thou adjure me not, I will not leave my saddle." " If, youngster bold, I draw my sword, then well will I adjure thee ! " '• And if thou shouldst draw thy sword, my sword can I not draw too ?" " If, youngster bold, I seize my spear, then well will I adjure thee ! " " And if thou shouldst seize thy spear, my spear can I not seize too?" " Now may the sword I girded wear, which cuts both for- and backwards. Be plunged within my heart if I should do thee any evil I" ' The boy leaps from his saddle and tells his story. ' In tears is bathed Andronikos, as he on him now gazes. His folded hands he lifts to heaven, and thus his God he praises : " To Thee, I praises give, sweet God, twice and three times I praise Thee, I was a lonely sparrow-hawk, two sparrow-hawks have I now !"' The combat here, of course, like those of Finn and Varocher, is little more than a mild altercation. We have once more a child precocious in years and strength. Among the cases of the stolen child in late epic and romance literature, where it is so very common, the first 86 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM one I would give is the fight between Bernier and his son in Raoul de Camhraiy Julien, the son of Bernier, was stolen and brought up by the Emir of Cordova, under the name of Corsabre. Bernier later joins the forces of King Corsuble in a war with the Emir. In one of the melees father and son meet. When Bernier first sees his opponent, he is greatly attracted by him. 7768. ' Si se laissast lever et baptisier ! Plus I'ameroie que nulla rien del ciel.' This does not prevent the two men, who should have been charn'es ar?ii, fighting bitterly. They are soon sepa- rated, however, and it is not till sometime afterwards that they find out their true relationship. It must be said that here and in the variants which immediately follow, the combat is a minor episode of no particular importance. It appears in much the same way in the Montage Ray- 7iouart. We are told in the late Carolingian romance entitled the Montage Raynouart^ that on the marriage night of Raynouart and Aelis,^ ' . . . f u Maillefers engendrez, Li plus fors ome qui de mere fu nes. Mais a sa mere en fu li cuers crevez, Trais fu del cors par endeus les costes. Por ce qu' a fer fu de mere getez, Fu en baptesme Maillefer apelles.' ' Kaoul de Cambrai, public par P. Meyer et A. Longnon {S. des A. T. F.): Paris, 1S82. In its present form, the poem belongs to the early twelfth century. '^ Hist. Lilt.f vol. xxii. p. 531. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 87 This son was later stolen by the dwarf, Picolet, and carried over to the Saracens, with whom he grew up to manhood. In his last years Raynouart entered the Abbey of Saint JuHen de Brioude,^ but left for a time in order to fight against his own son, who came at the head of a pagan army. He fought with Maillefer, and none too successfully. Before any great harm was done, however, recognition was brought about, and Maillefer was converted. Very similar is an incident of Othonet in the story of Florent and Octavien. Othonet is stolen by merchants of Aumarie, and brought up by the King of Palermo. In an expedition against Rome, the boy unhorses his father twice outside the walls, but is later captured, and his identity established by means of a cross upon his breast.^ In the thirteenth century poem of IVigamilr, the hero, stolen when a child by the mermaid Lepia, is later appointed to meet in a duel his father. The latter, a king, declines to fight with another monarch's subject. Wigamtir re- counts the events of his life, and is recognised by his father. No duel takes place.^ The most curious instance of the employment of the theme is that of the French poem Maugis.'^ The work fairly swarms with encounters between fathers and sons, nephews and uncles, and brothers. The two children of Beuves d'Aigremont are carried off by Saracens. One of ^ Hist, Litt., vol. xxii. p. 539. - Ibid. vol. xxvi. pp. 330-332. ■^ Deutsche Gedichte des Mittelalters, herausgegeben von Hagen and Biisching, vol. i. pp. 41-44 of the poem. '' Revue des Langues Ro7nanes, vol. xxx. pp. loi, 111-112 ; Castets, Recherches sur les chansons de gesie. 88 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM them, Maugis, is brought up by the fairy, Oriande; the other, Vivien, by an auma<^or. When they once become strong enough to carry arms, they turn them against every possible relative. Here we are only concerned with the meetings between father and son, and in this regard Vivien alone is singularly unfortunate. The first time he attacks his father their horses are killed under them, and Beuves is carried off by his knights. The second time he is about to cut off his head, when King Ysore advises him to refrain, as it would exasperate the Christians too much. Finally he is captured by Beuves and a piece ol paile and a gold earring prove that he is the long-lost son. When he learns the truth he cries out in remorse — ' " He las ! chetif, dolent or devroie desver Ouant ai fet mon chier pare traveillier at pener." ' In the romance of Tristrati de Nanteuil} Gui de Nanteuil loses his son Tristan. The latter is brought up by a deer, and after rather an inglorious childhood, on account of his extreme cowardice, he distinguishes himself by attacking his father. The recognition does not come till much later. In the same poem another son of Gui is exposed, and during his childhood is called a bastard, with the usual results. At the close of the work, as I mentioned before, Tristan is killed by his son Garcion. The Eastern story of the ' Ten Wazirs," or the History of King Azadbaklit and his Son,' begins like Tristan de ^ ' Notice surle Roman de Tristan de Nanteuil,' par P. Meyer, /rt//r- huch fiir Rum. itud Ei7g. Litteratur, vol. ix. * Burton, Supplemental Nights, vol. i. p. 55. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 89 Nanteuil. The king is dethroned, and escapes with his wife. On the way she bears a son, which is left to its fate. It is found by bandits, and brought up by them. Later, he is brought to his father, now prosperous again, and becomes a great favourite with him. On account of a court intrigue he falls into disgrace, and is ordered to be crucified by his father. As the cross is about to be raised, the Captain of the Thieves rushes forward and embraces him. A cloth in which he had been wrapped when left behind establishes his identity. As might be expected, there is a case of a stolen child, followed by a combat between father and son in the Amadis Romances. Leandro, son of Lepolemo, is stolen by two lions, and brought up in the island of Bel. Accord- ing to Gayangos,^ the book ends 'con un combate, cuerpo a cuerpo de Leandro con su padre.' Possibly another variant is to be found in the ' F16ris kongs saga og sona bans,' a later Icelandic adaptation from the French, which tells how Floris lost his wife and three sons (Felix, etc.), and how he captured the latter under the names of Unus, Secundus, and Tertius.- Before beginning with the variants in which the child is exposed, there are four in which the son, or the son and the mother, are banished. Mstislaw, son of Prince Vladimir, is loved by the beautiful Swetlana, who in turn is loved by the father. The latter in his rage banishes Mstislaw, who leaves the court with his sweetheart. While escaping, they meet in a forest a warrior, who demands that Swetlana be given over to him. In the ensuing fight Mstislaw, with a stroke of his sword, ' Gayangos, Libros de Caballerias, Discurso prelitninar, liii. - Ward, Catalogue of Romances., p. 846. 90 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM opens the helmet of his adversary and discovers that he has been fighting wrth his father. ReconciHation follows.^ In the second of these, Floovant,^ on returning from a long exile, caused by some mischievous pranks, helps his father, Clovis, who is besieged by Galien and the Persians. In the midst of the fray they do not recognise each other, and fight. Only the warning cry of a bystander prevents the son from decapitating the father. In Parise la Dnchesse,^ the wife is obliged to leave her husband. Her little son is stolen from her and brought up at the court of Hungary. The king offers him his daughter's hand, but the lad, because he is despised by the nobles as an enfant trouve, wishes first to seek his parents. He first finds his mother, and then soon afterwards fights with his father. The latter marvels at his beauty, and like the father of Ajib the Wonderful, is instmctively drawn to his son. He is unhorsed, but is not killed by his child, who has known the identity of his opponent. He simply lets him understand that he is the champion of his wronged mother. The English poem of Sir Tryamour * is very similar. The wife is banished on a charge of adultery, and received kindly by a Hungarian knight who also brings up her son. Marjy years later, in a tournament held for the hand of the ^ V. Busse, Filrst Wladimir und seine Tafeh-unde. I am indebted to Bruno Busse for this variant. See Sagcngeschichtliches zum Hilde- brandesliede, p. 22. - Floovant, Chanson de Gesie, ed. by Michel and Guessard : Paris, 1838, II. 2463-2485, p. 75. This twelfth century poem embodies reminiscences of a pre-Carolingian cycle. ^ Parise la Duchesse, ed. by F. Guessard and L. Larchey : Paris, i860, p. 65. This is one of the later Carolingian romances. •* Bishop Percy's Folio 2MS., vol. ii. p. 78. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 91 Queen of Hungary the son fights with his father, who appears among the suitors. The recognition in this case does not ensue immediately. We come now to a number of variants already mentioned in which the child is not stolen, but exposed on account of some inauspicious augury. The most famous of these is of course the Greek story of Oedipus and Laius.^ Laius, son of Labdaeus, being without heirs, went to consult the oracle of Delphi. He was advised to avoid having any children, because if one should be born, it would kill him and marry its mother. Laius forgot the oracle, and his wife became pregnant. The infant when born first had its feet pierced and then was exposed on Mount Cithaeron near Thebes. He was rescued by keepers of the horses of King Polybus, and brought up by that monarch's wife Peribea. The name of Oedipus was given to him on account of his pierced feet. As he grew up he was so much stronger than his comrades that he excited their jealousy and was called a bastard by them. Irritated at not being able to make them cease their insults, and at not obtaining any explanation from Peribea, he went to Delphi to consult the oracle there as to the secret of his birth. The oracle gave no satisfaction, but warned him not to return to his country, where he would kill his father and have intercourse with his mother. In the meantime Laius had gone to Delphi to consult the Pythian oracle, and at the crossing of two roads he met his son traveUing on foot, and insolently ordered him to get out of the way. Oedipus refused, and being struck by 1 I have used here and in the story of Judas, the versions given in La Ligende d'QLdipe, par L. Constans : Paris, 1S81, p. 24, etc. 92 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM the charioteer, dragged Laius from his seat and slew him as well as his companion. Later Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx and married his mother Jocasta. In mediaeval literature the same story is found connected with Judas. ^ At Jerusalem lived Ruben Simeon of the race of David. His wife, Cyborra, dreamt that she would give birth to a son, who would bring misfortune upon his family. The child when born was exposed in a box to the mercy of the sea. He was carried to the island of Iscariot, and there brought up by the queen as her own son. Later the queen had a child of her own, which was so maltreated by Judas that she reproached him for being a foundling. He was so enraged at this news that he killed the queen's son, and embarked for Jerusalem, where he succeeded in pleasing Pontius Pilate. One day Pilate was seized with an irresistible desire to eat some apples which were in a garden beneath the balcony. Judas hastened to get them and killed the proprietor, an old man, who tried to prevent the theft. As a reward for his good services Pilate bestowed upon Judas the dead man's property, and the hand of his widow, who was no other than Cyborea. It was not long before the incest was dis- covered, and the unfortunate man threw himself at the feet of Christ, confessed his sins and became a disciple. Later, his evil nature again asserted itself, and he betrayed his master.^ Another similar story is a Finnish one,^ in which two ^ Constans, p. 95, etc. The legend quoted above is from the thirteenth century Legenda Aurea. " The tale being a late literary adaptation, I give it rather for com- pleteness than for its value as evidence. ^ The Folk- Tales of the Magyars, Rev. W. Henry Jones and Lewis L. Kropf. The Folk-Lore Society, xiii., 1889, p. 307, etc. See variants on pp. 309-310. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 93 seers pass a house where a lamb and a child are about to be born. They prophesy that the lamb will be devoured by a wolf, and that the boy will murder his father. The man and his wife are horrified, but finally persuade them- selves that the prophecy is false. Later, the lamb is killed and made into a broth. While the couple are eating it, the meat, which had been placed in the window to cool, is devoured by a wolf. Fearing that the rest of the prophecy will come true, the father ties his child to a plank and throws it into the sea. The boy floats to the shore near a monastery, where he is brought up by the abbot. When he grows up he comes back to the mainland and seeks employment at the home of his mother. She sends him to the field to look after some turnips, and gives him a bow and arrows to shoot any person who should try to take any of them. The boy's father soon appears, fills his arms with turnips, and is killed. Later, the son marries his mother, and discovers who she is too late. In a south Slavonic story,^ two men make similar predic- tions. A king's wife gives birth to a son. Two beggars over- hear a fairy prophecy that the child will kill its parents when he is twenty-two years old. They inform the king of what they have heard, and ever afterward the queen weeps over her son. One day the boy learns from her lips the cause of her sorrow. To prevent the prediction coming true he goes into the forest, makes a fire, and throws himself into it. Unfortunately, his heart is not consumed, and a girl passing near by inhales the odour from it and is soon after delivered of a son. The child grows up and goes to live ^ Un uomo Bruciato e poi Rigenerato, Legende Serbo-Croate, by M. Dragomanov in Archivio per h Tradizione ropulari,\o\. xii. pp. 275-276. 94 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM near his first parents. One evening when he is away from home he is told that robbers are in his house. He returns quickly, takes up a sabre, and strikes on the bed where his former father and mother are lying, and thus kills them. A mistake of the same nature, according to the legend, caused the death of the parents of St. Julien.^ Julien when a youth while hunting one day pursued a deer. The latter finally turned upon him, and told him that one day he would slay his mother and father. Filled with horror he fled from home secretly, and went to a distant land, where he married a rich widow. His parents, overcome with grief at the loss of their son, sought for him in every place, and at last arrived at his castle one day when he was absent. They told their story to the wife, who understanding that they were her husband's parents, gave them her bed to sleep in. The next morning, when she had gone to mass, Julien came into her room to wake her, and seeing two people sleep- ing there, thought that he had discovered her with a paramour. Blinded by jealousy he drew his sword and slew them. When his wife returned, he learned that he had, in spite of all his efforts, carried out the deer's prophecy. In the Eastern story of King Ibrahim and his son,^ it is predicted, when the king's wife is pregnant, that her son in his seventh year will be in danger of a lion, and that if he escapes, he will later kill his father. The boy is placed in an underground place, and later narrowly escapes being devoured by a lion. Sometime afterwards he joins a band of highwaymen, who are so troublesome that King Ibrahim ' Ttouhci, Diciiofmaire des Lt'gendes : Paris, 1855, p. 755. See also Flaubert's story St. Julien VHospitaltcr. - 'QwiKovC'i Supplemental Xights, vol. i. p. 121. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 95 sallies out against them with a company of his men. The boy shoots and mortally wounds him with an arrow. Before Ibraham dies he forgives his son and places him upon the throne. Another case of parricide, connected with incest, as in the Oedipus story, occurs in the late Arthurian romance of TV/V/aw de Leonais. Sadoc, the nephew of Joseph of Arimathea, married Chelinde, the daughter of the King of Babylon. His brother ravished Chelinde, and after killing him, Sadoc departed with his wife for another land. Terrible storms arose, and as the sailors believed that he was the Jonah, they cast him overboard. He was not drowned, but reached land and lived for three years with a hermit. In the meantime Chelinde became the wife of the King of Cornwall, who exposed Apollo, her son by Sadoc, on account of an evil dream, which prophesied that he would die at his hands. In after years the prediction was not only verified, but the unfortunate youth killed his own father in a combat and married his mother.^ In these latter instances we have almost certainly purely literary imitations of the Oedipus story. There still remain two other stories of children of ill augury. Of the first of these, Britus, or Brut,^ the eponymus hero of Britain, it was foretold that he would cause the death of his father and mother. His mother died during child- birth, and many years later he shot his father by accident ' QLiivres de Tressan, vol. iii. ^ Historia Brittonutn cum Additamentis Nennii. Monumenta Gennaniae Hhtoriae. Chronica Minora, ed. Mommsen, iii. pp. 150-2 : Berlin, 1898. Also Le Roman de Brut, par Wace, Le Roux de Lincy : Rouen, 1836, 11. 136-146; MUnchener Brtit, Hoffmann and VoUmoller: Halle, 1877, PP- 343-386. 96 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM with an arrow. After many wanderings he came to the island which bears his name. Only a few variants are left now, generally lacking, so far as I know, the formula features, and usually purely episodic. Such, for instance, the combat between Isembard and his old father in the eleventh to twelfth century epic of Isembard und Gormund} In the confusion of the battle Isembard unhorses Bernard, leaps into his saddle and rides off. 573 ' De ceo fist il pechie e mal que son pere deschevacha, mais qu'il nel reconuist pas , Sil conuist, ja nel tuchast car d'autre chose I'araisnast.' In the prose Arthurian romance of Tristan,^ K.ing Hoel seeking for his son Kahedin meets and fights with him. During a pause in the combat Kahedin tells his name, to the great joy of Hoel. A tragedy, paralleled frequently in actual life, occurs in the Mahabharata?' Paravasu meets his father in the forest. Blinded by drowsiness and the dark night he mistakes him for an animal and kills him. Ward, in his Catalogue of Romances,'^ mentions the late Icelandic Alaflecks Saga, the story of Alafleckur, a grandson of Halfdan Bronu-fdstri ; how he became a were- wolf and was hunted by his own father, but saved by his foster-mother, and his wolfskin burned. 1 (a) Das Epos von Isembard und Go7-tmind, Rudolf Zenker : Halle, 1896, p. 10. (b) Isembart et Gortmind, Fluri, p. 37. - Loseth, Le Rotnan en Prose de Tristan, §§ 98-9, pp. 81-2. ' Mahabharata, Vana Parva, § cxxxviii. ■• Ward, Catalogue of Rotnances, vol. i. pp. 846-847. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 97 Finally, Mr. Nutt believes that he has found an animal version of the theme in the Gaelic Fight of Bra7i with the Black Dog?- In one variant of the tale the black dog appears to be Bran's child. Ill The versions of the Father and Son Combat theme given in the preceding chapter, while undoubtedly far from forming a complete list furnish enough material, I think, upon which to base an investigation as to their nature and genesis. Uhland,- after mentioning the possibility of the tale's going back to a common source, sees little reason why it should not have arisen spontaneously in every country. The Heldensage, or poetry of combat, he says, takes as themes the most moving situations in life, and certainly there are none more impressive or touching than the unwittingly hostile encounter between father and son, brothers, relations^ or brothers in arms. His remarks are certainly cautious and just enough. Nevertheless, like most of the epic formulas, the story has also been treated as a myth Accord- ing to Orest Miller : ^ ' Von diesem Riesenweibe (a giantess with whom Ilya had had intercourse) wird wohl auch Ilya's 1 Hyde, Beside the Fire, pp. 15, 179. An interesting story of a man's fight with his adopted father is given in Fromentins's Une annee dans le Sahel, p. 144, etc. A tragedy of quite a different nature is the slaying of Pentheus by his mother Agave while in a state of Bacchic frenzy. — Euripides, Bacciiae, 11. 1082, etc. ^ Ludwig Uhland, Scfiriftcn, i. p, 170. ^ Orest Miller, ' Das Hildebrandslied und die russischen Lieder von Ilya Murometz und seinem Sohne im Zusammenhang mit dem Gesammtinhalte des russichen Volksepos,' //t'rrzjoj- ^;r/«'z/, 1S63, vol. xxxiii. p. 259. G 98 SOHRAB AND RUST EM Sohn entsprossen sein, er ist also die Frucht einer unnatiir- lichen Verbindung einer friiheren Gottergeneration mit einer spateren. In seinem Kampfe mit dem Vater, wie auch in der Urbedeutung dieses wiedernatiirlichen Kampfes in den Sagen anderer Volker, wird wohl der Conflict zweier sich in der Zeit- und-Gedankenfolge aufhebender Gotter- generationen, zweier damit ausgedruckte Naturkrafte zu suchen sein. Der Sohn, der durche seine Mutter noch so manches von der friiheren ablebenden Gottergenerationen geerbt haben wird, muss von dem Vater als dem reinen, dem ausschUesslichen Vertreter der neuen Gdttergenerationen, zu Grunde gebracht werden' ^ Miss Weston has conjectured that in the combat of Father and Son we have a romantic presentment of the struggle between the old and new divinities of vegetation, which finds ritual expression in so many spring and harvest festivals, and of which Mr. Frazer has claimed the Arician rite as an example. Another theory of a quite different character has been offered by Liebrecht.- His attention was attracted by a custom at Raratonga, according to which a son, when he grew up, fought with his father for the possession of the paternal property. * Diese Sitte,' he says, welche, wol auch noch irgendwann auf andern polynesischen Inseln ^ The following is an explanation of the combat itself given by Miss Hapgood (p. 339): 'In his contest with Falcon the Hunter, Ilya represents the heavens, Falcon being the lightning, which turns its sharp blade against its mother from the realms of darkness, the cloud. To this lightning, Ilya opposes his own, and having conquered shines forth again clear and radiant. Falcon's mace, cast heavenward, and returning always to his hand, is the lightning flash.' ^ Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 406. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 99 bestanden hat, diirfte besser als manches andere die oben besprochene Sage von den mit ihren Sohnen ringenden Vatern erlautern. Auf diese Weise bewahrheitet sich also voUstandig Uhland's Ansicht, dass der Ursprung der Hilde- brandssage sich in unbestimmte Fernen verHert, insoweit sie namlich durch die Sitte eines Naturvolkes ihre Aufklarung erhiilt, wobei zugleich gegen seine Erwartung "bis zur einstigen Ungeschiedenheit der Sagen" vorgedrungen wird.' This theory of Liebrecht's, while unsatisfactory, is I think a step in the right direction, in so far as it seeks an explana- tion of the origin of the theme in ethnology. If the tale needs further explanation than the mere recognition of its being based on actual occurrence in every country where it appears, the theory advanced in the following pages may be of some assistance. First of all, we must not seek aid for investigation merely in the central situation of the story, the combat itself. That may be purely episodic, appearing in many a different setting, or it may be intimately connected with a certain formula of exposition. Now, by limiting the cases of unintentional killing to those which are concerned only with father and son, I think it appears very noticeably that the oldest and most important versions agree strik- ingly in regard to their framework. It is in this setting, I believe, that we are to look for help in solving our problem ; but before studying it, it will be necessary to give some examples of other stories of closely allied nature, which may be generally grouped under the clumsy title, the 'son in search of his father.' The formula is the same, but the denouement is different. Recognition takes place before any hostile encounter ; and instead of slaying his parent, the son may be his saviour, loo SOHRAB AND RUSTEM rescuing him in the midst of battle, or delivering him from imprisonment. The story of Iravat,^ in the Mahabharata, is an admir- able example of its class. When the five Pandu princes married Draupadi it was agreed among them that he who should enter the room where one of them was sitting with her should lead the life of a Bhramacarin in the forest for twelve years. Arjuna was once forced to violate this rule and in con- sequence went into exile. One day while performing his ablutions in the Ganges, he was dragged to the bottom of the river by Ulupi, daughter of the King of the Nagas. ' What rash act hast thou performed, fair one ? ' asked Arjuna. 'To whom belongs this beautiful region? Who art thou and who is thy father ? ' Hearing these words of Arjuna, Ulupi answered, 'My name is Ulupi. I am, O prince, daughter of the Naga, Kauravya, born in the line of Airavata. O tiger of men, on seeing thee descend into the stream to perform thy ablutions, desire overpowered my reason ; and I beseech thee to gratify me to-day by giving thyself up to me ... ^ It is a duty to relieve the dis- tressed ; if thou failest to, I will destroy myself. I seek thy protection. Weeping and consumed with desire, I woo thee.' Thus addressed by the daughter of the Naga king, the son of Kunti did everything she desired, making virtue his motive. He spent the night in the mansion of the Nagas and rose with the sun in the morning. Accompanied by Ulupi he returned to the region where the Ganges enters the plains, and the chaste Ulupi, taking leave of him there, returned to her own abode. ' Mahabharala, Adi Parva, ccxvi. and Bhishma Parva, xci. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM loi Years later, when the terrible battle of Kurukshetra was being fought, Iravat, the mighty offspring of this union, came to the Kaurava forces. Abandoned by his wicked uncle, through hatred of Arjuna, he had grown up a handsome strong youth in the land of the Nagas, protected by his mother. Hearing that Arjuna had gone to the region of India, he went thither speedily, approached his father, and addressed him, saying, ' I am Iravat, thy son.' Then he reminded him of the circumstances connected with his meeting Ulupi, and Arjuna recalling them embraced his son with joy. ^ Another capital variant is to be found in the Irish story, the ' Second Battle of Moytura.' Eri, a woman of the Tuath De, was one day looking at the sea when she saw a silver vessel coming towards the land. A man of the fairest form alighted from it. He asked, ' Is this the time that our lying with thee will be easy ? ' ' I have not made a tryst with thee, verily,' said the woman. ' Come against the trystings (?),' said he. ^ The story of Astika in the Mahabharata is of interest on account of the unmistakeable appearance of the maternal uncle. The sage Jaratkaru wanders in search of a wife. Finally the chief of the Nagas, Vasuki, offers him his sister, promising to maintain her himself. Jarat- karu marries the girl, who bears the same name as himself. He tells her when he weds her that if she does anything to displease him, he will immediately abandon her. One day when he is sleeping with his head in her lap, she awakes him, fearing that the twilight will pass away without his saying his prayers. In spite of her grief he leaves her, promising however, like so many epic heroes, that she shall give birth to a glorious son. The boy when born is named Astika, and is brought up by his uncle.— Eng. trans., Adi Parvan, §§ xiii.-xv. xlv.-xlviii. I02 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM Then they stretched themselves down together. Now the woman wept when the man would rise. ' Why weepest thou ? ' saith he. ' I have two things for which I should lament,' saith the woman. ' Severing from thee however (?) we have met. The fair youths of the Tuatha Dea Danonn they have been entreating me (in vain), and my desire is for thee as thou hast possessed me.' ' Thy anxiety shall be taken away from these two things,' saith he. He draws his golden ring from his middle finger and puts it into her hand, and tells her that she shall not part with it, by sale or by gift, save to one whose finger it shall fit. ' I have another sorrow,' saith the woman. ' I know not who hath come to me.' ' Thou shalt not be ignorant of that,' saith he. ' Elotha, son of Delbeath, king of the Fomorians, hath come to thee ; and of our meeting thou shalt bear a boy, and no name shall be given him save Eochaid Bres, that is, Eochaid the Beautiful.' After that the man went (back) again by the way he had come, and the woman fared to her house, and unto her was given the famous conception. Then she brought forth the boy, and he was named as Elotha had said, even Eochaid Bres. When a week after the woman's lying-in was complete, the boy had a fort- night's growth; and he maintained that increase till the end of his (first) seven years, when he reached a growth of fourteen years. On account of his arrogance and injustice, Bres was expelled from the kingdom. He went to his mother and asked her whence was his race. She told him, and gave SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 103 him the ring, which fitted his middle finger. They then went forward to the land of the Fomorians. They came to a great plain with many assemblies therein, and advanced to the fairest of them. At that time it was the custom when a body of men went to another assembly to challenge them to a friendly contest. This happened to Bres and the men of Tuath De. Their hands and steeds proved swifter than those of the Fomorians. They were then asked whether they had any one who was good at sword-play. None was found save Bres alone. So when he sets his hand to the sword, his father recognises the ring on his finger, and inquires who was the hero. His mother answered on his behalf, and told the king that Bres was a son of his.^ We have in the story of Bres, the hero, a precocious youth, maturing as rapidly as Ajib the Wonderful. His arrogance and injustice also recall Ajib's behaviour towards his playmates, and again that of Mark, the son of Ysaie le Triste.^ The Spanish Leyenda de los Infantes de Lara^ also con- ^ 'The Second Battle of Moytura,' Whitley Stokes, Revue Celtique, vol. xii. p. 57, etc. This romance, though only found in a late manu- script, belongs to a very early stage of Irish mythic literature, being the sole surviving example of the early romantic stage of Irish tales belonging to the mythological cycle. - Dunlop's Zfw^orj/ of Prose Fiction: London, iS88, vol. i. p. 217. The tale of Ysaie le Triste is amusing on account of the forwardness of the mother and the bad behaviour of the son Marc, who was ' la plus cruelle piece de chair oncques nasquit de mere, . . . le pyre de son age.' While he does not search for his father, he meets him during a battle and recognises him before a tragic encounter can take place. ^ See La Leyenda de los Infantes de LMra, by Ramon Menendez Pidal : Madrid, 1896, pp. 10, 17-20, 27-36. The story goes back, in its extant form, to the thirteenth century. 104 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM tains many of the formula features. After the slaughter of his children, Don Gonzalo remained some time a prisoner of Almanzor. While in prison he was visited and consoled by Almanzor's daughter. When he left, he gave her the half of a ring for the son who might be born, and told her to send the child to Castile when he was old enough. The princess gave birth to a boy, who was named Mudarra. One day, when playing chess with the King of Segura, he was called a bastard. He killed the king, asked his mother for explanations, and afterwards, with a large number of men, departed for Castile, and met and avenged his father. Less important are the stories of Galien^ and Morien, the first of which resembles very closely Mudarra. In the Italian Viaggio di Carlo Magno, Oliver sleeps one night with the Moorish princess of Portugal. In the morning she tells him that she is pregnant by him. Oliver leaves her the half of a ring for the child if it should be a girl, and a sword if it should be a boy. A son is born, who hears one day that he is a bastard, demands an explanation of his mother, and then goes in search of Oliver, whom he finds at the battle of Ronces- valles. In the Arthurian story of Morien, Agloval, brother of Perceval, goes to the King of the Moors, and seduces the mother of Morien. Then he departs, obliged as he says to seek Lancelot, but promising to return. This he fails to do, and the offspring, deprived of honour and heritage, goes in ^ See ' II Viaggio di Carlo Magno,' published in the Scelta di Curiosith letterarie ; and also Pidal's work. The story belongs to a late stage of the Carolingian cycle. - Histoire Litteraij-e, vol. xxx. p. 246. ^ Dunlop, ed. 1888, vol. i. p. 215. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 105 search of him to make him repair his wrongs. He suc- ceeds in finding him, ill in a hermitage and willing to make reparation. I might add one more case from the Amadis romances ^ which, though unimportant, follows very faithfully the set scheme. Perion, returning from Germany, lodges with the Count of Zelandia. At night he is awakened by the count's daughter, who cries out as he draws back, ' How is this, sir? Would you rather be alone in bed ? ' Only her threats of killing herself, like those of the heroines of Indian epics, induce him to allow her to share his couch. The next day he departs, never to see her again. The child is brought up by an aunt, at the proper time informed of his parentage, and then departs to seek his father. A sufficient number of variants of the Father and Son Combat theme, and closely allied variants, have now been given to establish its general character. Of course the thing which has always impressed its auditors, is the unnatural tragedy of two men fighting together who are united by the closest ties of affection and relationship. ' Alas ! ' cries out the old Hildebrand, ' sixty winters have I passed as a fugitive, and now my own son shall strike me with his sword, fell me to the earth with his axe, or I shall become his slayer.' Cuchulainn, stunned by grief, dies under a tree, or for a long time is bereft of his reason. Rustem tries to kill himself Or if both combatants are alive at the end of the fight, the father caresses his son and weeps for joy that he is re-united with him. But moving as his grief and affection may be, it is very noticeable how long it takes for it to be aroused. Indeed this feature seems to belong to a far later date than many other incidents of the story. ' Amadis, i. ch. xliii. etc. io6 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM To summarise the tale once more, as it appears in tlie most important variants, we shall find that it is as follows : A man enters into certain relations with a woman. She may be his wife, or more often the chance companion of a night, a month, a winter, or even several years. In nearly every case he meets her away from home. Not seldom she offers herself to him. She may have seen him approach a town, or enter the house of her father, and, overcome by his beauty and the reports of his valour, she sends her maid to him to acquaint him of her love. Sometimes she steals into his room at night, and is her own ambassadress. He returns her love, but the next morning, or when spring comes, he suddenly announces his intention of departing. Occasionally the leave-taking is painful; very often there seems to be little more than indifference on either side. He gives her, when he starts, a ring, a sword, or some other token for the son who will be born to her. When the boy is old enough, he is to go in search of his father and the token will bring about recogni- tion. In time the woman has a son. One day, while playing with his comrades, he suddenly awakes to the fact that he differs from the rest. In an exchange of childish amenities some one calls him a bastard, and the cry is taken up generally; or he may be overcome with grief at the fact that while others of his own age have fathers he has none ; or, finally, he may wonder why he is so much taller and stronger than the rest of his playmates. He runs to his mother and is told the secret of his birth. He takes the token, arms himself, and goes in search of the long-absent one, either from mere desire to see him, or, if his father has violated his mother, to bring him back to make repara- tion. His quest is successful ; only, through some fatal SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 107 misunderstanding, caused by unwillingness to exchange names, by the machinations of others interested in the prevention of recognition, or by confusion in the hurly- burly of battle, he has to fight with the object of his search. Now the most suggestive points in the story to my mind are as follows : above all, the uncertainty as to paternity, intimately connected with the man's marriage away from home ; then the prominent role played by the woman, either in wooing or in other ways ; the callous abandon- ment by the father of mother and child ; and finally the son in search of the father. In speaking of Liebrecht's theory, I said that I thought he was on the right track when he went to ethnology for an explanation of the tale. That explanation, nevertheless, I do not think is to be found in the custom of a man's fighting his father for possession of the family property, though the combats in our stories, where the father tests his son's valour, might seem to corroborate such a view, but rather in exogamy and matriarchy. Exogamy is the prohibition of marriage within the sup- posed blood-kinship, as denoted by the family name. A Hindu cannot marry a woman belonging to the same gotra, all members of the gotra being theoretically supposed to have descended from the same ancestor.^ The Khonds, a tribe in India, regard marriage between persons of the same tribe, however large or scattered, as ^ Andrew Lang, Custom and Myth, p. 253. See also M'^Lennan's Studies in Ancient History, 1SS6, pp. 77-8. Post, Cnindriss, vol. i. p. 37 : ' Eine ausserordentlich weitverbreitete Erscheinung auf der Erde ist es, dass sich nur solche Personen heiraten durfen, welche verschiedenen geschlechterrechtlichen oder auch territorialgenossen- schaftlichen Verbanden angehoren.' io8 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM incestuous and punishable by death. This rule applies even to strangers who have been adopted into or domesti- cated with a tribe.^ Among the Kalmucks,^ the common people enter into no unions in which the parties are not distant from one another three or four degrees, and the princely class is not allowed to marry any woman of his tribe or nation. ' In Circassia,' according to Bell, ' not only are cousins, or the members of the same fraternity, restricted from intermarrymg, but even their serfs must wed with the serfs of another fraternity.' ^ 'The Yurak Samoyeds (Siberian) practise exogamy, and the men often have to go long distances for their wives. '^ The Cis- Natalian Kafirs, if possible, avoid marriage with their relations, either maternal or paternal.'' Among the Bantu race, ' a native of the coast region will not marry a girl whose relationship by blood to himself can be traced, no matter how distantly connected they may be.' Marriage of first and second cousins is punished with death by the Hottentots.*^ M'^Lennan considered that the evidence furnished by mythology, legends, and, what is more convincing, customs, such as marriage by capture, and clans organised on the totemistic principle, was sufficient to prove that exogamy was anciently the law of the Maoris.'' ^ M'^Lennan, Studies in Ancient History, p. 51. See ch. v. ~ Ibid. p. S3. ^ The Histo7-y of Hninaii Marriage, Edward Westermarck : London, 2nd edition, 1894, p. 306, quoting Bastian, Rechtsverhiiltuissc, p. iSi. See all of ch. xiv. ^ McLennan, p. 55. '■> Westermarck, pp. 306-7, and 321. ^ Ibid. pp. 307-30S, ^ Studies in Ancient History, 2nd series, pp. 268-275. SOHRAB AND RUST EM 109 In America, the southern nations of the Indians held that no man should marry in his own clan, and that every child should belong to its mother's clan. They profess to consider it highly criminal for a man to marry a woman whose totem is the same as his own, and they relate instances where young people, for a violation of this rule, have been put to death by their own relatives.^ Of the ancient Romans, Plutarch says, ' Formerly they did not marry those connected with them by blood, any more than they now marry aunts or sisters.' It was long before they would even intermarry with cousins. Andrew Lang remarks that if the statement that 'the Romans did not marry o-uyyevtSas is to be interpreted as not marrying women of the same gens, the exogamous prohibition in Rome was as complete as among the Hindoos.' '^ M'^Lennan thought it possible that exogamy existed among the Picts, and referred to a list of Pictish kings down to 731, in which it is seen that there are two cases of sons bearing Pictish names, whose fathers are known to have been strangers, and these are the only fathers of ivhom 7ve have any account. The fact that the only fathers we know of were strangers, he believed, went far in proving that the fathers belonged to other tribes than the mothers — in any case they did not have the same family name.^ In Wales, according to Lewis, marriage had to be outside of the trev or kindred who lived within one enclosure.* ^ McLennan, pp. 65-66. - Andrew Lang, Custom and Myth, p. 254. ^ McLennan, p. 68, and especially Zimmer, Das Mutterrecht der Pikten. •• The Ancient Laws of Wales, pp. 56-57, 196. no SOHRAB AND RUSTEM In certain parts of Russia, Kovalevsky states, ' the bride is always taken from another village than the bridegroom's.' Even in provinces in which no similar custom is known to exist, the remembrance of the time when exogamy was considered to be a duty is perceived in the fact that the bridegroom is constantly spoken of as a foreigner {choujoy choujaninin), and his friends and attendants are repre- sented as coming with him from a distant country, in order to take away the future spouse.^ In M^Lennan's opinion, exogamy had its origin in the scarcity of women arising from ' female infanticide, which rendering women scarce, led at once to polyandry within the tribe, and the capture of women from without' ^ Morgan believed that it was caused by the evils of close inter-breeding being seen.^ Westermarck says, ' There is no innate aversion to marriage with near relations, but there is an innate aversion to marriage between persons living very closely together from early youth, and as such persons are in most cases related, this feeling displays itself chiefly as a horror of intercourse between near kin. The feeling of disgust itself is due to the evil effects resulting from consanguineous marriage.' * In support of his theory, Westermarck quotes many cases in which the rule of exogamy does not depend upon kinship. Members of the same village or of adjoining villages will not marry, evidently on account of their long proximity with each other.^ It is only decent for men to ^ 'Marriage among the Early Slavs,' M. Kovalevsky, Folk Lore, vol. i. p. 475. 2 McLennan, ibid. p. 75. ■' Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 424. •* Western^arck, pp. 544-545. ^ Ibid. p. 323, list. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM in marry women they have never seen before, and the women prefer strangers to their own townspeople. In a national festival among the Assamese, the girls even do not like to dance with their own people.i But exogamy, alone, helps us only in so far as it explains the marriage of the hero away from home. We have yet to learn why the marriage relations are not more permanent : why Rustem, Cuchulainn, Ilya, Bui, and others abandon their wives with so little compunction. In the cases where exogamy is not so marked, in the stories of Hildebrand and Biterolf, for example, both men leave home, and even when their services are no longer needed by their masters, they evidently never dream of returning to their wives and children. In the French lais and romances, where no marriage is mentioned, the lover forsakes his mistress and does not see her again until the offspring of their ephemeral union brings them together once more. Again the character of the heroines calls for account. Their position is almost invariably one of great impor- tance. Princesses or even fairies, they are not slow to make advances to the hero ; or they may be Amazons, to be overcome in a combat before granting their love. When the husband or lover departs they may be grieved, but it does not occur to them to leave their own homes and accompany him to his own land. Do we find anything corresponding to this state of affairs in real life? It seems to me we do, wherever the matriarchal family exists or has existed. The first one to bring the theory of matriarchy into great prominence was Bachofen in his book ^Das Mutterecht,^ ^ Westermarck, p. 323. 2 Bachofen, Das Mutterecht \ Sfiittgart, 1861. TI2 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM According to him, men passed from a state of promiscuous intercourse into a marriage state which was based upon the dominating power of woman ; again, this gynocracy subsequently took the savage form it assumed in the Amazon period, and then gave way to an order of things which was based on the superiority of man. Almost at the same time, M*=Lennan was led to the same conclusion, but by a different path, ' by reasoning on the exigencies of his explanation of the origin of the form of capture.'^ He criticised Bachofen for having failed to see that women did not obtain their superiority over men by war, but in consequence of (i) marriage not being monogamous, or such as to permit of certainty of father- hood; and (2) of wives not as yet living in their husbands' houses, but apart from them in the houses of their mothers.^ There has been a great amount of discussion as to the accuracy of these theories of Mtitterrecht or matriarchy, an analysis of which would be out of place here.^ It will suffice for us to examine a number of cases where the practice of female descent exists to-day, and also some of the presumable traces in antiquity and at the present day among nations and tribes where the agnatic or patriarchal family now prevails.* ^ Mi^Lennan, p. 319, note i. ^ Ibid. p. 324. " See the works of Lubbock, "Giraud-Teulon, Dargun, Wilken, Post, Starcke, Westermarck, etc. See Bibliographical Appendix for full titles. ■* ' Das mutterrechtliche Verwandtschaftssystem findet sich auf der Erde in weitester Verbreitung und bei durchaus stammfremden Volkern, und zwar selten als ausschliesslich geltendes System, hdufig neben detn Vaterrechtssystem [my own italics]. Als gewohnliches Verwandtschaftssystem erscheint es bei den meisten Indianervolkern SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 113 Among the Nairs of the Malabar coast, the family is composed of the mother, her children, and her brother. When a girl becomes of marriageable age, she is married to a man who can regard her as his wife for one day, but no longer. After that she can choose any number of husbands or lovers, each of whom may remain with her but a short time, it may be but for twenty-four hours. During that period they are obliged to do the necessary tasks about the house. When any one of the husbands visits his wife he leaves his shield or his sword hanging at the door, at the sight of which the other husbands keep away.i The paternity is always unknown.- In Timur, the men of Bidauk marry with the women of Saluki, but the man must go to Salukiand live in the house of the woman, and he has not the option of paying for her at all. The children of the union belong to her, and on her death inherit all her property, while the husband returns to his own land, leaving the children behind him, except in case of there being more than two, when he is entitled to one.^ und ozeanischen Volkern, bei den indischen Urvolkern, bei vielen semitisch-hamitischen Volkern, bei den Neger- und Kongovolkern. Reste des Mutterrechts finden sich eigentlich bei alien Volkern der Erde, sowohl bei den Volkern, liber welche die Schriftsteller des griechischen und romischen Altertums berichten, z. B. bei den Phonikern, Hebraern, Lykiern, Etruskern, Aegyptern, als bei alien Indogermanen, bei den alten Arabern, bei den ostasiatischen Volkern und den Basken, sowie den Kaukasusvolkern. — Post, Grundriss, p. 71. See also bottom of p. 72. ^ Cf. the reason for Arjuna's exile given in the story of Ira vat. ^ Bachofen, Antiquarische Briefe, vol. i. p. 233, etc ; Giraud- Teulon, ch, vii. ^ H. O. Forbes, A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archi- pelago : London, 18S5, p. 457. H 114 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM The Malayan family in Sumatra consists of mother and children. The father is no part of it. The ties of relationship which unite the latter to his brothers and sisters are stronger than those which bind him to his wife and his own children. He continues even after his marriage to live in his maternal family ; it is there that he finds his true domicile, and not in the house of his wife. He does not cease cultivating the fields of his own family, working for it, and only aids his wife occasionally. . . . The head of the family is ordinarily the elder brother on the maternal side ... he is the true father of his sister's children . . . the husband is charged neither with the alimentation nor the maintenance of his wife and her offspring.^ In Ceylon, when the husband lives with his wife and her family, the union is called a beena marriage.- The same custom exists among many of the aboriginal tribes of India. Among the Kocch, when a man marries,^ he lives with his wife's mother, obeying her and his wife. The Kassias practise divorce so frequently that their unions can hardly be honoured with the name of marriage. The husband does not take his bride to his home, but enters her household or visits it occasionally; he seems merely entertained to continue the family to which his wife belongs.^ The Bush negro husband in Surinam does not live with his wife, and often has wives in several different places. The maternal uncle supplies his place in the ^ Teulon (pp. 199-200), quoting A. W. P. Verkerk Pistorius, La Famille tnalaise et le droit d'hiritagc dans VOberland Fadang, 1869. 2 M'^Lennan, p. loi. " WoAgson, Journal of Ike Asiatic Society of Bengal, xviii. 707. * \\x\^. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Be7igal, xiii. 624. SOHRAB AND RUST EM 115 family.^ According to Livingstone, when a man of the Banyai tribe is tired of the servitude in his wife's home, he returns to his own village, leaving her and her children behind." Female descent exists also among the Damaras, Bechuanas, and other African tribes. The natives of the Mount Gambier district of Australia are divided into two tribes, the Kumites and the Kroki. The men of one tribe consider the women of the other tribe to be their wives, but no such thing as marriage within the same tribe is permitted. They either live mingled together in villages, or scattered over a considerable area of (Country, so that a Kroki, coming from a distance, will form a transient union with a Kumite woman in the place where she resides. The child belongs to the mother and adopts her surname.^ Again, in New Zealand, a man who marries into another tribe or clan, takes up his abode in it, and is thenceforth reckoned as one of his wife's family."* According to Taylor : ' So common is this custom of the bridegroom going to live with his wife's family, that it frequently occurs,^ when he refuses to do so, his wife will leave him and go back to her relatives. Several instances have come under my own observation where young men have tried to break through this custom, and have so lost their wives.' ^ ^ Kohler, Ueber das Negerrecht, namenllich in Ka7iurun, Z. f. v. R. vol. xi. p. 420. The Bush negro has brought this custom into Surinam with him. - Starcke, p. 66, quoting Livingstone's Missiotiary Travels and Researches in South Africa. ' Kovalevsky, Tableatc, p. 13. * Starcke, p. 90. ^ Taylor, Te Ika a Ulaui, p. 163 ; M'^Lennan, Ancient Studies, 2nd series, p. 274, also says : ' The root of the genealogy in a common ii6 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM Mr. Im Thurn says of the Arawaks ' that each family is or was kept distinct by the fact that the descent is solely and rigidly in the female line.' No inter-marriage with relations on the mother's side is permitted. Children belong to their mother and her family, and an Indian, when he marries, goes to live in the house of his father-in- law ; he becomes a part of his wife's family. ^ In North America, among the Pueblos, a man leaves his home on marrying, and property descends in the female line.^ Charlevoix says of the Iroquois, that the children belonged to, and only recognised, their mother. The father was always a stranger,^ and they treated him sometimes with indignity. Dorsey reports that among the Dakotas the young man sometimes lives with his wife's kindred, but there is no fixed rule.* One of the most interesting cases remains still to be quoted, that of the Transylvanian Gypsies in Europe. A man enters the clan of his wife, but does not really belong to it until she has borne a child. He never during his life shows the slightest concern for the welfare of his children, and the mother has to bear the whole burden of their maintenance. Even if the father is living, the son often never knows him, nor even has seen him.^ mother is another note of the primitive state of female kinship, the value of which cannot be too much insisted upon. Its occurrence in New Zealand myth is most frequent.' ^ Among the Indians of Guiana, E. Im Thurn, pp. 175-1S6, the quotation is from p. 185 ; The Indian Tribes of Guiana, W. H. Brett, p. 122. 2 Thirteenth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Mindeleff, p. 197. ^ Charlevoix, iii. p. 287 etc. ■* Dorsey, Siouan Sociology, p. 222. ^ Wlislocki, Vom wandernden Zigeuner- Volke, pp. 66-67. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 117 We have thus seen that in practically every part of the world, matriarchy exists in a more or less complete form, among many primitive tribes. But the stories with which we are concerned are generally to be found in the literature of nations of a higher grade of civilisation, and it is among these peoples we must look for traces, at least of a former existence of the custom, if our theory is to be of much value. Among the Greeks there are traditions which, according to some scholars, point back to a time when the nation lived according to matriarchy rather than patriarchy.^ There is the legend that from the time of Cecrops women lost their power to vote, and their children no longer bore their name." Again, children by the same mother seem to have been considered as more closely related than those of the same father. So Lycaon, the son of Priam, calls out to Achilles, ' Kill me not ; I was not born from the same womb as Hector.' ^ Even after Solon, an Athenian could marry his sister, the daughter of his father, but not his uterine sister.^ The legend of Meleager shows possibly that at one time property was inherited according to the female line.^ According to M'^Lennan : ' Evidence of the ancient predominance of women among ^ M'^Lennan, Studies, p. 195, etc. ' Giraud-Teulon, pp. 288-289. See ch. xiv. ' Iliad, xxi. 95. ■* 'ESEINAI yafj.e'ip rds iic iraTipuv d5€\(pds (Leges Atticae, lib. vi. t. I 17). ^ From Hyginus, 7^2(5. , 229 and 174,.' When Meleager, having killed the boar, was for making over to Atalanta the chief spoils, his uncles on the mother's side took them away from her, asserting their right as next-of-kin, if Meleager declined to keep the prize himself.' The use of this fable as evidence by McLennan has been sharply criticised. tt8 SOHRAB and rust em the Greeks is to be found in the number of their female divinities, and especially in the number of their Eponymae.' ^ The Lykians, says Herodotus, ' had one peculiar custom to themselves, in which they differed from all other nations, for they took their name from their mothers, and not from their fathers; so that, if any one asked another who he was, he would describe himself by his mother's side, and reckon up his maternal ancestry in the female line.^ The Egyptian woman, to quote Herodotus once more, attended markets and traffic while the men stayed at home.^ She was the mistress in her household, and could possess private property, which she managed without pay- ing any regard to the wishes of her husband. She might even deprive him of his possessions, present and future, and for that reason he ordinarily made an express agree- ' McLennan, p. 229, and see The Women of Ttirkey and their Folk- lore, Garnett and Glennie, p. 607. Goddesses— Demeler, Rhea, Here, Dione, Athene, Aphrodite, Artemis. Cities— Mykenai, Aegina, Athenai, Sparta, Korkyra, Smyrna, Himera, Enna, Hybla, Inessa, Echetla, Herbita. - Herodotus, i. 173. Nicholas of Damascus (Fr. Miiller, Hist. Graec, v. 461) says that more honour was paid to women than to men, and daughters inherited the property, not sons. According to Hera- clides Ponticus, De Rebus publicis, fr. 15 ; Miiller, Hist. Graec, 2, 217 : ' In ancient times the Lykians were governed by women.' The story of Bellerophon seemingly contains evidence bearing out the above statements. Bellerophon left two sons and a daughter. The latter, Laodamia, inherited from him, and transmitted the power to her sou Sarpedon, engendered by Zeus, that is to say, by an unknown father. It was Sarpedon who conducted the Lykian army to the succour of Troy, and not Glaucus, the other grandson of Bellerophon, the son of Ilippolochus. — Giraud-Teulon, pp. 278-279. ' Herodotus, ii. 35. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 119 ment that she was to take care of him during his hfe, and pay the expenses of his burial and tomb.^ According to Champollion-Fijeac, ' The usual inscrip- tion of the Egyptian does not contain the name of the father, which appears in the Greek inscription, but that of the mother Tekoni or Takoni, according to the more usual custom.' ^ Mariette found a Stela in the ruins of the great temple of Napata at Djebet-Barkal, in which the monarch claimed that his elevation to the throne was justified by his descent in the female line, and named the mothers of his mother six generations back.^ In ancient India, the traces of metrocracy, if they exits at all, are very slight. Bachofen made much of the maternal uncle, the inatula, and indeed, as Mr. Hopkins says, he is the one prominent uncle. In a long note in his work on the Positmi of the Ruling Caste in I?idia, Mr. Hopkins has given many instances of the importance of the mdtula. 'When no relative is present, then the "mother's brother," not the "father's brother," is invoked or spoken of as the uncle par excellence. ... It is to him that the endangered soldier calls for assistance after his father and brother. . . . Among a list of Gurus, the maternal uncle appears, but not the paternal. . . . The only uncle one should not dispute with is the mdtula, for a " mother and maternal relatives" are the most important.' This importance of the mother's brother may, however, be of late origin. Certainly the instances cited above are ^ See Giraiid-Teulon, pp. 251-252, quoting Revillout. See whole of chapter xi. - Ibid., pp. 231-232, quoting Champollion-Fijeac, 'Notice sur une momie du Must'e de Turin.' — Bulletin de F^rttssac^ p. 177. " Giraud-Teulon, p. 234. I20 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM taken from the epic and late literature. Whether this change was purely linguistic {mdiuia becoming uncle in general), or represented the growth of divided families, Mr. Hopkins is uncertain.^ Delbriick thinks that possibly the Indo-Aryans in the course of their development came into contact with peoples among whom the mother's brother played a prominent part, and that they were influenced by them.^ ^ E. W. Hopkins, ' The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India as represented by the Sanskrit Epic,' Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. xiii. p. 56, etc. esp. p. 141. 2 Berthold Delbriick, 'Die IndogermanischeVerwandtschaftsnamen. Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Alterthumskunde,' Abhandhingen der Philolog.-Hist. Classe der Koniglich Sdchsischen Gesellschaft der IVissenschaften, vol. xi. esp. pp. 586-588. He considers the change due to ' veranderten gesellschaftlichen Einrichtungen und An- schauungen. . . . Der patrmis war nach der alten Familienordnung (wenn wir den Grossvater als gestorben annehmen) neben dem Vater und etwa dem liltesten Bruder fiir die Kinder die hochste Respects- person. Ihre Phantasie wird ihn in Indien mit iihnlichen Ziigen ausgestattet haben, wie in Rom. Daneben stand der Conner, der avunculus, welcher eben well er keine Rechte geltend zu machen hatte, den Kindern gemtithlich naher treten mochte. Es war nicht unnatiirlich dass, je mehr das Zusammenleben und Zusammenhalten der alten Familie sich lockerte, der Conner aus dem Ceschlecht der Mutter in cine immer bedeutendere Stellung aufrilckte. Man sieht, dass an dieser Entwickelung manches hypothetisch bleibt, aber voll- kommen sicher ist es das Eine, das der avunculus seine hervorragende Stellung erst im indischen Mittelalter errungen hat. . . . Cerade in dem indischen Alterthum hat derselbe diese Stellung nicht.' In the Nachwort which follows pp. 590-593, Delbriick speaks very sharply of those who have followed Bachofen's theories blindly at the present day. (A special treatment of the avunculus by Bachofen is to be found in his Antiquarisclie Brief e, vol. ii.) Schrader in his Prehistoric Antiquities, p. 395, says : ' When the house father died all his rights went to the eldest son ; especially were SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 121 It would certainly be most unwise to assert for an instant that the Hindus have ever passed through a state of matriarchy, but until the contrary is proved there is a possibility that we do find traces of it in the prominent position of the maternal brother, in the speaking of the the women of the family, the mother and sisters, under his guardian- ship. This seems to have been the Indo-Germanic system. Thus a Vedic hymn says, " Ushas (the dawn) bares her bosom to man as a maiden, who, having no brother, yields herself with the less reserve to her husband." So, too, among the Teutons, Kriemhilt is under the protection, not of her mother, but of her brothers. " Ir pflagen dri kiinege edel unde rich — Diu frouwe was ir swester : die helde hctens in ir pflegen." Just as in the Roman family, after the death of the father, the sons of the family had the tiitela of the mother and sisters. (Mommsen, Romische Geschickfe, i. p. 59, seventh edition ; English trans., pop. ed. , History of Rome, i. 60.) In Greece two sons uho had man's estate were kiirioi of their sister and widowed mother. ' Hence a specially close connection between a sister's children and their mother's brother, their uncle. " Sororum filiis," says Tacitus [Germ., ch. xx.), "idem apud avunculum qui ad patrem honor." In this connection, which finds such a simple explanation in the brother's importance in the family, I cannot trace any indication that com- munity of wives was primeval, and that the children consequently belonged to the relations of the mother. In spite of this prominent position of the mother's brother in the ancient Teutonic family, the patntiis distinctly comes before the avunculus, the agnates before the cognates, in testamentary succession ("Si liberi non sunt, proximus gradus in possessione fratres, patrui, avunculi," Germ., xx. ), which once more confirms our assumption that the organisation of the family was agnatic in the primeval period, and speaks equally clearly against Bachofen's theories (cf. Brunner, loc. id. p. 89).' I cannot regard Schrader's simple explanation as convincing. It hardly seems possible that in the majority of cases the father of the family would die so early that girls would usually be brought up by 122 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM hero often as Kunti's son, etc., and in the superiority of the women in epic poetry. In spite of all the slander and con- temptuous epithets bestowed upon them by the heroes and the poets themselves, the heroines are the noblest of women, brave, wise, and often of notable refinement. In contrast with them the men are nearly always turbulent, immature barbarians. Among the ancient Arabians we have clearer indications of a previous state of matriarchy. In one of their earlier forms of marriage, a number of men had intercourse with a woman. When she became pregnant, she sent for them all, and then named one of them as the father of her child. Her decision was never disputed. Very much the same custom seems to have existed among the Liburneans, the Anseans, and the Garamantes, and especially among the Nairs, mentioned above, who trace descent in the female line.^ According to Robertson Smith, it is in Yemen that the most persistent traces of polyandry of the Nair type are found down to quite modern times. ^ 'It was related to me in the Hijaz,' he says, 'as a peculiarity of Yemen, that there the dokhla, or " going in," takes place in the bride's their eldest brothers. Even if that were the case, under patriarchal conditions, the girl on marrying would live with her husband and his people, and her children would naturally see more of their father's brother than their mother's. The woman's brother could hardly reside with her if he inherited his father's property, as that would need his personal control. It is perfectly natural that Delbriick and Schrader should rebel against Bachofen's theories, but I do not think that they have proved their point. ' Wilken, pp. 26 and 35. - Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, W. Robertson Smith, p. 236, and note on p. 313. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 123 house, and that the bridegroom if home-born must stay some nights in the bride's house, or if a foreigner, must settle with them.' ' This Yemenite custom, which obviously descends from an old prevalence of beetia marriage or Nair polyandry, must once have been universal among all Semites, otherwise we should not find that alike in Arabic, Syriac, and Hebrew the husband is said to "go in to the bride," when as a matter of fact she is brought to him.' 1 The following are some of the presumable traces of matriarchy which have been noted in the Bible.- In Genesis ii. 24, marriage is defined as implying ' that a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh,' which may mean that the husband is thought of as being adopted into his wife's kin, or at any rate, going to live with her tribe. Jacob had no right to carry off his wife and children, according to Laban. Abraham's servant thought that when Isaac married, he should have to settle with his wife's relations. The Shechemites had to be circumcised, that is, Hebraized, before they could marry the daughters of Israel, and Samson's PhiUstine wife remained with her people, and he visited her there. Certain chiefs of the ancient Arabians were distinguished according to the names of their mothers, and some of the tribes were named after a Stammutter or eponymous ancestress. As among the Greeks, children of the same father could marry, as Sara and Abraham did, for example. There are instances of a man's inheriting not only the property, but also, in the opinion of the people, the character ' Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia^ p. 1 68. ^ Ibid. p. 176, and M'^Lennan. 124 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM of his maternal uncle. If any one turned out ill, a popular saying was, that two-thirds of his badness he inherited from his mother's brother, and one-third belonged to himself. Again, often when people inquired about a man's family, they wished to know, not about his father's, but his mother's family.^ In Europe we naturally cannot expect to find so many traces of metrocracy. According to Letourneau, there are only two which may be cited with any authority in favour of the ancient existence of the custom among the Barbarians.- Strabo says that among the Iberians the women were the heads of the families.^ Cordier shows that among the Basques, women inherited property to the exclusion of the males as late as the eighteenth century.* As to matriarchy among the Picts, Zimmer says, 'Bei den Resten der vorarischen (vorkeltischen) Urbevolkerung Britanniens bestand nun das Mutterrecht in voller Geltung ; es regelte die Erbfolge noch Jahrhunderte, als die Pikten langst christianisirt und sprachlich keltisirt (irisch, britisch) waren, bis zum Untergang des Piktenstaates im 9. Jahr- hundert. Die Frauen nahmen nicht etwa eine besonders hohe Stellung ein, im Gegentheil ; nirgends herrscht, soviel wir sehen, eine Frau : die Mtitte?', also die Gebicrt, bestimmt aber die Stajnmzugehorigkeit, das Erbrecht. Auf einen Piktenherrscher und seine Briider folgt nicht etwa der Sohn des altesten, sondern der Sohn der Schwester ; auf diesen und seine eventuellen Briider von Mutterseite folgt wieder ein Schwestersohn und so fort. Wir haben eine ganze ^ Wilken, pp. 44-45. - Letourneau, p. 340, ' Iberians and Picts.' ^ Strabo, i. 214. ■* Cordier, Anciennes Coiitumes des Ba)-JgeSf quoted by Andrew Lang in his article on the Family, Etuyc. Brit., vol. ix. p. 19. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 125 Reihe sich gegenseitig stiitzender Zeugnisse. Wir stellen ein indirectes Zeugniss voran, die sogenannte Piktenchronik.' In the Chronicle of the Picts Zimmer notices that : (i) Eine beschrankte Anzahl von Konigsnamen tritt nur auf. (2) Die weitere Bezeichnung ist wie bei den keltischen Briten und Iren, also Zusatz des Vaternamens mit Vorset- zung von filius (z. b. Breidei films Wid). (3) Diese Vdter der Konige erscheincn selbst ?tie ah Konige. (4) Die Vdler der Piktenkonige sind, nach den Namen zu schliessen, meistens gar keine Pikten, sondern geho^-en den benachbarten Iren, Kyviren, oder Angeln an?- Among the Celts we find the sister's son mentioned in the Ancient Laws of IrelaJid. The following is D'Arbois de Jubainville's resume of the scattered references : ' Les fils de la soeur sont ceux que la meme langue technique designe par le nom de glasfine : "famille grise et bleue," parce que, dit-on, le pere est un etranger qui est arrive en Irlande sur la mer grise et bleue ; il n'a, par consequent pas de famille en Irlande ; il ne peut done donner une famille a son fils, et celui-ci est considere comme faisant partie de la famille de sa mere.' - The traces of matriarchy among the Germans are not ^ Zimmer, ' Das Mutterrecht der Pikten.' Zeitschrift. der Savigny- Stiftung fiir Rechtsgeschichte, vol. xv. pp. 218-219. It should be stated that M. d'Arbois de Jubainville denies altogether that the facts adduced warrant the conclusion of Pictish matriarchalism. Cf. Rev. Celt., 1901. * D'Arbois de Jubainville, vol. vii. p. 187. The Ancient Laws, iv. 285, say the Glasfine is a son a woman has borne for an ' Albanach' (native of Alba or Scotland), so we have what seems to be an explana- tion of the Cuchulainn story. 126 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM very clear. Considerable emphasis, perhaps too much, has been laid upon the statement of Tacitus in regard to the sister's son. ' The son of a sister is as dear to his uncle as to his father ; some think that the first of these ties is the holiest and most binding. When they receive hostages, they prefer the nephews, on account of their inspiring stronger attachment, and interesting the family on both sides.' ^ In the Salic Law, non emendata, the mother's sister has preference in succession to the father's, and no mention is made of the father's or mother's brothers. Giraud-Teulon says, quoting Laboulaye, that ' nous retrou- vons encore a propos du second marriage, une succession particuliere pour laquelle la parente par les femmes est le titre de preference. Je veux parler de la succession au Reipiis.'' - At the head of the mythical genealogical tree of the Lombards we find, not a man, but a woman, Gambara, who, together with her two sons, rules over the race. The husband and father is not mentioned.^ It is also interesting to note that in the Nibelungenlied, Chriemhilde's brothers are called 'Uotenskinder, or, children of the mother, Uote ' : never the father's, and Chriemhilde herself says — ' Wan ir sit mine brueder, unde einer muoter kint.' Dargun also calls attention to the fact that while slaying 1 Tacitus, Germania, xx. 20. - ' Le Reipus etait le prix donne pour epouser une veuve : prix double de celui paye pour le mundium d'une vierge. II appartenait non pas aux heritiers les plus proches de la fenimc, mais aux parents males les plus proches par les femmes. i ° au fds aine de la saur ; 2° a son defaut au fils ainc de la niece ; puis, 3°, au fils de la cousine maternelle ; 4°, i I'oncle, frere de la mere,' etc. — Giraud-Teulon, p. 336. Labou- laye, ' Rccherches sur la condition civile et politique des femmes depuis les Remains jusqu'a nos jours,' p. III. '^ Dargun, pp. 57-58- SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 127 of the father is common, murder of the mother is un- known in the oldest monuments.^ Worth noting, too, is the Morgengabe, the dowry which the husband, not the wife, pays." So far, we have had to do with the matriarchal family as it exists among primitive tribes of to-day, and its traces among the more civilised races in which the Father and Son Combat theme appears. By some of the authors I have quoted, it has been assumed that it rests primarily upon ambiguity as to the father of the child. This has been doubted. According to Westermarck, ^ other reasons than the consideration of relationship may bring about the naming of children after their mothers rather than after their fathers. Polyandry might be one of the causes. In its patriarchal form, the wife leaves her home and lives with her husbands. It exists to-day in Thibet, India, and Ceylon, and very probably it existed long ago in Wales and Sparta. The most important instance of polyandry in literature is the marriage of Draupadi to the five Pandu princes in the Mahabharata. But patriarchal polyandry hardly con- cerns us, for while a child might find it difficult to be certain which one of two or three men was his real father, he would simply have a number of fathers instead of one. Under these circumstances it would be difficult for a combat of the kind we have been discussing to arise. Matriarchal polyandry of the Nair type has already been noted.^ Polygamy, the direct opposite of polyandry, might also ^ Dargun, p. 51. - Tacitus, Germaniii, xviii. ^ Westermarck, ibid. 107. * See on Polyandry, Westermarck, ch. xx.-xxii., etc. ; Gomme, 128 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM contribute to the prevalence of the female line. Winter- bottom some time ago suggested that it was the direct cause.^ Of the Fantis, an African tribe, Connolly says,^ 'Wherever children exist, the care of them is left to the mothers exclusively, a habit which may explain the intensity of affection felt generally by Fantis for the mother, whilst the father is little known or disregarded [the italics are my own]. The practice of living in separate houses may also conduce to this end, as well as the fact that all over Equatorial Africa the wives never eat with their husbands but always with the children. . . . The rightful heir in native law is the eldest nephew, i.e. the eldest sister's son, who invariably succeeds to all the property and position of the uncle.' Interesting testimony is also given by Henrici about the Ephe negroes. ' Die Ehe ist im Allgemeinen Polygamic. . . . Jede Frau hat eine eigene Hiitte im Gehoft zu verlangen. Bis zum sechsten Jahre etwa . . . verbleiben alle Kinder im Hause ihrer Mutter, dann gehen die Knaben in das Haus und die Erziehung des Vaters iiber,' ^ This last of course recalls the frequent request of the father in our stories, that the mother send him the son 'Exogamy and Polyandry,' Archaeological Review, vol. i. p. 389 ; Letourneau, p. 82 ; Robertson Smith, p. 283 ; Caesar, De Bella Gallic, ov. 14, etc. Dalton, in his Desc. Ethnology of Bengal, p, 36, tells an amusing story of a young girl coming to him for protection. To avoid marriage with a man she did not love, she had eloped with her beloved, who in this case turned out to be two men, not one. ^ Starcke, p. 69, note 4. '■^ R. M. Connolly, 'Social Life in Fanti Land,' fournal of the Anthrop. Inst., vol. xxvi. p. 145. ^ Henrici, Epheneger, Z, f. v. R. vol. xi. pp. 134-135. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 129 which may be born, when he is old enough, and that she keep the daughter.^ There still remain other things which lead to a child's residence with his mother, and most certainly to ignorance of paternity. Especially important are marriages of an ephemeral nature, either contracted on trial, or for a de- finite period, which may last from one night to a number of years. Different tribes of American Indians have had ex- perimental marriages : those of New England, of Virginia, the Hurons, the Wyandots, the Redskins of Canada, for example." Among the Muskogees, marriages were often contracted for a year, but in case of offspring, it was customary to renew it.^ The Otomi ' husband was per- mitted to repudiate his wife the day following the marriage, if she did not please him ; but if he remained satisfied upon that occasion, he was not afterwards allowed to send her away.' ^ In Africa, among the Quojas, a man who desires to marry will take a girl for ten or fifteen days. After that she may return to her family. Should she give birth to a son later, the father will send for him, if possible. A ^ See also Weslermarck, p. 108, quoting Mr. Casalis as to the Basutos, a Bechuana tribe : ' The authority of the eldest maternal uncle pre- ponderates to excess, especially in polygamous families, where the children have no strong affection for their fathers. ' Westermarck himself says, ' It is worth noticing that among the negroes, who are probably the most polygynous race in the world, the female line is extremely prevalent.' - See Letourneau, p. 67 ; Post, Urspruvg, p. 51 ; Geschkchtsgenos- senschaft, p. 39. ^ Post, Studien, p. 78. * Bancroft, vol. ii. p. 261. I I30 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM daughter, if born, stays with her mother (my own italics). ^ The married couples of the Balantes stay united until the skirt which the husband gives his wife wears out. If the union is a happy one, the skirt is laid away with great care, but in case of uncongeniality, dragging through the briars, repeated laundrying, and other severe abuse soon wear it out.^ The Somalis of the Isa Wodobe often try marriage for three days. The absence of a priest does not interfere with their entering into conjugal rela- tions. They often wait for their marriage certificate until their first born is old enough to be sent for it ; ^ here the child performs a role which is familiar to the readers of Doon and other poems. In Ceylon, according to Post, 'ist es Sitte, dass wenn zwei junge Leute einander heiraten woUen sie vorlaufig eine Zeitlang bei einander wohnen, um sich gegenseitig kennen zu lernen; finden sie dann, dass sie nicht fiir einander passen, so brechen sie alle Verhaltnisse mit einander ab, ohne dass irgend eine Ceremonie oder die Dr.zwischenkunft eines Priesters dabei stattfindet.''^ The Santals in India usually contract marriages in January. ' For six days all the candidates for matrimony live in promiscuous concubinage, after which the whole party are supposed to be paired off as man and wife.' ^ A very similar custom is to be found among the Meris ^ Post, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, p. 462. " Ibid. p. 322. 2 Ibid. p. 321. See also Merolla, 'Voyage to Congo,' Finkertoii's Coll. of Travels, xvi. p. 234, Post, Basutos and Loangos also had this custom. * Post, Anfdnge, p. 21. Westermarck, p. 519, quoting Knox, says, ' Both men and women have frequently to marry four or five times before they can settle down.' * Westermarck, p. 29. Sec also other festivals mentioned there. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 131 of the Plains. ' At one season of the year the adult un- married males and females of a village spend several days and nights together in one large building, and if couples manage to suit each other they pair off and marry.' ^ In Europe these marriages have existed, and traces, at least, of them are to be found to-day. Some of the Tatar tribes of Russia in Europe and Siberia had such unions, which lasted a year.- Of the Czechs, Cosmas of Prague, an annalist of the eleventh century, says : ' Connubia erant illis communia. Nam more pecudum singulas ad noctes novos probant hymenaeos, et surgente aurora . . . ferrea amoris rumpunt vincula.' ^ Mannhardt, in speaking of festivals, mentions a custom in a German town. ' Fourteen days before New Year, on St. John's Day, all the men of Oberndorf am Neckar go to an inn with their wives. While there the wife asks her husband, " Wit du deine Alte au wieder uff a Jar dingen ? '' " Ja wills wieder probiere mit meiner Alten." All are merry, and drink and sing Hke young people till midnight.' ^ In Ireland, according to Campion, in his Hlstorie of Irela7id (p. 23), 'they can bee content to marrie for a yeare and a day by probation, and at the yeare's end to return her home uppon any light quarrels, if the gentlewoman's friendes bee weake and unable to avenge the injurie.'^ So ' Gomme, Exogamy and Polyandry, p. 386, quoting Hunter's Statistical Account of Assam, vol. i. p. 343. - Letourneau, p. 67. ^ Quoted by Kovalevsky, 'Marriage among the Early Slavs,' Folk Lore, i. p. 466. •* Mannhardt, Der Baumknltus der Germanen, p. 462. In other cases in Germany, see Fischer's Deutsche Probendchte. '^ Gomme, Exogamy and Polyandry, p. 391. 132 SOHRAB AND RUST EM also in \^'ales, ' they do not engage in marriage until they have previously tried the disposition and particularly the fecundity of the person with whom they are engaged.' ^ A most interesting custom closely connected in character with these trial marriages is that of handfasting, which Mr. Gomme says is not to be identified merely with Scotland, but is really pure Saxon. ^ In certain districts, at least of Scotland, the young men and women met at fairs once a year, and chose partners, and at the end of the year could either continue the union or dissolve and form a new one. In Eskdale the only proviso was that in case of separation any child which might be born should be taken care of by the inconstant one. An instance of handfasting occurred in the reign of James the Second, when the sixth Earl of Murray availed himself of it to marry Isabel Innes." ^ Gomme, ibid. p. 391. '■^ Gomme, ibid. p. 390. He quotes as proof the definition given in the Glossarium Suio-Gothicum: ' Hand-faestning promissio quae fit stipulata manu, sive cives fidem suam principi spondeant sive mutuam inter se, matrimonium, inituri, a phrasi faesta hand quae notat dextram dextrae jungere.' * These facts,' he says, ' clearly take the word out of the limited range of Scottish custom, and place it as a custom of the Gothic races who overran Scotland and England alike.' See Wester- marck, p. 71. ^ Gomme, ibiJ. pp. 391-393. Mr. Gomme sees in handfasting remnants of an old tribal act, taking place at fixed intervals. He goes on to say (p. 394) : ' Sup- posing the custom to be in full operation, the following important points are presented for consideration, as the result of its normal working. '(l) The periodical (annual) practice of the custom. ' (2) The obvious fact that the " unhappiness " of the temporary union is only a modern gloss upon the old practice of changing wives. '(3) The possibility of all the women in the course of time, the SOHRAB AND RUST EM 133 The custom of bundling formerly practised in Wales and in New England should be mentioned on account of its re- semblance to the experimental unions. Bundling, as is well known, was the sleeping together of a man and a woman with their clothes on. In New England formerly when a man and woman were engaged, and the only time that they could meet was Saturday evening and Sunday, it was customary, on account of the long distances, which not in- frequently separated their homes, for them to spend the night together in the fashion just mentioned.^ In North Scotland, according to the Rev. W. Gregor, ' wooing was for the most part carried on under cover of night. At a late hour the young man set out for the abode of his lady-love. By the time he arrived all the family had retired to rest. He tapped at the window. The happy maiden, " wha kens the meaning o' the same," was quickly at the door, undid the bar, and admitted her lover. If he could not be admitted by the door the window was lifted, and he made his entrance by it.'^ custom being regularly kept up, becoming handfasted to all the men. ' (4) The consequent uncertainty, during the normal operation of the custom, of male parentage. ' (5) The necessity, therefore, of an original recognition of kin- ship through females, though in the modern practice the inconstant takes the child.' Bunsen says that even now in Yorkshire there are cases where the couple live on probation, and the marriage holds good only if a child is born. — Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, xix. p. 376. Just how valuable Bunsen's testimony is, I am unable to state. 1 Charles Francis Adams, Some Phases of Sexual Alorality and Church Discipline in Colonial New England, p. 3 1 , etc. - Liebrecht, ZurVolkskunde, p. 378, quoting Echo of the Olden Time from the North of Scotland, p. 108, by Rev. W. Gregor. 134 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM ' This going through the window gives one of the names to the custom as it exists in Germany and Switzerland. There it is called among other things fenstern. Kuhn states that, ' Im Miinsterlande herrscht noch die Sitte des Fenstern's. In der Weihnacht gehen die jungen Bursche durch's Fenster zu der Liebsten und bleiben die Nacht bei ihr : die Aeltern storen das nicht, denn sie wissen, dass wird's ein Paar. Will ein Madchen den Liebhaber nicht, so jagt sie ihm mit dem Besen zum Fenster heraus.' ^ Weinhold, speaking of the practice, says, ' In dem deutschen Landvolk hat die Sitte des toerschen biligens sich bis heute fortgepflanzt. Sie ist uralt und schwerlich aus den hofischen Kreisen in die bauerlichen gekommen. Fast in alien deutschen Landern ist den Liebhabern der Landmadchen eine Nacht im Jahre oder gar in der Woche zum Besuche ihrer Schatze gestattet und es soil dies in manchen Gegenden stats in alien Ehren ablaufen. In andern wird der Brauch dadurchgerechtfertigt, dass das Paar fortab fiir verlobt gilt und ihm also nur die kirchliche Trauung fehlt, welche sich im Volke iiberhaupt schwer einbiirgerte. Der Mann, der nach solchen Vergiinstigung treulos wird, ist in der Meinung des Volkes gebrand- markt.'2 ^ Kuhn und Schwarz, Norddeutsche Sagen und Gebrdiiche, p. 405. See also Schweizersitten ; E. L. Rochholz, Kiltgang und Kiltspriiche im Aargau, Alemannia, iv. i. ^ Weinhold, Deutsche Frauen, 1882, vol. i. p. 263. And see Kilten in Schwyz, A. Birlinger, Alemannia, iv. p. 11, for following: ' In der Nacht aber vom Samstag auf den Sonntag stellet sich der phlegmatisch und stumme Liebhaber an der Thiir seiner Herzensbeherrscherinn ein. Sie offnet ihm. Er folgt ihr in ihre Kammer, entkleidet sich ganz ruhig, legt sich in Bett neben ihr, und sagt, sehr gewohnlich, auch da kein Wort. Wenigstens wird es so versichert, und so konnte dieses zu SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 135 In Holland the custom is called queesting. After his mistress has gone to bed, the lover is allowed to go to her. ' He raises the quilt or rug, and in this state queests, or enjoys, a harmless chit-chat with her and then retires.' ^ Outside of Europe we also find the same thing existing among the Tatars and Kurils,^ the Afghans '^ and the einem Beweise dienen, dass die Liebe stumm bleibet, wann die Einbil- dungskraft ruhig ist. Am folgenden Morgen bringt die Mutter des Madchens den beyden Liebenden eine holzerne Schiissel mil Kaffe, dessen Gebrauch auf diesen Gebirgen durchgehends eingefiihrt ist. Sie setzet sich auf das Bette, friihstiicket mit ihnen und wurde es fiir eine Beleidigung ihres kunftigen Eidams halten, wenn sie sich im geringsten merken liesse, dass sie eine Enthaltungdie uns in Frankreich auf lebenslang lacherlich macht, in Zweifel ziehe.' Taken from Bemerkungen eines Malteser Ritters auf eine Reise dttrch einige europiiische Lander. Fischer's Deutsche Probendchte, which was inaccessible to me at the time of writing, contains much that bears on the question. It has just been reprinted. 1 Adams, p. 32, and Michelet, Origines du Droit, p. 28. A curious custom, which seems to have had its origin infenstern, existed at one time among the Circassians. The husband often, if not universally, during the first twelve months of marriage or until the birth of the first child, visited his wife secretly through the window. See Wake, i. 179. ^ Liebrecht quotes the following from Migne, ' Les Kouriles ont jusqu'a deux ou trois femmes, mais ils ne voient les filles qu'ils recherchent que la nuit a la derobee, comme les Tatares mahometans, jusqu'a ce qu'ils aient paye au pere le prix que doit leur couter la fille. ' 2 Adams, p. 31, quotes Masson's Journeys in Beloochistan, Afghaftistan, etc., iii. p. 287. 'Many of the Afghan tribes have a custom of wooing similar to what in Wales is known as bundling-up^ and which they term natmat baze. The lover presents himself at the house of his betrothed with a suitable gift, and in return is allowed to pass the night with her on the understanding that innocent endear- ments are not to be exceeded.' 136 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM Sinamban Dyaks in Borneo.^ Liebrecht says there is possibly a hint of the practice among the Spartans in Plutarch's ' Lycurgus.' ^ As long as bundling consists in an innocent court- ship, it does not concern us. It, however, represented not seldom something more. In Brand's Popular Antiquities it is said that 'the mischievous consequences arising from such a practice are sufficiently obvious. It was formerly customary in Cumberland and Westmoreland, and produced similarly unfortunate and immoral conse- quences in the majority of cases.' ^ In Wales, according to Stiles, as quoted by Mr. Adams, it was not at all infre- quent for a child to be born ' within two or three months after the marriage ceremony had taken place.' The same phenomenon appeared in New England in the last century, as Mr. Adams has pointed out. The clergy considered the abuse so great that they refused to baptize a child born less than seven months after marriage. To save their offspring from eternal damnation, many people were obliged to 'confess fornication before marriage,' in the presence of the congregation of their church.^ ^ When the suitor ' has carried on these attentions for some time he thinks that he may proceed to a more expHcit declaration. At night, when the family is supposed to be asleep, he quietly slides back the bolt of the door, steals to the spot where his beloved is sleeping under her mosquito curtains, and gently awakes her. He also brings with him an abundant supply of betel nut and sirih leaf, and the two sit talking together throughout the greater part of the night.' — Wood, Tht NatJiral History of Man, 'Australia,' etc., p. 89; Liebrecht, p. 379. '^ 'Lycurgus' (Plutarch), chs. xv.-xvi. ^ Ed. Carew Hazlitt, pp. 2, 56, cited by Liebrecht, p. 379. * Adams, p. 21. ' Under the operation of " the seven months' rule," the records of the Groton church show that out of two hundred SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 137 While it is rather improbable that bundling as such exists to-day in America, something like it or its abuses is to be found in New England. It is not uncommon, I am told on good authority, for marriages in the rural districts to be followed in two or three months by the birth of a child, and the married couple do not appear to lose caste on that account. In other words, a young man and woman may ' keep company,' but as soon as the latter shows signs of pregnancy, they marry. It does not follow by any means that parents would connive at this sort of relationship, as they did at bundling, but they certainly do tolerate it.^ So far, we have considered marriages, temporary in nature, which were regarded as the possible preludes of a more lasting relationship. There still remain those, and they form a more important class, without any such latent idea, namely, unions contracted for a stipulated period of time. They are to be found over all the world, but are especially popular among hunting nations, and at the halting-places of armies and caravans. They resemble the marriages which the sailor contracts in every port, with this exception, that they are legal. In North America, according to Charlevoix, 'quelques Nations ont des Femmes dans tous les Quartiers ou ils doivent sejourner quelque tems pour la Chasse ; et on m'a assure que cet abus s'est introduit depuis quelque tems parmi les peuples de la Langue Huronne, qui de persons owning the baptismal covenant in that church during the fourteen years between 1761 and 1775, no less than sixty-six confessed to fornication before marriage.' ' I have been informed that the ' two months' and three months' child ' in Yorkshire is common, and excites little comment. 138 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM tout terns s'etaient contentes d'une seule femme.' ^ The Creeks considered marriage only as a temporary con- venience, not binding on the parties more than one year, ' and consequently, a large portion of the old and middle- aged men, by frequently changing, have many different wives, and their childreyi, scattered around the country, are unknown to them ' (my own italics).^ A Yakout, obliged to make frequent journeys, has a wife in every place.^ Among the Aleuts, women were allowed to enter into relations with another man beside their husbands, originally with hunters and traders of their tribe who made a short sojourn among them.* An Eskimo hunter of Pt. Barrow, when about to start on a hunting expedition, may borrow the wife of another man if she is a better helper than his own spouse.^ Kohler says of the Aztecs, ' Es gab auch eine Ehe auf Zeit, welche vom Ehemann jeweils gelost werden konnte. Die Kinder waren eheliche Kinder; das Weib oder ihre Verwandten konnten, wenn ein Sohn geboren war, ver- langen, dass der Ehemann sie entweder vollkommen heirathe oder sie zuriickgebe. Es war also eine Ehe auf Zeit, auf ungewisse Zeit allerdings : bis zur Geburt eines Kindes, und auch dann konnte die Ehe prorogirt werden ; denn die Losung fand nur auf Antrag statt. Trotzdem ist solche Ehe als Zeitehe zu bezeichnen, da sie wesentlich ^ Charlevoix, yournat d'un Voyage, etc., iii. 283. ^ Schoolcraft, vol. v. p. 273. ^ Spencer, § 304, quoting de hesssT^s^ Joup-nal de son voyage depziis Kamtschatka jnsqzi' en France, vol. ii. p. 285. ■* Post, Afrik. Jurisp., p. 323. ° Murdoch, Pt. Barrow Eskimo, Ninth Ann. Rep. of B. of Eth., p. 413. Notice the whole page, which is exceedingly interesting. SOHRAB AND RUST EM 139 von einem bestimmten, allerdings unsicheren Ereigniss begrenzt war. Eine solche Frau auf Zeit hiess temecauh oder tlacallalcahuilli.'i The Berbers, likewise, are said to have wives wherever their business may happen to call them,^ and among the Jews of Morocco, ' the Rabbis consecrate temporary mar- riages for three to six months, according to agreement. The man only engages to acknowledge the child, if needful, and to make a certain donation to the mother.'^ In Akkra also similar unions were entered into at the time of the great markets.* Mr. Calder speaks of brief marriages between sealers and savages in Tasmania, and says, ' But in Australia I have heard that the union from which these unfortunates (the offspring) are produced is of the most temporary nature, and usually dissolved after a brief intimacy ; the care of the offspring of it being wholly surrendered to the mother, in whose charge it seems never to reach even adolescence.'^ The mortality among the children seems to be due, not to natural causes, but to cruelty caused by the hatred of the woman felt towards her former com- panion, a vindictiveness which has a kind of parallel in one of the versions of the Cuchulainn story. In Persia this temporary marriage is called the Sighe marriage, and may extend from one night to ninety-nine years.^ It is said to be especially popular at the halting- ^ Joseph Kohler, Das Recht der Azteken: Z.f. v. R., vol. xi. p. 56. Cf. Arjuna's marriage lasting till birth. - Giraud-Teulon, p. i8o. ^ Letourneau, p. 67. ■* Post, Afrik.Jurisp., p. 322. ^ J. E. Calder, 'Native Tribes of Tasmania,' four, of Ant hr op. Inst., iii, p. 22. " Westermarck, p. 519. 14© SOHRAB AND RUSTEM places of caravans. Among the Arabs it was known as the nikah al-?nofa} It existed in the time of Mohammed, and, indeed, tradition has credited him with the institution of it." One of the earhest persons to speak of it was Ammianus Marcellinus. The Saracens' 'Hfe is one con- tinued wandering; their wives are hired, on special cove- nant, for a fixed time ; and that there may be some appearance of marriage in the business, the intended wife, under the name of a dowry, offers a spear and tent to her husband, with a right to quit him after a fixed day, if she should choose to do so.' ^ Wilken quotes two interesting cases of the ?nofa marriage, which give a very clear idea of its nature. The first is given by Sabra, a contemporary of Mohammed. While the latter was in Mekka, in the eighth year of the Hegira, Sabra says, ' I betook myself, with one of my friends, to a woman of the Band 'Amir, and we asked her about the mofa. She inquired as to what we would give her. We offered her our mantles. My friend's mantle was better than mine, yet I was handsomer than he. When she looked at his mantle she was visibly taken by it, yet when she looked at me she was filled with admiration. She declared that she would choose me, and that my mantle would be sufficient payment. I remained three ^ Wilken, p. 17. 'Die mot 'a, eine fur bestimmte Zeit geschlossene Heirath, und die nach Ablauf des festgestellten Termins von selbst aufgehoben war, ohne dass eine formelle Ehescheidung nothig war.' - Iltid. p. 13. 'So wird auf die Autoritat von Abdallah b Mas'ud erz'ahlt, das Mohammed wlihrend eines Kriegszuges, als seine Gefahr- ten so sehr die Abwesenheit ihrer P'rauen fiihlten das sie sich kastrieren woUten ; ihnen dies verbot, jedoch ihnen dagegen erlaubte, gegen ein KleidungsstUck oder etwas Derartiges zeitliche Ehe zu schliessen. ' ' Ammianus Marcellinus, xiv. 4. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 141 days with her, and then the Prophet commanded each one who had a wife by the mofa to send her off.' ^ This case occurred in time of war, but it was as common in cities for men to obtain temporary wives in much the same fashion. An instance of this is to be found in Hamilton's New Account of the East Indies.^ 'The largest city in Arabia Felix is Sounan. ... In all the streets there are brokers for wives, so that a stranger who has not the conveniency of a house in the city to lodge in may marry, and be made a free burgher for a small sum, When the man sees his spouse, and likes her, they agree on the price and term of weeks, months, or years, and then appear before the cadjee or judge of the place, and enter their names and terms in his book, which costs but a shilling or thereabout. And, joining hands before him, the marriage is valid for better, for worse, till the expiration of the term agreed upon. And if they have a mind to part, or renew the contract, they are at liberty to choose for themselves what they judge most proper ; but if either want to be separated during the term limited, there must be a commutation of money paid by the separating party to the other, according as they can agree ; and so they become free to make a new marriage elsewhere.' ^ Traces of time marriages in Europe are not so numerous nor so clearly defined, but some of the unions on trial, mentioned above, are very like these temporary con- nections. Time marriages, however, seem to exist among the Ossetes ^ Wilken, pp. 11- 12. - Hamilton, vol. i. pp. 52-53 ; Wilken, p. 19. ' Wilken, p. 19. 142 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM in the highlands of the Caucasus, and are considered by Kovalevsky to be remnants of Iranian culture.^ An interesting custom of the ancient Tapyres should be mentioned. Giraud-Teulon says that when one of their women had two or three infants from a man, she separated from him, and to-day, in the Andaman islands, marriage ends at the birth of a child.- This recalls the marriage of Arjuna and Chitrangada,^ which ended at the birth of Vabhruvahana. Naturally, where time marriages were common, people had no very clear conception of a union which would be binding for life. Divorces were frequent, and where the children stayed with the mother, they would be extremely uncertain as to their paternity. Nowhere does separation seem to have occurred oftener than among the Arabs, whose mofa marriages have just been referred to. A certain woman named 0mm Charidja was notorious for having had more than forty husbands, who belonged to twenty different tribes.^ Alee, the stepson of Mohammed, is said to have had more than two hundred wives, and a certain dyer of Bag- dad held the astonishing record of having married more 1 Kovalevsky, 'Iranian Culture,' Arch. Kev., i. p. 315. - Giraud-Teulon, p. 3. ^ Another case of Zeitehe. ' Bei den Orang Sakei im Innern von Malakka geht ein Madchen, nachdem es einige Tage, oder einige Wochen mit einem Manne verheirathet ist, mit dem Einverstandnisse desselben und freiwillig zu einem Anderen, mit welchem sie vvieder kiirzere oder langere Zeit zubringt. So macht sie die Runde bei s'ammtlichen Miinnern der Gesellschaft, bis sie zu ihrem ersten Gemahl kommt, bei dem sie aber wieder nicht bleibt, sondern diese durch Zufall und Wunsch regulirten temporaren Ehen weiter schliesst.' — Post, Grundlagen, p. 186, note. * Wilken, p. 23. SO.HRAB AND RUST EM 143 than nine hundred women during the eighty-five years of his lifetime.^ The same phenomenon is to be found in America, ' the classic land of divorce,' where temporary unions were frequently contracted by the Indians. Among the Creek Indians, ' few women have more than two children by the same father, hence they have found the necessity of conferring the honours of chiefs and micos on the issue of the female line, for it would be impossible to trace the right by the male issue.' ^ The most important divorces to be noted in connection with this study are, of course, those where, upon separation, the child remains with its mother, either for ever, or merely for a more or less definite period. Thus, among the Iroquois, Mr. Carr says, ' It appears that, sometimes in cases of divorce after children had been born to the parties, the fathers did lay claim to the sons, . . . and yet we are told that the women never allowed the claim, and did not hesitate to defeat it whenever made. The children, too, having grown up under the wing of the mother, generally took her side in the quarrel and resented the affront which their father, by his desertion, had put upon them, not less than upon her.'^ Men of the Spokanes, when marrying into another tribe, join that of their wives, because she can work better in a country to ^ Wilken, p. 24, quoting Lane. 2 Schoolcraft, ibid. vol. v. p. 273. On divorce of American Indians, consult for list, Jos. Kohler, Die Rechte der Ui-vblker Nord Amerikas, Z.f. v. R., vol. xii. p. 387. ^ Lucien Carr, the ' Social and Political Position of Women among the Huron Iroquois Tribes,' Sixleenih Report of the Peabody Alusaitn of American Archaeology and Eth., 1S82. 144 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM which she is accustomed. . . . Either party may dissolve the marriage at will, but property must be equitably divided, the children going with the mother.^ Women of the lower classes of Nicaragua frequently left their husbands, and kept possession of their children.- In Yucatan, if the children were still of tender age at the time the parents separated, they were left with the mother : if groum up, the boy followed the father, tvhile the girls remained ivith the mother ^ (my own italics). The women of the Payaguas, in South America, in case of divorce retained the children and the property, and the husband only kept his weapons and his clothes.* The Angamis, an aboriginal tribe in India, though monogamous, marry as often as they wish. ' Such offspring as require the maternal aid, follow the mother, and are tended and cared for by her until able to look after them- selves, when they return to their father.' ^ Among the Kasias too, divorces occur frequently. When a man and his wife desire to separate, they simply throw away publicly some shells which they have received from each other. The offspring stay with the woman. ^ In Samoa the young children follow the mother, the more advanced, the father; whilst among the Sinhalese, boys are taken by the latter, girls by the former. But among ^ Bancroft, i. p. 277. ^ Belt, The Naturalist in Nicaragua : London, 1874. ' Bancroft, ii. 672. * Starcke, p. 45. ^ R. G. Woodthorpe, ' Wild Tribes inhabiting the so-called Naga aWh,' Journ. of Ant h. hist., vol. xi. p. 68. ^ Dalton, Eth. of Bengal, p. 57. A child often forgets its father and the latter's person before it grows up. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 145 many uncivilised peoples, all the children, if young, follow the mother.! There still remains to be mentioned one more very important custom, in accordance with which a child re- maining with its mother will have difficulty in recognising his true father. I have reference to the practice of lending wives, or other women, either as a law of hospitality or in order to obtain noble offspring. Over the entire world it is, and has been, a custom among many primitive and comparatively civilised peoples for the host to offer the guest within his doors some woman of his household as a companion during his visit. ^ The greatest compliment a Comanche can pay his guest is to assign him one of his wives for his use during his stay in camp.^ The great men of the Cumanas ' kept as many women as they pleased, and gave the beautifullest of them to any stranger they entertained.' * The women of Jaltipan, Moro says, 'son de costumbres sumamente libres, suele decirse ademas que los jaltipanos no solo no las celan sino que llevan las ideas de hospitalidad a un raro exceso.'^ The Aleuts and Eskimos are similarly hospitable.^ ^ Westermarck, p. 533. He also gives the following peoples among whom the child remains with the mother : Greenlanders, Thlinkets, Inland Columbians, Apaches, Gallinomeros in California, Caribs, Payaguas, Marianne Islanders and Tongans. See his note 4 for the references. See Starcke, p. 66, same thing, with Bike and Banyai of Africa. - See Westermarck, p. 73, etc.; Letourneau, p. 60; Post, Geschlechts- genossenschaft, p. 35. 3 Schoolcraft, vol. v. p. 684. ■1 Spencer, § 280, quoting Herrera, General History of the Continent and Islands of America, vol. iii. p. 304. ^ Bancroft, i. 662. '^ Ibid. i. 65. K 146 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM In Africa, at Gaboon, a man will offer the choice between his wife, sister and daughter. The women, of course, do as they are told by the men, and they consider all favour with a white man as a high honour.^ In Madagascar, where adultery is looked upon as robbery, men are forewarned to behave with decency toward the wives of their hosts, but are offered the daughters, and it is considered a great honour if they have children by them. 2 Dampier, in his account of the Philippines, says, 'The chief factors and captains of ships have the great men's daughters offered them, the mandarins' or nobleman's at Tunquin, and even the king's wives in Guinea : and by this sort of alliance the country people are engaged to a greater friendship.' ^ In Burma, according to Kohler, ' Bei den nicht zur Kultur gediehenen Racen Birma's ist es Sitte, dass Tochter und Frauen den Fremden zur zeitweiligen zusammenleben preisgegeben werden. Und was Sitte war, das wurde von den birmanischen Grossen als Recht beansprucht, und vom Volke gewahrt.''* Marco Polo, speaking of the inhabitants of Kamul, says, ' If a foreigner comes to the house of one of these people to lodge, the host is delighted, and desires his wife to put herself entirely at the guests' disposal, whilst he, himself, gets (entirely) out of the way and comes back no more until the stranger shall have taken his departure. The guest may stay and enjoy the wife's society as long as he ^ Wake, Evolution of Morality, i. 164-165. - Rochon's 'Voyage to Madagascar,' Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 747- ^ Dampier's 'Account of the Philippines,' Pinkerton, vol. xi. p. 41. ^ Kohler, Rechtsvergleichende Skizzen, Z. f. v. R., viii. p. 84. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 147 lists, whilst the husband has no shame in the matter, but considers it an honour.' ^ Very often any refusal on the part of the guest to accept the proffered hospitality was regarded as an insult. Burckhardt says that in Arabia, the ' El Merekede, a branch of the great Asyr tribe, indulged in an ancient custom of their forefathers by assigning to the stranger, who alighted at their tents or houses, some female of the family to be his companion during the night, most com- monly the host's own wife ; but to this barbarous custom of hospitality young virgins were never sacrificed. If the stranger rendered himself agreeable to his fair partner, he was treated next morning with the utmost attention by his host, and furnished, on parting, with provisions sufficient for the remainder of his journey : but if, unfortunately, he did not please the lady, his cloak was found next day to want a piece, cut off by her as a signal of contempt. This circumstance being known, the unlucky traveller was driven away with disgrace by all the women and children of the village or encampment.' ^ The same is or was true of the Chukchis and Koriaks.^ 1 Marco Polo, book i. ch. xli. ; Yule, i. 189. ^ Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia, p. 448. ' Adolph Erman, Reise urn die Erde, 1838, vol. ii. p. 423 note. The old Arab traveller, Ibn Muhalhal (tenth century), also relates the same of the Hazlakh (probably Kharlikh) Turks : ' Duels alicujus uxor vel filia vel soror, quum mercatorum agmen in terrara venit, eos adit, eorumque lustrat faciem. Quorum siquis earum afficit admiratione hunc domum suam ducit, eumque apud se hospitio excipit, eique benigne facit. Atque marito suo et filio fratrique rerum necessariarum curam demandat ; neque dum hospes apud eam habitat, nisi necessarium est, earn adit.' — Yule, Marco Polo, vol. i. p. 191, note. 148 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 1 mentioned that the custom was not confined merely to primitive tribes, but was to be found also among peoples of a higher grade of civilisation. Traces of its existence in ancient India occur in the Mahabharata. It is said there that, ' One day in the presence of ^wetaketu's father, a Brahman took Cwetaketu's mother by the hand and said, " Let us go." The rshi's son, stirred up by wrath, was angry, seeing his mother thus led away by seeming force. But his father, perceiving his son to be angry, said to him, " Do not be angry, my dear boy, this is an old custom." The rshi's son, disapproving of it, established the present usage as regards men and women. ^ In the Vedas,~ a husband is represented as announcing with considerable naivete, that he will no longer allow his wives to be approached by other men, since he has received an opinion, ' that a son belongs to him who begot him in the world of Yama.' But we do not have to go to such a remote past for examples. The same hospitality is very frequent in Irish heroic tale. InBricriu's Feast, Medhibh places fifty maidens at the disposal of her Ulster guests, and bestows her daughter upon Cuchulainn. Meray has called attention to a number of instances occurring in French mediaeval literature which point to the existence of the custom in France. In the fabliau of Garin, a chatelaine sends one of the prettiest of her maidens to a guest, saying : ' Belle cousine, Tu t'en iras au chevalier Que monseigneur heberja hier ; Ne cri ne noise ne feras, ^ Mahabharata: Calcutta, ed. i. 1. 4726, Adi Parva, § cxii., etc., quoted by Mayne, On Hindu Law and Usage, § 62. 2 Maync, §§ 65-66. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 149 Et avec li te coucheras Et feras du tout son plaisir . . . Et bien li dis que je y alasse Se le comte ne redoutasse. ..." In an old song, the Sire de Beaussart comes home after a long absence, and finds that his mother, jealous of his wife, has made the latter take care of the swine. When after supper she asks him if he wishes a companion for the night, not recognising him, he answers : ' Sera la pauvre porchere, Que j'aurai a mon coucher.' *■ There is also a case, of no great importance, it is true, in the story from the Heptameron., of the hospitality ex- ercised by Charles v. to Francis i. during the latter's captivity. Other examples of presumably the same practice are to be found in Germany and Norway. In the poetic Edda (Rigsfula), the god Heimdall comes to the old childless couple Ai and Edda, shares their bed and begets a child, the ancestor of all thralls, upon Edda. He does the same with two other couples, and begets the ancestors of peasants and nobles. According to Murner, writing in the early sixteenth century, ' Es ist in dem Niderland der Bruch, so der Wyrt ein lieben gast hat, dass er jm seine Frou zulegt uff guten Glauben ' ; and also on the authority of Henne am Rhyn quoting Aeneus Sylvius and Bonstetten : ' Im Wien begniigte sich selten eine Frau mit einem Manne, ' Antony Meray, La Vie au Temps des Trouveres, p. 79 : Paris el Lyon. 1873. I50 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM und wenn die Edeln zu den Burgern kamen, so trugen die Letzeren Wein auf und entfernten sich.'^ But men have not loaned their wives merely to accord with the dictates of hospitality. More important, perhaps, are the cases where they have done so to procure nobler offspring. 1 have been told that such a feeling has often actuated the North-American Indian.- Lady Duff Gordon states that a Cape Hottentot woman considers it an honour to have a child by a white man.^ Erman was told, ' Wie die Tschuktschen und Korjaken am Penjinsker Meere den russichen Postfiihrer bei seiner jahrlicher Durchreise baten, dass er ihren Weibern bei- wohnte, und ihn oft bei der Wiederkehr mit reichen Geschenken belohnten, weil unterdessen ein Sohn aus solcherm voriibergehendem Bundniss geboren sei ; so sehr strebten sie ihren Stamm durch riissisches Blut zu veredeln.' Erman, commenting on this piece of informa- tion, says that the same loan, of not merely wives but daughters also, was made by the Chukchis and Koriats to their own tribesmen as well as to Russians.'^ ^ Quoted by Dargun, 44-45. He calls attention to the following in the Visigothic Law (iv. i, 2,) : ' Ea tamen conditione retenta, ut si mulieris maritus . . . eandem suum uxorem, ea nolente adulterandum cuicunque viro dedisse vel promisse convincitur, quia tale nefas fieri nequaquam inter Christianos oportet, nubendi alteri viro . . nulla- tenus illicitum est.' See also Weinhold, ii. 23. - My authority is Mr. Lucien Carr. ^ James Bonwick, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, p. 73 : London, 1870. * Erman, ibid. p. 423. A refusal of such an offer is considered an insult. See also Klemm, Allgemeine Culturgeschichte, ii. 204 : ' Die Tschuktschen welche den nordostlichen Theil von Sibirien bewohnen, pfiegcn ebenfalls ihre Frauen zu zwingen sich von einem andern be- fruchiigen zu lassen falls sic eines Sohnes oder Erben bedurftig sind. ' SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 151 The custom seems to have been particularly common among the Hindus. In the Mahabharata, Pandu says to Kunti, 'The woman who is commanded by her husband to raise offspring and refuses, is sinful,' and it is Kunti who, on account of her husband's impotence, calls down the gods from heaven to beget upon her and Madri the Pandu princes.^ Similarly, obeying the order of her husband, Madayanti went to the sage Vagistha for offspring,^ and Angiras, solicited for progeny, begot sons possessing the glory of the Brahmans upon the wife of Rathetara, who was childless.^ The case of Jaratkaru has already been mentioned. Coming to Greece, we have Plutarch's testimony as to the existence of the custom among the Spartans. 'Lycurgus,' he says, 'was equally careful to banish empty and womanish jealousy. For this object, excluding all licentious disorders, he made it, nevertheless, honourable for men to give the use of their wives to those whom they should think fit, that so they might have children by them, ridiculing those in whose opinion such favours are so unfit for participation as to fight and shed blood and go to ^ Alahabharata, i. 4S34, ff. '^ Ibid. i. 4736. ' yi.^\i^% Sanskrit Texts, i. p. 224. Cf. also Mahabharata, Adi Parva, § cxx, etc. ' Six kinds of sons are mentioned as heirs and kinsmen, (i) The son begotten by a man upon his wife. (2) The son begotten upon a man's wife by an accomplished person, from motives of kindness. (3) The son begotten upon one's wife by a person for a pecuniary consideration,' etc. And Baudhayana, ii. 2, 17 : ' He who is begotten by another man on the wife of a deceased man, of a eunuch, or of one deceased after permission, is called the son begotten upon a wife. Such a son has two fathers and belongs to two families.' 152 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM war about it. Lycurgus allowed a man who was advanced in years and had a young wife to recommend some virtuous and approved young man, that she might have a child by him, who might inherit the good qualities of the father, and be a son to himself. On the other side, an honest man who had love for a married woman, on account of her modesty and the well-favouredness of her children, might, without formality, beg her company of her husband, that he might raise as it were from this plot of ground worthy and well allied children to himself.' ^ The position of the women in our stories now calls for some notice. Not only here but in other epics and romances, it is often the heroine, not the hero, who makes the advances. Not infrequently she appears in the night at the man's bedside, and declares her love in the most unmistakeable terms. Usually the situation is accepted with good grace by the hero, though occasionally, like Marko in a Serbian ballad, and Arjuna in the Mahabharata, he refuses her prayers, and lectures her upon the impro- priety of her conduct. Had we but the chanso7is de geste to judge by, it might be thought that we had to do merely with another manifestation of that contempt for women, so characteristic of the fabliaux and other literature of its class. Such an assumption would be quite untenable, for the same phenomenon Spears in the Indian and Persian epics, where the heroines are the noblest types of women conceivable. Savitri, in the Mahabharata, although she only sees her husband once, chooses him. Damayanti threatens to take poison or drown herself if her timid lover does not marry her. In the Shah Natneh, Roudabeh, hearing of ^ Plutarch, 'Lycurgus' (Clough's trans.), p 35. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 153 the beauty of Zal, sends one of her women to him with offers of love. The offspring of their marriage is Rustem. At a spring festival in the meadows Menijeh sees Bijen and has him brought to her. Their union at first brings nothing but sorrow ; Bijen is cast into a pit, and Menijeh begs bread for him from door to door. Such an effect does her devotion and nobiHty of character make upon her lover that his one desire, when help is at hand, is that he may live to stand up before her and worship her, as he would his Creator. Gulnar, the favourite of Ardewan, falls in love with Ardeshir, the master of the stables, and comes to his house at night. The two make the guards drunk, and flee with the king's jewels and his two finest horses.^ By the side of women like Roudabeh and Tehmineh, however, there are others who resemble strikingly som.e of the French heroines. Such an one is Malikeh. When Shapur is besieging Thair, the Arab, the latter's daughter, Malikeh, sees him, and sends her nurse to tell him that if he will marry her she will surrender the castle to him. At night the castle is taken and Thair is beheaded before his daughter's eyes. His last words recall those in Othello, ' Reflect upon what my child has done to me, and expect from her a like tenderness.' Particularly interesting are some Maori stories. In the first of these it is told that, ' Paoa heard of the fame of Tukutuku, who lived at Raupa and at Rua-wehea, who was on account of her hospitality much liked by her people, ' The story reminds us of the Waltharius, and is possibly a Persian version of the same theme. Ardeshir had been sent to Ardewan to be brought up by him, and had been degraded to the position of master of the stables on account of the jealousy excited by his prowess. 154 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM from Rua-wehea even to Moe-hau. Paoa determined to have her as his wife, and, leaving the Hoe-o-tai-nui, he went towards Raupa to see this daughter of Taha-rua, and when he had seen her, she also determined to take him as her husband. He was courted by her, but did not show any return of affection for her. She told her mother of the fact, who said, "Go and prepare a house, and invite him to stay there." She did so, and he took her as his wife, and when the time was near that her first born was expected Paoa had a wish to return to his home ; so he went to Tikou, which is in the Pi-ako district.' ^ Another tale is the one about Pare and Hutu. In ancient times there lived a sacred woman called Pare. She was a woman of the highest rank, and was kept unbetrothed till a chief of the same rank as herself could take her as his wife. She lived with her female attendants in a carved house, which was set apart for her sole use ; it ^ White, Attcieni Maori History, iv. 218-219. The same story is told with greater detail in the succeeding pages. On p. 235 Tuku- tuku sits near Paoa, ' She did not sit there long before her hand was stretched out to touch the hand of Paoa,' etc. This story contains nearly all the formula features : the hero marrying away from home ; wife, a woman of important position, makes the advances ; and the husband leaves her without any excuse, ^just before a child is to be born.'' The story goes on to say that he marries again, and when an old man is advised by the children of his second wife to visit his wife and her children. Here is an opportunity for the usual tragedy, but it comes later in a different form. Paoa is kindly received, but when his first wife's children come to get him they are attacked by their half-brothers, and barely escape with their lives. Paoa's importance is not great by the side of Tukutuku's, p. 23S. The people said, ' She shall be our supreme leader.' All the people acknowledged her sway . . . and she nourished and protected them . . . her pa was crowded with occupants. ' SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 155 was most beautiful, and surrounded with three sets of palisading. It was a custom of the people to set apart certain moons of the year for games and amusements, such as whipping the top, throwing the 7iiti, and other games, in which their ancestors engaged. In one of these seasons of amusement a chief of high rank, called Hutu, came to the settlement where Pare lived, and joined the people in their games. His niti flew beyond theirs, and the settlement rang with shouts of applause. Pare heard the shouts of the crowd, and went to the door of her house to learn the cause, and there sat to watch another game. Hutu again threw his niti, which dropped close to the door where Pare was sitting. She took it into her house. Hutu went to the door and asked for it. Pare refused to part with it. He repeated his demand, and said, ' Pare, give my niti to me.' She answered, ' You, Hutu, come into my house that I may talk with you. I admire you much.' Hutu repUed, ' I have not any desire to enter your house, I am alone in the midst of your people. They are a great tribe. I am a stranger in your midst, and solitary in your district, and it will not be in accordance with our custom that I, a man of low birth, should enter the house of one of superior rank. I have a wife and children at my home.' Pare replied, ' Your words and argument have no effect on me. I greatly admire you. You are a proficient player in all games. Yours is the top that hums the loudest, and yours is the ;z/// which flies the greatest distance. My love is great for you.' Thus they argued, but still Hutu declined to enter her house. In vain she pleaded her admiration of him. He stood unmoved. She took hold of him and led him in, and closed the door. He said, ' I have entered. 156 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM and request to be allowed to depart,' and he left the house ; but Pare followed him. He turned and said, * You stay at your home, and in a short time I will return to you ' ; and he fled as fast as he could. Pare saw that he hurried away from her. She called out and said, ' Go, O Hutu ! depart to your own home,' and returned to her house, and put it in proper order. When this was done, she sat alone and wept, and hung herself.^ ^ I cannot refrain from giving the rest of this delightful story, for it does not end with Fare's pathetic death. Her people, enraged with Hutu, took him prisoner, and led him to the house where the corpse was lying. They told him they would kill him. Hutu said, 'It is right that you should kill me to appease your sorrow for the death of your supreme head.' Then he asked them to let him depart for three or four days, and not to bury the body before he returned. He obtained permission, and then went to Hine-nui-te-po, and asked her the way to the abode of spirits. She pointed out the path, and gave him some food, saying, 'When you get below, eat sparingly of the food, so that it may last for some time ; if you eat of the food belonging to the world of spirits you will not be able to come back to this world.' When Hutu got to the lower world he went to the village where Pare was, but she could not appear in public. He played tops and threw niti, but all in vain. Then he had a tree stripped of its branches, and had ropes tied to the top, so that when the tree was pulled down and sprung back, it made a most wonderful swing. Pare heard of it, and came to see it. Hutu was glad to behold her again ; he took her on his shoulders, and told the people to pull the head of the tree down to the earth. They did so, but with such a jerk that the ropes were thrown so high that they became entangled in the grass and weeds, which were growing on the soil of the upper world. Hutu climbed up the ropes with Pare on his back, caught hold of the grass at the entrance or door of the lower world, and pulled him- self up to the upper world. The people rejoiced at her recovery, and shouted aloud to welcome their supreme head to life again. They said Hutu should take Pare SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 157 As two of the variants of the Father and Son Combat were taken from Siberian-Turkish tribes, an instance of woman's wooing, from their ballads, may not be out of place, particularly as the maiden is own sister to the Saracen heroines of the chansons de geste. 2559. ' Des Ai Mergan einzige Tochter Mit sechzig Miidchen Unterhalb des weissen Berges, Auf dem kleinen Hiigel Spielt sie. Mit siebzig Madchen Laufend, singt sie Lieder. Des Ai Mergan einzige Tochter Sieht den Ar Tjotai, Von den sechzig Madchen lief sie fort, Von den siebzig Madchen lief sie fort, Zu dem Ar Tjotai kam sie. " Heil dir, mein Held, mein Starker, Du als Held geborener Ar Tjotai ! Du bist mir vom Schopfer her verbunden, Du bist mir durch Goltes Befehl verbunden, Todte schnell meinen Vater ! Nimm mich schnell zu deinem Weibe Und treibe mein Vieh fort ! as his second wife. Hutu asked, ' And what shall I do with my present wife and children ? ' The people answered, 'You must have two wives.' From that time they called him Pare-hutu (silently standing with a plume on his head ; leap, jump, with a plume on his head). Altogether, a pretty variant of Orpheus and Eurydice. — White, ibid. ii. p. 163, etc. I have abbreviated the story considerably, and occasionally in the first part changed the wording. The conclusion in the note is retold practically. 158 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM Auch mein Volk treibe fort 1 '' Der als Held geborener Ar Tjotai Spricht darauf zu dem Madchen : " Erbarme dich des Vaters, Kindchen I Wenn ich den Vater todte, Wie soil ich das Kind freien ? " . . . 2590. "Wenn du meinen Vater lebendig machst, Wenn du seine Hiinde und Fiisse frei machst, Soheirathe ich dich nicht Ar Tjotai."'^ In Russian epic poetry also, the women court the men to whom their fancy turns. Marinka, the beautiful enchantress, takes Dobrynya by his white hand, by his silver ring, kisses his sugar mouth, and says, ' Ah, sweet Dobrynya Nikitich, give me thy love.'- Young Nastasya Mikulichna,^ the Amazon, says of the hero she has imprisoned in her leather pouch : ' If the hero be aged, I will cut off his head ; if he be young and well pleasing in my sight, I will call him friend and lover; if he please me not, I will set him on one of my palms, and press him with the other, and make a pancake of him.' Then she drew him forth from the leather-pouch, and liked him well. ' Hail, dearest Dobrynya Nikitich ! ' quoth she. ' How knowest thou me, bold virgin knight, for thee I know not?' * I have been in Kief town, and have seen thee, Dob- rynushka ; but thou couldst by no means know me.' ' I am the daughter of the Polish King, Nastasya Miku- lichna, and I roam the open plain seeking an adversary. 1 Radloff, ii. p. 461. 2 Hapgood, The Epic Songs of Russia, p. 1 1 8. I use here Miss Hapgood's translation. " Ibid. p. 119. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 159 If thou wilt take me for thy wife, Dobrynya, I will grant thee thy life. And thou must take a great oath ; if thou swear it not, I will make of thee an oatcake.' Irish literature especially abounds in courtships of the same character. Deirdre, in the ' Death of the Sons of Usnech,' is particularly violent in her wooing.^ Grainne- and the daughter of the King of Greece,^ like Damayanti of the Mahabharata, or the American Priscilla, prefer their proxy suitors. The fairy Fand sends word to Cuchulainn to come to her in the land of Mag Mell.'* In the wooing of Becfola it is said : ' Subsequently the woman pitched her love on Crimthann Mac Aedh, the king's pupil, in lieu of Dermot, and for a long time persevered in soliciting of him.' 5 In the Gilla decair, we again meet one of the sinister heroines, Taise, daughter of the King of the Greeks. ' Great as was the love which at the first Taise of the white body had borne to Finn, seven times so much she bestowed on him while he butchered her brother. Privily, therefore, she sent him an embassage, offering herself to him : a matter which to Finn was of gladness and com- plete inclination.'*^ In the chansons de geste we meet again and again with women taking the initiative. Rajna, in speaking of the French epic heroine, gives the characteristics of her 1 Cf. M. Ponsinet's translation, Revue des Traditions Populaires, vol. iii. pp. 202-203: 1888. ^ The Pursuit of Diart/iuid aiid Graintie, "(t.^g : Dublin, 1880. ^ Folk and He 1-0 Tales from Argyllshire, Rev. D. Maclnnes, pp. 379 and 489. * Nutt, Voyage of Bran, vol. ii. p. 46. ^ Silva Gadelica, Standish O'Grady, vol. ii. p. 91 ; London, 1892. ® Ibid. p. 307. i6o SOHRABANDRUSTEM type as follows : She falls in love with a stranger, or, indeed, an enemy, offers herself, and accepts his love, and, finally, for his sake, betrays and abandons father, home, and relations. He is speaking of Basina, the wife of Bisino, who followed Childeric to France and offered herself to him, but considers that the more frequent type was rather that of the maiden than the married woman. ^ Usually the heroine of the Chansons de Geste is of a hard, coarse nature, the equal, not the superior, of her rough mates. ^ Floripas helps the Frenchmen who are taken captive by the Saracens. Her assistance is invaluable, for she is able both as an adviser and as a combatant. Her one wish is to marry Gui, and, when the latter hesitates, she swears she will hang him (not herself, like Pare and Damayanti) if he does not marry her." In the heat of the fight she cries out to Charles to slay her father. ^ ' Ed io appena so dubitare che la varieta fanciulla non dovesse essere la piu frequente anche in antico, in forza di quel sentimento umano che fa apparire I'amore di una vergine molto piu agognabile di quelle di una dama stata gia d'altri.' — Rajna, Epopea Francese, pp. 270-271. 2 Cf. Floripas in Fierabras — 2743. ' Je te donroie ja tel de mon puing ou n^s Que trfe parmi la goule te sauroit li sans clers." Her joking. 2125. ' Je ne sai cui vous estes, car ne vous puis viser ; Mais je quit c'as pucieles siv^s moult bien juer, . En cambre sous cortine baisier et acoler.' ^ LI. 2812. Cf. 11. 5388. ' Gentix dus, car me baisse, si serai saolee Com s'avoie mengi^ gelines en pevr^e,' Quant Francois I'entendirent, grant joie en ont men^e, Mais dus Guis de Borgoigne a la couleur muee, ' SOHRAB AND RUSTEM i6i 5955- '• • • " Karles, que demoures ? Ce est i. vis diables ; pour coi ne I'ocies? Moi ne caut se il muert, mais que Gui me donnes ; Je le plourai moult peu, se j'ai mes volontes." — Bele, dist Fierabras, moult grant tort en aves ; " Ja est il nostre pere, qui nous a engerres ; Trop estes felenesse, se pite n'en aves.'" Only once is she really tender and feminine. When she is fighting by the side of her love, land all seems lost, she says to him — 3750. ' " Amis, c'or me baisies ains que nous i muirons. — Volontiers, dist li quens, puisque il vous est bon." Tuit arme s'entrebaisent, quel virent li baron ; Moult en maine grant joie RoUans, li nies Karlon.' Bernier, in Raoiil de Cambrat, is asked by Gerin's daughter to marry him. 5696. ' Pren moi a feme, frans chevalier eslis : Si demorra nostre guere a toz dis. Soz ciel n'a home miex de vos soit servis. Vees mon cors, com est amanevis : Mamele dure, blanc le col, cler le vis ; Et car me baise, frans chevalier, gentis ; Si fai de moi trestot a ton devis.' The Duchess of Burgundy falls in love with Girart, and offers to become his wife, but he ungallantly repulses her offer as improper, and declares that he will have nothing to do with her.^ Lutisse, daughter of Isore, tries by all possible means to seduce Anseis of Carthage. Finally, she slips into his bed one night. When Anseis finds out who she is, he is horrified, and his trouble is increased by her statement ^ Girart de Viatie, p. 38. L i62 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM that she would have hung herself on wood had she not enjoyed him, but that now she will denounce him to her father.^ The prose romances also furnish many parallels. Alfred Nutt, in the Legend of the Holy Grail, says : ' Not only was it the lady's duty to yield, after a proper delay, but at times she might even make the first advances, and be none the worse thought of. Blanchefleur comes to Perceval's bed with scarce an apology. Orgueilleuse, over- come with admiration at the Red Knight's prowess, offers him her love. True, she has doubts as to the propriety of her conduct, but when she submits them to Gawain, the favoured lover for the time being, he unhesitatingly approves her.' - , The original of these heroines he finds in the fairy mistresses of Celtic heroes, 'who throughout retain their superiority, choose whom they will, and are no man's slaves, who offer themselves freely, but abandon neither their liberty nor their divine nature.'^ Fergus repels the advances of a damsel because he is unversed in courtly behaviour. In Partonopeus de Blois the fay Melior has the hero brought to her palace, appears at night to him, and offers her love, only with the stipulation that he will not attempt to see her person before two years ^ Alton, Anseis, pp. 26-35. '■^ Alfred Nutt, Legend of the Holy Grail, p. 241. It should be noted that whilst Mr. Nutt finds the ultimate origin of the exceeding ' coming-onness' of the Arthurian heroines in primitive Celtic heroic romance, he assigns the proximate insistence upon this trait in the twelfth century romances to the specific twelfth century social usage of 7ninuedienst. ^ Ibid. p. 232. Cf. also Maclnnes and Nutt, Folk and Hero Tales from Argyllshire, p. 489. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 163 have elapsed. King Perion, father of Amadis of Gaul, has advances made to him by two maidens, Elisena ^ and the daughter of the Count of Zelandia." Those who are familiar with Cervantes's great novel will remember the inimitable scene where Don Quixote thinks that he is favoured by a similar adventure.^ On the whole, it would be unwise to argue that these cases of women being more favoured than the men are due to any malice on the part of the authors of the poems, in spite of instances like those of Arjuna, Marko, Girart, or Anseis, who express their disapproval strongly. The thing is as characteristic of women like Damayanti, Menijeh, and Deirdre, as it is of ' vis deables,' ' femes feleneuses,' like Malikeh, Ai Mergan's daughter, Taise, or Lutisse. Here, again, I think it will not prove unfruitful to examine primitive customs once more, for there we shall find that the nobility of a woman's character was not always neces- sarily connected with chastity, and that also, as a matter of etiquette among different peoples, she was required to sue for the hand of the man she loved. At all times there have been nations which have demanded little more continence from their women than from their men. Apart from the defloration, which often, as a matter of rule, devolved upon some relative, the male members of the bridal party, a priest, or the chief of the tribe,* a girl was frequently allowed almost unrestricted intercourse before marriage, provided that she was faithful in her marital relations.^ ^ Amadis of Gaul, ch. i. and ii. - Ibid. ch. xliii. "' Don Quixote, ch. xvi. ■* See Letourneau, pp. 47, 67. ^ See Schmidt, /us Primae Noctis. i64 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM Carver, speaking of Indian women, says : ' Before they are married (they) are not the less esteemed for the indul- gence of their passions ' ; and he mentions the case of a woman among the Naudowessies, a woman who enjoyed uncommon respect. When young she had given a rice feast at which she entertained forty warriors, an ancient but almost obsolete custom, which, as Hamlet says, would have been more honoured in the breach than in the observance. * So sensible were the young Indians of her extraordinary merit, that they vied with each other for her hand, and in a short time one of the principal chiefs took her to wife.' ^ St. John, in his Accotmt of the Hill Tribes of North Aracan, says : ' Till marriage, the intercourse between the sexes is unrestrained, and it is considered rather a good thing to marry a girl in the family way, even though by another man.^ . . . Not to be sought after by the young men is considered a reproach. After marriage, conjugal fidelity is generally respected.'^ Similarly in Lapland the people, far from insisting upon virginity, believe those girls who have lost it ought to be more anxiously sought after. ' But it is necessary to make ^ Lubbock, 5th ed., p. 537, quoting Carver, Travels in North America, p. 245. " ' If, however, a girl has a child before marriage, it is exposed in the forest ' — a truly epic romance proceeding. ^ H. C. St. John, fournal of the Anthrop. Inst., vol. ii. p. 239. Cf. also the Chibchas, in ancient Central America : ' Not simply were they indifferent to virginity in their brides, but if their brides were virgins thought them unfortunate and without luck, as they had not inspired affection in men ; accordingly, they disliked them as miserable women.' — Spencer, Principles of Sociology, vol. i. § 280, quoting Simon, Noticias Historiales, p. 255. SOHRAB AND RUST EM 165 this distinction, that these girls must have granted their favours to those strangers who arrive in winter for the purpose of trade, and not to Laplanders. From hence they infer that because a man, whom they believe to be richer and possessed of better taste than themselves, has been anxious to give marks of his love for a girl of their country, she must therefore be possessed of some secret merit of which, though they are at present ignorant, they will in time become sensible.' ^ Even prostitution has been not merely condoned, but upheld. In not a few countries it has been demanded as a religious rite. In Babylonia, a characteristic of the worship of Mylitta was the prostitution of every woman once in her life to strangers at the shrine of the goddess.- The same custom was a feature of the cult of Anaitis. ' The daughters of good families were consecrated to this goddess, and often married well after a long period of service in her temple. In this case, the women appear to have given themselves to the worshippers of the goddess indiscriminately.'^ In India also, virgins have been compelled to offer themselves up in temples.^ ^ Regnard's 'Journeys to Lapland,' Pinkerton, vol. i. p. 165. - Herodotus, i. p. 199. ^ Strabo, xi. p. 532. * Herodotus, i. p. 199. See on Religious Prostitution, Lubbock, p. 529, etc. ; Westermarck, p. 72 ; Giraud-Teulon, ch. i. ; Dulaure, ii. p. 160; Letour, p. 45, etc. ; Charles Staniland Wake, Serpent Worship and Other Essays: London, 1S88. According to him, p. 162, ' Sacred prostitution sprang from the primitive custom of providing sexual hospitality for strangers, the agents by which it was carried out being supplied by the votaries of the deity under whose sanction the custom was placed. Assuming its existence, and the strong desire on the part of married women for children, which led i66 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM Prostitution for gain also has often been regarded as not at all unseemly. Two remarkable stories are told by Herodotus which bear upon this. The first relates to the means adopted by King Rhampsinitus to discover the thieves who had stolen his treasure. ' He placed his own daughter in a brothel, and ordered her to admit all alike to her embraces, but before they had intercourse with her to compel each one to tell her what he had done during his life most clever and most wicked, and whosoever should tell her the facts relating to the thief, she was to seize and not suffer to escape.' ^ The second story is of Cheops. He says : ' It is related that Cheops reached such a degree of infamy that, being in want of money, he prostituted his own daughter in a brothel, and ordered her to extort— they did not say how much — but she exacted a certain sum of money privately, as much as her father had ordered, and contrived to leave a monument of herself, and asked every one that came in to her to give a stone toward the edifice she designed ; of these stones they said the pyramid was bCiilt that stands at the middle of the three.'- At a much later date, in Africa, among the savage tribes, women even of high rank indulged without loss of reputa- tion in the practice. Bosman, speaking of women in Guinea, says : ' As for the ladies, the princesses, perhaps you will be apt to think them too tender for the fatigue of agriculture ; no, not in the least ; they must also lay their ihem to sacrifice their own virginity as an offering to the Goddess of Fecundity, or to dedicate their daughters to her service, we have a perfect exposition of the custom of sacred prostitution.' ^ Herodotus, ii. I2I, 5. " Ibid. ii. 126. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 167 hands to the plough. But if it happen that one of these illustrious ladies is too haughty to stain her high birth by working like a slave, she generally takes up a trade more likely to maintain her gentility, which requires no more than what Madame Nature has bountifully bestowed upon her. ... A marriage between a king's daughter and a slave is not at all thought disproportionate but is, indeed, some- what better than for a king's son to marry a slave, which daily happens ; since the common proverb, that the children follow the mother, is here passed into an unalterable rule.' ^ Marco Polo, travelling through Thibet, was shocked at a wicked custom which prevailed there ' through the blunders of idolatry. . . . No man marrieth there a wife that is a virgin ; whereupon when travellers and strangers coming from other places pass through the country and pitch their pavilions, the women of that place having marriageable daughters bring them unto the strangers, desiring them to take them and enjoy their company as long as they remain there. The maiden also requireth some toy or small present of him who hath deflowered her, which she may show as an argument and proof of her condition ; and she that hath been loved and abused of most men, and shall have many such favours and toys to show to her wooers, is ^ Bosman, Pinkeiton, vol. xvi. p. 417 ; Giraud-Teulon, pp. 43-44 and note 5; MM. Combes et Tamisier, Voyage en Abyssine, vol. ii. p. 116; Les courtisanes ' occupaient a la cour du prince un rang eleve, et souvent meme recevaient de lui le gouvernment d'une ville ou d'une province.' And Lefebvre, Voyage en Abysshie, ' fournit de curieuK details sur les courtisanes, qui donnent le ton a la cour du prince, sont comblees d'hommage et d'honneurs, font des vers, improvisent sur les champs de bataille, et animent les troupes en promettant leur faveurs aux plus braves.' See also I'ost, Gnindriss, p. 19, etc. i68 SOHRAB AND RUST EM accounted more noble, and may on that account be more advantageously married.'^ Among the Hurons, ' On ne s'avisoit pas de faire un crime a une Fille de s'etre prostituee ; leurs Parens etoient les premiers a les y engager, et Ton voyoit des Maris en faire autant de leurs Femmes, pour un vil interet.'- Many times prostitution has been practised by a girl in order to obtain a dowry. Sextus Empiricus says of the Egyptians : ' For women to prostitute themselves is to us most shameful, but to many of the Egyptians reputable (euKAees). Among some of them, the girls collect their marriage portions by prostitution.' ^ The remark of Plautus ' tusco more tute tibi Dotem quaeris corpore,' has been con- strued as an indication that the Etruscan women obtained it in this way.^ ' The daughters of the Lydian common people all prostitute themselves,' relates Herodotus, 'for the purpose of providing themselves with doweries.'^ In Benguela, 'poor maidens were led about before marriage in order to acquire money' f and in Mexico, according to Herrera, ' parents used, when the maidens were marriage- ^ ' Marco Polo,' Pinkerton, vol. vii. p, 141. 819. Cf. also the remarks of Herodotus about the Gindanes, iv. 176 : ' The Gindanes adjoin the Macae ; their women wear bands of leather round their ankles, each, several on the following account as is said : she binds around a band for every man that has intercourse with her ; and she who has the most is most esteemed, as being loved by the greatest number of men.' ^ C\i3ii\Q'vo\x, Journal d^icn Voj'age, etc., iii. 326, ed. of 1744. " Sextus Empiricus, 3. 201, p. 168. ■* Giraud-Teulon, p. 53. ^ Herodotus, i. 93. ^ Spencer, i. § 280, quoting Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte, vol. iii. p. 321. The custom can also be observed now at Biskr.a. Cf. the position of the Japanese prostitute of to-day. SOHRAB AND RUS'l'EM 169 able, to send them to earn their portions, and accordingly they ranged about the country in a shameful manner till they had got enough money to marry them off.'^ Particularly interesting is Squier's information as to the existence of the custom in Nicaragua." It is as follows : * Prostitution was sometimes resorted to by girls whose parents were unable to provide for them a proper marriage portion. When one of these, having by this means secured a competence, desired to withdraw from that mode of life, she procured a piece of ground wherein to build a house, and collecting her lovers, announced to them that those desirous of having her for a wife must unite and build a house after the plan which she should furnish, and that when completed she would select a husband from among them. The house being built and stocked, a feast was prepared, at the close of which the girl took the man of her choice, and led him away, exulting to be preferred over his rivals.' The importance of the anecdote consists in its containing a case of the woman's choosing her husband, which, as we have seen, is of frequent occurrence in our stories. But the practice is by no means confined to Nicaragua. In India it has long been known as the Svayamvara, or the self-choice of a maiden. It appears many times in the epics, and is generally a vehicle for display of descriptive rhetoric. When a king's daughter becomes marriageable, he announces to all the neighbouring potentates that, on a certain day, all who wish to marry his child shall assemble and give evidence of their prowess in a tournament. While the princess usually chooses the victor, she is allowed to select the man she desires. So Draupadi will have nothing ' Spencer, quoting Herrera, vol. iii. pp. 340-341. - Squier's Nicaragua, ii. p. 344. I70 SOHRABAND RUST EM to do with Kama, in spite of his skill, Damayanti chooses Nala from among the gods who come as suitors for her hand, and Savitri finds her husband while visiting holy shrines.^ A most interesting case of a similar practice is contained in the Shah Nameh, and, as it is not generally known, deserves quoting. ' Now it came to pass that the Kaisar had the intention, when his daughter should become of age and desirous to get married, to hold in his palace an assemblage of the nobles, the sages, and the men of good counsel, and then have his daughter pass through them and choose for herself a husband. ' Now one night, the eldest of the Kaisar's daughters, Kitabun, had a dream, in which she saw among a throng of men one who was unknown to her, a stranger, full of wisdom, tall as a cypress, beautiful as the moon, and seated like a king upon his throne. She sent him a bouquet of flowers, and received one from him, full of beauty and perfume. ' The next day, when dawn broke, the Kaisar assembled all the heroes and nobles, but among them Kitabun saw no one who pleased her, and she returned weeping to her apartments, desiring in her heart a husband. A second meeting was held on the following day, this time of men of lesser rank. The friend of Gushtasp said to him, " How long will you rest here in concealment ? Go ' In Manu, ix. 90, it is said : ' A girl having reached the age of puberty, should wait three years (for a husband) ; but at the end of that time she should (herself) choose a husband of her like caste.' Mr. Hopkins, in his edition of Manu, p. 260, note 6, says : ' In the epic it is confined to royal maidens ; among the later commentators it is restricted to the lower castes. ' SOHRAB AND RUST EM 171 to the palace and perchance the throne and crown will fall to you, and your heart be delivered from care." 'Gushtasp entered the Kaisar's palace rapidly and seated himself sadly in a corner apart from the nobles. Then slaves entered, followed by Kitabun. When she saw Cushtasp from afar, she said, "My dream has come true," and immediately she placed the diadem upon his head. When her father heard of it, he said, " It is not fitting that I should have a daughter who brings dishonour upon my family. If I gave her to that man, I should have to bow my head with shame ; the head of him whom she has chosen must be cut off." The Destour answered, "The matter is not so grave ; you told your daughter to choose a husband, and not to take a prince, and she has chosen the one who pleased her. Turn not away from God. This custom comes from your ancestors^ and by it Roum is fortified. Do not introduce new practices into this pro- sperous land."'^ A similar story is narrated of the founding of Marseilles. According to the version of Justin, ' A party of Phoenicians, under the leadership of Simos and Protis, came to the mouth of the river Rhone. There they applied to the King of the Segobriges, Nannus by name, desirous to obtain his friendship, as they were anxious to found a city in his territory. By chance, the king was busy that day preparing for the wedding of his daughter, Gyptis, whom, according to the custom of the nation, he was going to give in marriage to a son-in-law to be chosen at the feast (quam more gentis, electo inter epulas genero, nuptium tradere illic parabat). When all the suitors had been united at the feast, the Grecian strangers were also invited. ^ Mohl, Le Livre des Rots, iv. p. 297. 172 SOHRAB AND RUST EM ' Then the maiden, being brought in and ordered by her father to dehver water to him whom she chose for her husband, overlooking all the rest and turning to the Greeks, she deUvered the water to Protis, who now from a guest became the king's son-in-law, and received from his father-in-law a place for the building of a city. Accordingly Massilia was founded at the mouth of the river Rhone.' ^ Numerous instances of the existence of this practice to-day are to be found among primitive peoples. One of the most valuable of these for our purpose is that of the Garos, a tribe of Northern India, which lives according to matriarchy. I give it in the words of Dalton : 'As there is no restriction on innocent intercourse, the boys and girls mixing freely together in the labours of the field, and other pursuits, an amorous young lady has ample opportunity of declaring her partiality, and // is her privilege and duty to speak first . . . ' The maiden coyly tells the youth to whom she is about to surrender herself, that she has prepared a spot in some quiet and secluded valley, to which she invites him. The favoured youth , . . quickly joins his mistress in her retreat, into which it would be impertinent to follow them. In two or three days they return to the village, and their union is publicly proclaimed and solemnised. ' Any infringement of the rule which declares that the initiative shall in such cases rest with the girl is summarily and severely punished. 'The marriage ceremony chiefly consists of dancing, singing and feasting. The bride is taken down to the nearest stream and bathed, and the party next proceed to ^ Justin, xliii. 3. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 173 the house of the bridegroom, who pretends to be unwilling and runs away, but is caught and subjected to a similar ablution, and then taken, in spite of the resistance, and the counterfeited grief and lamentations of the parents, to the bride's house.' ^ This entertaining account of courtship, apart from its drollness, is of great importance. We have the matriarchal family, the insistence on the wooing being done by the girl, and finally, a parody of marriage by capture. Among other tribes of Bengal we have a similar condition of things. Men of the Kocch tribe live with their mothers-in-law, and obey them and their wives. The girl's mother arranges the marriage, or the girl herself may choose her husband. 2 Maidens among the Bhuiyas are also said to make proposals.^ In Africa, according to Merolla in his visit to Congo, in the sixteenth century, * the ladies of the blood-royal have a liberty to choose for themselves what man they please, whether noble or plebeian ; but woe to that man that appears to disappoint them in their expectations, for they have likewise absolute powers of life and death.' ^ The girls of the native tribes of the Lagos at the present day are given in marriage by their parents, but a king's or chief's daughter marries, or lives with whom she pleases, and changes her consort as often as she likes.^ Two other Svayamvaras (to adopt the Sanskrit term) of 1 Dalton, p. 64. " Ibid. p. 91. ^ Ibid. p. 142. ■* 'Merolla,' Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 272. '' ' Native Tribes of Lagos,' The Arch. Review, vol. i. p. 399 ; ' Women Courting among Kaffirs of Natal,' Westermarck, p. 159. 174 SOHRAB AND RUST EM interest are those of Queen Gyda and Crescentia, both mentioned by Grimm in a note on p. 421 of his Deutsche Rechtsalterthiimer}- The former is contained in the Saga of King Olaf TryggivasonP- ' In the autumn, Olaf Tryggwason sailed to England from the Scilly Islands, taking with him thence priests and other ordained men. He lay at anchor in a certain haven on the English coast ; and his visit was a peaceful one, for the land was a Christian land, and he, too, was Christian. Just at that time the inhabitants of the district were summoned to attend an Assembly, and when the Assembly was constituted, there arrived a queen named Gyda, sister to Olaf Kuaran, King of Dublin, in Ireland. ' She had been the wife of an English earl, of high family, who had died, and she was then ruling in his stead. Under her rule there was a man named Alfwini, a great champion and duellist, who had offered to marry Queen Gyda. ' To his proposals she had answered, that she was willing to chose a husband for herself among those under her rule ; and the Assembly had been called together, in order that she might make her choice. Alfwini was present, decked out in his best clothes, and besides him, all the chiefs and mighty men were there, finely dressed. Olaf also attended the Assembly, dressed in his rain-clothes, and wearing an overcoat of fur with the hood pulled down over his face ; he stood with his company, apart from the rest. Gyda then went and looked at each one that seemed to possess a manly mien ; and coming to the spot where Olaf stood, she regarded him on all sides, raised his hood, and 1 Edition of 1828. - The Saga of Olaf Tryggwason, translated by J. Sephton, p. loi : London, 1895. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 175 looking into his face, asked, "Who is this man?" "My name is Oli," he answered: "and I am a stranger." "If you will marry me," she said, " I will choose you for my husband." And he answered : " I will not say nay to that. What is your name, your family, and origin?" She answered, "I am a king's daughter from Ireland. I was given in marriage to the earl that ruled over this land, and I have held the government of it since he died. Many have proposed marriage to me, but I would give myself to none of them ; and my name is Gyda." She was young and very fair to look upon. They conversed together, and having agreed between themselves, Olaf betrothed Gyda ; but Alfwini was ill-pleased therewith.' This Svayamvara is not unlike that of Kitabun, and the appearance of Olaf in his rain-clothes recalls the appear- ance of Paoa before Tukutuku,^ though, in the latter case, the hero displays pure affectation in clinging to his un- comely garments. 'Paoa and his people pulled on and landed ; but still he wore his whanake (rough winter-mat) : while his retinue wore all their finest mats, he alone wore his rough winter-mat. His friends remonstrated, but Paoa replied, "I shall continue to wear my mat."' Though thus clad in a poor garment, the people of the pa were not long in distinguishing him from the crowd by his noble bearing and superior looks. But the hair of his head was rubbed and frizzed up by constant contact with the thick, rope-like fringe of the upper part of the whanake mat, which made it look like feathers in a bird's wing, at which his friends felt disgusted, as they wished him to be seen to the best advantage by those to whom they were going. Crescentia's Svayamvara resembles very closely the Indian ^ White, iv. p. 233. 176 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM ones of Damayanti and Draupadi. The following verses, which describe it, I have quoted from Oskar Schade's edition of the twelfth century German poem, pp. 70-71, 7. ' Do was ein konich ad Affricam, der hete ein thochter lussam geheizen Crescentia. di herren baten ir sa bede vor ein ander bisonder. des nam den konich sere wonder. 8. Do rit der senatus "nu sceiden wir den strit sus daz man en rinc stelle. swedern di frowe wolle der habe daz riche dar z6." alle lobeten si daz so. 9. Do ginc si an den rinc stan. der da wirs was getan den nam di frowe gote, der gevil ir baz in deme mote denne der ander tate. des kom si sit in groze note.' The instance from the Olaf Tryggwason^s Saga should be carefully distinguished from that in Crescentia. The one text is a professedly veracious account of an incident in the life of a real man living a couple of centuries before the time of the narrator, who claims to follow contemporary statements ; the other is professedly a romance. According to Waitz-Gerland, * In ganz Polynesien war es dann ferner haufig dass die Weiber oft die Manner freiten.'^ And Cheever says, ' By the established Hawaian custom ^ Waitz-Gerland, vi. p. 127. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 177 and etiquette, the female is generally the suitor. ... A man whom I once asked why he did not have a wife, a strange lack for a likely Hawaian, replied to me with all frankness, that none of the girls had yet asked him.'^ The women of Tierra del Fuego seek husbands with a surprising eagerness, and are nearly always successful.^ Among the Visirs, the man must marry the woman who chooses him, provided he can pay her father the price demanded.^ Of the Moquis, Dr. Ten Broeck says, ' Here, instead of the swain asking the hand of the fair one, she selects the young man who is to her fancy, and then her father proposes the match to the one of the lucky youth. This proposition is never refused.'^ ' Among the Zuni, descent is reckoned chiefly in the female line, with a tendency toward reckoning in the male line. . . . The initial movement toward union is usually made by the maiden (rarely by the youth), though kindly greetings, smiles, and various small courtesies, most of which are carefully regulated by custom and current instruction, from the elder people ; the more definite over- tures are commonly made by the female relatives of the would-be bride, to the mother or aunt of the chosen one and commonly the young man is not slow in seconding the ceremonial advances of the maiden and the kinswomen.' ^ Still more interesting is a notice of the Tarahumari Indians, ^ Cheever, The Island World of the Pacific, 1856, p. 183. - Westermarck, p. 216, quoting Lieut. Bove, Ymer, vol. iii. p, 91. ^ Post, Bausteiue, iio-iii, quoing Elphinstone. * Schoolcraft, iv. p. 86. * W. J. M^Gee, The Beginning of Marriage : Washington, 1896, P- 374- M 178 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM another tribe who live according to matriarchy. 'The maiden is a persistent wooer, employing a repertoire of really exquisite love-songs to soften the heart of the reluctant swain, yet is finally successful only in a public ceremonial in which her charmer is intoxicated.' ^ Coming to Europe, we have some evidences of female courtship. The twelfth century Bohemian chronicler, Cosmas of Prague, said of the Bohemian girls : ' Non virgines viri, sed ipsaemet viros, quos et quando voluerant accipiebant,' 2 and according to Beauplan, a traveller of the seventeenth century, ' In the Ukraine, contrary to the customs of all the nations, the husbands do not choose their v/ives, but are themselves chosen by their future consorts.' ^ Among the Khevsurs and the Pschaves girls choose, if not their husbands, at least lovers, who are called Zazali. After marriage they are faithful to their husbands, but before, they can choose and divorce their lovers as often as they please.^ It is to be noted that among the Pschaves, ' le frere de la mere prend la place du pere dans toutes les circonstances ou il s'agit de venger le sang repandu, surtout au cas de meurtre commis sur la personne de son neveu.' ^ Instances of the custom among Germanic peoples are, according to Grimm, to be found only in literature.^ Two of them I have referred to already in a note to the Svayamvaras of Kitabun and Gyptes. The third case he cites is from the Prose Edda, where Skadi chooses ^ W. J. M'^Gee, The Beginning of Marriage. From the American Anthropologist, Nov. 1896 : p. 380. * Kovalevsky, Marriage among the Early Slavs, p. 470. * Ibid. p. 471. "* Kovalevsky, Tableau des Origines, p. 23. ^ Ibid. p. 21. '' Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthiimer, p. 121, note. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 179 her husband from among the Aesir, but is only allowed to see their feet.^ Sufficient evidence, I believe, has been adduced to in- dicate clearly two things. First, that many peoples lay little stress upon the chastity of their women ; in a large number of cases great freedom of intercourse is allowed to girls before marriage, but it is insisted that they shall be faithful in their marriage relations. I have laid particular emphasis upon this, because nearly all the heroines of our stories are maidens, not married women. But cases are also to be found where the wife has great liberties, apart from marriages of a polyandrous nature. Sometimes the husband considers the attention of a stranger as an evidence of good taste on his own part. Again, wives are loaned, either in accordance with the rules of hospitality, or merely for purposes of gain. There were even marriages where the wife is found to be faithful only for a certain number of days during the week.^ Among some tribes women were expected to yield to the demands of a lover. Post says : ' Bei den Bullamern, Bagoes und Jimmaniern wird es einer verheirateten Frau als eine sehr grosse Unhof- lichkeit und als Mangel guter Lebensart ausgelegt, wenn sie die Antrage eines Liebhabers abweist. Beinahe jede verheiratete Frau hat nach der Landessitte ihren Yangih, Kamih, oder Cicesbeo dem sie selbst den ersten Antrag macht.' '"^ According to Bancroft, in Darien, 'prostitution was not infamous, noble ladies held as a maxim that it was plebeian to deny anything asked of them.' "^ ^ The Younger Edda, translated by Rasmus Bjornson Anderson, p. 158 : Chicago, i88o. " Afrik. /tirisp., 470 ; Wilken, pp. 33-34. 2 Ibid. p. 468. * Bancroft, vol. i. p. 773. i8o SOHRAB AND RUSTEM In the second place we have seen that the courting by women, so frequent in ballads, epics, and romances, is paralleled among a considerable number of peoples, who in nearly every case, if indeed not universally, live, or, at some previous time, have lived, according to matriarchy.^ In the story of Elaine, the father brings about the cohabitation of Lancelot and his daughter.^ We have found this paralleled also in real life in India and North America. IV We have now traversed a large number of customs con- cerned with the relations between husband and wife and child, which have existed at different periods throughout the entire world. While some are less important than others, taken together, I think they throw considerable light on the story under discussion. They perhaps explain the hero's marriage in so many cases away from home, the frequent courting of the women, the brevity of the union, the husband's callous abandonment of wife and child, and the mother's bringing up of the offspring. In nearly all of the Father and Son Combat stories the father meets the mother while travelling away from his people. Ulysses is trying to return to Ithaca after the fall of Troy, when he meets the nymph Circe. Arjuna is wandering in exile when he marries Ulupi and Chitrangada. Rustem is wooed by Tehmineh, the daughter of the King of Semengan ; while on a warlike expedition Cuchulainn conquers Aiffe, or weds Eva while studying the arts of war with Scathach. Ilya meets the mother of his son or 1 Kocch, Zuiii, etc. 2 Compare remarks made in Richars li Biaus, szipra, p. 50. SOHRAB AND RUST EM i8i daughter in the grey stone palaces by the blue sea, or in the land of the Tatars. Jeruslan Lasarewitch goes to the distant city of Dobri to obtain the hand of the beautiful Anastasia. An becomes intimate with Drisa when an exile, and it is while he is acting as Harald's ambassador that Bui is so kindly received by Fridr. Oliver engenders Galien on account of a famous f^ab, made while visiting the Emperor of Constantinople, and Renaud is returning from the Holy Land when he falls in love with Constance, the Saracen queen. These constitute practically the majority of the oldest and most important versions of the theme. The same thing appears, however, in other variants in a less marked degree. First of all, there are cases where the father is not merely a stranger, but a god, a fairy knight, or some other supernatural being. Zeus, for instance, the father of Hercules; Elberich, Malabron, Sir Degarre's father, the Enchanter Eliavres, the giant of the Kurdish story, and the Egyptian Nectanebus, who is both an exiled king and a magician. Again, in the French, English, and Spanish romances, the father, if not an immortal or a foreigner from a distant land, is still in most cases a stranger. Doon, for instance, the fourth morning after his marriage, has his horse brought to him, and commends his wife to God, because he longs to return to his own country. Ider is born as the result of the violation of a young girl by a strange knight. The same is true of Richars li Biaus, and also of Guinglain in one version of his story. Ysaie is wandering about the world in quest of adventures when he comes to the realm of King Irion, and receives the letter from Princess Martha acquainting him of her love. Lancelot, too, is on a similar quest when he is invited i82 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM to rest in the castle of King Pelles. Gonzalez begets Mudarra upon the Moorish princess during his captivity. Of the important versions, the Hilde brands lied, the Biterolf and Dietlieb, the Andronikos, the Consta7itin and the Siberian versions alone do not conform in this particular. At least, no such marriage is indicated in the ballads themselves. Now we have seen that throughout the world there exists a wide-spread custom called exogamy, in accordance with which people marry outside of their clan, tribe, or family. A phenomenon which frequently accompanies it, perhaps very intimately bound up with it, is the capturing of brides. We find it in all quarters of the globe, not only among savage races, but also among peoples of con- siderably advanced civilisation.^ Naturally, it has left its impress on literature. The theft of Subhadra in the Mahabharaia, the rape of Helen, and the carrying off of Gudrun, are instances of it.^ ^ See M'^Lennan, pp. 9-71 ; Dargun, pp. 78-138, etc. Kovalevsky, Marriage among the Early Slavs, Folk-Lore, vol. i. p. 476, says : ' The capture of girls in order to marry them is still practised among the Servians. . . .' 'In Bosnia and Herzegovina abductions still occur, but, as a rule, with the previous consent of the supposed victim, and with the declared intention of avoiding the expenses of a regular betrothal ' (idem, p. 477). The bridegroom and_his followers are regularly met like foes. In the government of Perm it is the custom for the father of the bride to fire a pistol over their heads — of course a pistol charged only with powder. ^ Cf. also, Emil Schulenberg, ' Die Spuren des Brautraubes, Brautkaufes und ahnlicher Verhaltnisse in den franzosischen Epen des Mittelalters,' Zeit. ftir vergl. Rechtswissenschaft, xii. p. 129. J. Kohler, ' Frauenwerbung uud Frauenraub im finnischen Helden- Epos.' Z.f. V. JR., vi. 277 ; Weinhold, Die deulschen Fratien, i. 308 ; Bernhoft, Fraurnleben in der Vorzeit : Wismar, 1893, p. 22. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 183 Exogamy again seems to appear in the tradition of the founding of cities and nations. Many people go back to a founder who was either a god or a stranger from another country. Gyptis, the daughter of the chief of the Sego- briges, as mentioned before, chooses the Phoenician. Lavinia discards Turnus and marries Aeneas. Brut, exiled from Italy, goes to the island which bears his name. In these and other cases we have the hero banished or leaving his country for various reasons, and taking up his residence for the rest of his life in a new land, where, in some instances, he is chosen by the ruler's daughter in preference to her own countrymen, for there seems at all times to have existed a feeling that the man who comes from afar is superior to others.^ The heroes of our tales, also, wander away from home ^ Cf. Bernhoft ' Ehe und Erbrecht der griechischen Heroenzeit.' Z. f. V. R., xi. 341-343. 'Die uberwiegende Zahl der Volkssagen setzte an den Anfang der Stammesgeschichte einen fremden Ankomm- ling, welcher die Tochter des Landesfiirsten heirathete, ihm in der Herrschaft folgte, und ein ruhmvoUes Konigsgeschlecht grlindete.' He goes on to some of the various reasons for the hero's leaving his home. He may have committed murder, as in the case of Tydeus. Like Bellerophon, he may have been suspected of having committed adultery with the wife of the king of the country, or like Kadmus and Inachus, the founders of Thebes and Karia, he may have been ordered by his father never to return until he has found his lost sister : all these motives are clumsy enough, Bernhoft adds, and declares the true reason to be that, according to an old custom, the grown-up son left his home in order to seek adventures, and while absent finds a new home. Other cases of the succession of the son-in-law are as follows : Eurotas is succeeded by Lakedaimon, the husband of his daughter Sparta. Tyndareus is followed by Menelaus, the husband of his daughter Helena. See pp. 342-344. i84 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM and contract marriages with women of a different race ; but unlike the founders of nations, their residence in their new surroundings is of short duration. Exogamy will explain the marriage in a foreign land, but we need some- thing more to explain its transitory nature. Sometimes it lasts but a night, as in the cases of Arjuna and Ulupi, Rustem and Tehmineh, Lancelot and Elaine, Oliver and Jaqueline. It is even briefer in some of the versions of Cuchulainn and Ily^, in the stories of Gawain, Ortnit, Malabron, Sir Degarre, and Ider. Bui and An remain with their mistresses during the winter, and we have periods varying from a few days to several years in the cases of Arjuna and Chitrangada, Doon, Renaud, and Jeruslan, and the Kurdish giant, and other versions than those just mentioned of Cuchulainn and Ilya. If Hildebrand, Biterolf, Saul and Sain have stayed with their wives longer, they leave them as easily, and, indeed, their conduct differs in no respect from that of the heroes who abandon their companions of an hour or a night. Hildebrand, although he had to flee, is reproached by Hadhubrand for leaving wife and child behind.. Biterolf idles away his time at the Hunnish court, whither he has been attracted by mere curiosity. It is only at the close of the war that Varocher remembers the family left behind in his forest home. Occasionally, excuses, such as they are, are given for the abandonment. Those of Hildebrand and Biterolf have already been mentioned. Ulysses is longing to return to Penelope, who, in spite of her grey hair, is fairer in his eyes than Circe. Jeruslan wishes to see a woman more beautiful than his wife. Bui has to SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 185 return from his embassy. In the case of Doon, Paris says : ' The departure of Doon three days after his marriage is entirely without motive ; it only serves to attach the second part of the lai to the first.' The reason, I think, is given in the lines spoken by him to his son — ' Moult ert orgueilleuse ta mere ; Par grant travail la porcha^ai ; Quant prise I'oi, si m'en tornai, Onques puis ne la regardai.' This is interesting as showing the attitude of the poet toward Brautdienst. His hero performs the necessary feats to obtain his bride, such as spending the night in a dangerous room, and riding as far as a swan can fly, but instead of taking them as a matter of course, resents them, and avenges himself later. This same custom of Braut- dienst occurs also in Eglamor of Artoys, as it does in many a fairy tale. Now the fact that either no reason, or a very insufficient one, is given for the man's leaving his wife or companion seems to me significant. Were the separation caused by war or some other imperative demand, more stress would have been laid upon it The parting would be bitter, the husband would always have his family in mind, and would long to return home. On his return there would be an opportunity for the same tragedy to occur. As a matter of fact, however, the reasons are of the slightest. Scarcely more feeling is exhibited at the parting than at one between two friends. The father shows no more interest in the future of his family than to request sometimes that the boy be sent to him later. i86 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM These features of the story which impress us as being so peculiar, seem to be paralleled in many instances in actual life where matriarchy prevails. In such a state of society as I have pointed out in the preceding pages, the husband goes to live with his wife.-*- Furthermore, according to Kovalevsky, ' Ce qui carac- terise le couple individuel a I'epoque du matriarcat, c'est, comme nous 1 'avons dit, le peu de cohesion qui en unit les deux membres. Fort souvent le mari quitte la femme avant la naissance des enfants et n'en prend aucun soin.'" And again : ' Comme le pere appartient regulierement a un autre groupe que celui de la mere, il ne fait qu'un' court sejour dans le clan de la femme. Par suite, des liens constants ne peuvent persister entre les epoux, entre le pere et ses enfants.'^ The definitions of Giraud-Teulon and Kovalevsky are perhaps somewhat too sweeping. Not in all cases is the tie between man and wife so loose, nor is the father's identity ^ Tylor, J. A. I., xviii. p. 257. 'The analogy has already come into view between the division of society according to residence, and according to the maternal and paternal systems. This relation, the reality of which is evident from mere consideration of the difference as to family life which must ensue from the husband living in the wife's house, or the wife living in the husband's, may be corroborated from the schedules. Thus the number of coincidences between peoples where the husband lives with the wife's family and where the maternal system prevails, is naturally large, while the full maternal system as naturally never appears among peoples where the exclusive custom is for the husband to take his wife to his own house. ^ Kovalevsky, Tableau, p. 39. ^ Ibid. p. 15. See Giraud-Teulon, p. 148, who asserts (perhaps) too much. SOHRAB AND RUST EM 187 unknown or disregarded. Too much has undoubtedly been made of the opinion that matriarchy was founded on uncertainty of paternity. On the other hand, it would be impossible to deny that often where matriarchy prevails, or has prevailed, the tie which unites husband and wife is extremely weak, and that a child would have to possess more than ordinary powers of intuition to recognise his true father. In such instances, the husband — Indian, African, Polynesian, or Gypsy— plays the same role per- formed by so many of our heroes. Now it may be urged that in no one of our stories do we see the matriarchal family appearing with all its distinctive features. We shall see later that, had that been the case, it might have militated against the story's coming into existence. For the moment let us see what indications of metrocracy we do find. Though it is hardly of great significance, it may be well to note that in a few variants, the heroine's father is not mentioned. The mother of Telegonus is of course an immortal ; Ilya Murometz begets his child upon the polenitza Ardolya, or the widow in Talyansk. Cuchulainn over- comes the Amazon Aiffe, lives with the fairy or weds Eva, the daughter of his tutress, Scathach. In all other cases, however, the father of the heroine is known, and appears to be the head of his family. At the same time we do find evidences of matriarchy, but before pointing them out, attention should be called to the fact that in actual Hfe, as in our stories, the two systems of family organisation exist frequently side by side. In this large intermediate class, the most important thing to notice is, that while the husband is often obliged i88 SOHRAB AND RUST EM to serve the family of his wife, he is frequently the master of his wife and children.^ Again, the sister's brother occupies a prominent position in the family together with the father. The sister's sons ^ ' Dass der Mann der Familie seiner Frau (also ihrem Vater) dienen muss und zugleich liber die Frau selbst gebietet, ist kein Widerspruch. Dass matriarchale Sippenberechnung mit patriarchaler Hausgewalt unvereinbar sei, ist ein Irrthum.' — Karl Friedrichs, Einzelunter- suchungen zur vergleiche7tden Rechtswissenschaft, Z.f. v. R. 12, p. 478, note 129. Ibid. p. 475, ' Die Thlinkiten (Koluschen) haben matriarchale Familienordnung verbunden mit sehr starkerlHausgewalt des Mannes.' Kohler Uber das Negerrecht in Katnerun, ' Das Familienhaupt hat das Recht, liber seine Familienglieder in weitem Umfang zu verfligen. Dieses Familienhaupt ist in Kamerun trotz des Mutter- rechts der Familienvater gegenliber Frau und Kind, Dies ist be- greiflich ; denn einmal ist bei diesen Stammen liberhaupt das Mutterrecht im Uebergange begriffen, sodann hat auch unter dem Muttersystem, der Vater ein Recht auf Weib und Kind, soweit sie den von ihm bezahlten Kaufpreis und die Aufziehungskosten reprasentiren. Bei Stammen des reinen Mutterrechts wie an der Loangokliste, hat der Oheim das Recht, iiber die Neffen zu verfligen.' Z. f. v. R., vol. xi. p. 420. Kohler, ibid. Tshi peoples organised according to matriarchy, but ' der Vater hat eine Art Nutzniessungsrecht an den Kindern,' p. 417. Friedrichs, vol. xii. p. 474. * Die Dakotastamme, Iowa, Kaw, und Omaha haben patriarchale Sippenberechnung und zwar die Iowa verbunden mit einer weitgehenden vermogensrechtlichen Verfu;:;ungs- gewalt des Mutterbruders.' In note 103 he adds, ' Der Mutterbruder kann dem Neffen Waffen und Pferd wegnehmen und flir sich brauchen, was der Vater nicht kann.' He is quoting Morgan, Systems of Con- sanguinity, p. 158, who also says, 'The maternal uncle is practically more the head of his sister's family than his sister's husband . . . Among the Choctaws, for example, if a boy is to be placed at school, his uncle, instead of his father, takes him to the mission, and makes the arrangement. An uncle, among the Winnebagoes, may require services of a nephew, or administer correction, which his own father would neither ask nor attempt.' SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 189 may inherit a man's property as well as his own sons. For instance, the former may inherit the moveable property, the latter the fixed property, and the widow, or the son may take the rank of his father only in case there are no uncles or nephews of the deceased.^ Sometimes the child will remain with his mother, sometimes with his father.^ In the former case he may nevertheless avenge his father's death on his maternal relations,^ and the contrary holds true of the latter.** We have also met with cases where 1 Waitz-Gerland, iii. 383, v. 157 ; Kohler, Studien, p. 245. Z.f. V. R., xi. 418 ; Henrici, Ej>keneger, Z. f. v. R., xi. 141. 2 Robertson Smith, ibid. p. 155. 'The famous poet Zohair is a case in point, and the Arabian antiquarians appear to have known that such cases were not uncommon ; thus, Bakri, p. 19, in describing the dispersion of Coda'a, says that "Coda'a broke up into four divisions, containing some groups taken from the others, when a man followed his wife's or his mother's kin." ' * Ibid. pp. 155-156. ' Even after paternal kinship was thoroughly established, sons remained with mothers. The son of Jalila by Kolaib avenged his father's death on his maternal uncle, and father-in-law Jassas, though he had lived from the day of his birth among his mother's kin, and did not know his father's name till he was grown up and married.' ■* At least, if we are to accept the opinion of Sokolsky in his Spuren primitiver Faniilienordnungen bei den katikasischeii Berg- volkern. He believes that ' in der kaukasischen Urzeit das Kind dem Geschlecht seiner Mutter ausschliesslich angehorte,' and relates the story of a man named Tshopa, who married a waldfrau. She asks him if he will be terrified should a waldzmgeheuer come to him at night. He says no. The monster comes, is slain, and before dying tells him that he has killed his brother-in-law. A son is born, and the father ' sah sich genothigt seine langjahrige Verbindung mit der Waldfrau aufzulosen und zog es vor, nicht in den Wald zu gehen. Trotz aller dieser Vorsichtsmaassregeln begegnete doch Tschopa seinem Sohne in der Felsenschlucht Arschtu, unweit des Auls Bultum. Es entspann sich zwischen dem Vater und dem Sohne ein I90 SOHRAB AND RUST EM children of the same father can marry, but not those of the same mother. It would be impossible to quote here all the nations and tribes in this transition state. The cases cited above from antiquity presumably bear upon the subject, and to-day the American Indians and African negroes among the savage races afford opportunity to study the change from one form of family organisation to the other. The principal thing to note in the matriarchal family is that the wife does not leave her own people and fall under the power of her husband. She has the influence of her tribe behind her, and the position of the man is almost certain to be more or less subordinate. Now, not only in the cases of Cuchulainn, Telegonus and Ilya, but in others also, the wife remains at home. She indeed has a father and he is the family head, yet the cohesiveness of her tribe or family is so great that the hero, if he wishes to live with her, must settle down for life among new surroundings or if he goes back to his people must leave behind wife and child. Rustem leaves Tehmineh with her father, the King of Semengan. Arjuna has no thought of bringing back with him Ulupi or Chitrangada, and yet in the other marriage which he contracts during his exile, that with Sub- hadra, he captures his bride and she does accompany him, both characteristics of the Agnatic family. In this instance then we seem to have marriage by cap- ture, and the patriarchal family. The Norse heroes, An and Kampf, und Tschopa wurde von seinem Sohne verwundet und gepliindert. Und dies geschah nach dem ausdriicklichen Zeugniss der Tradition aus Rache wegen der Ermordung des Oheims.' — Russische Revue, 1883. p. 177-8. In spite of the last remark, the story resembles very closely a Father and Son Combat tale. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 191 Bui, are either unwilling or unable to take away their mates from their fathers. In the romance versions this feature is not so clearly marked, yet it is to be noted that, when the boy brings the father to the mother, there is no mention of the newly married or reunited couple departing from the bride's home.^ The courting of the women is also, I think, to be explained by metrocracy. The most striking instances of it to-day among primitive peoples are certainly to be found among matriarchal tribes like the Garos, the Zufiis, and the Tara- humari Indians. In several of our stories, in the Lancelot and Elaine, and the Richars It BiauSy particularly, the advances are made, not by the maiden, but by her parents. This too can be paralleled where we find descent in the female line. One of the important cases among the Father and Son Combat tales is the Arawak one, where the heroine is a swan-maiden.- The hero, while hunting, captures the princess of the vultures. She falls in love with him and lays aside her feather dress. Im Thurn in relating the story says, ' Now an Indian man when he marries goes to live with his wife's father. So the Arawak went to sky land and was well received by the vulture people ' ^ Her matriarchy and courting are closely related. The ^ It is true that in the Amadis, Perion goes after Elisena and takes her to his home, but such instances are in the minority and the Atyiadis variants are of small importance. ^ Cf. Stuart-Glennie's chapters on the origin of matriarchy swan- maiden marriage in Miss Garnett's Women of Turkey. His theory is ingenious, but to me, fanciful and unconvincing. See also Kohler's Ur sprung der Mehismensage, 1 895. 3 Im Thurn, p. 381. 192 SOHRAB AND RUST EM same thing appears even more clearly in another Arawak story of the founding of a certain tribe.^ A girl falls in love with a hunter and begs her father, a sorcerer, to make her like one of his dogs that she may be near him. He does so and she accompanies her beloved in the chase. One day she is missing, and when he goes in search of her, he finds her in the real form, cooking his meal in his cabin. He seizes her dog-skin, throws it into the fire, and tells her to return to her father, where he will follow and claim her. Speak- ing of the tale, Brett says : ' From the Ebesotu {changed or transforjned) heroine of the above legend, the Ebes- oana (Arawak family) take their name. The name of those families all descend in the female line, and no individual was permitted to marry another of the same family name.' 2 Nothing is said here as to whether the man lives with his bride's people or not, but from the customs of the people we have every reason to believe so. In the following story of the founding of the Demarena family, it is distinctly stated. A man sees a number of fairies together. He joins them, dances with one of the fairy maidens and asks her to marry him. Her father tells him that he can have her only on condition that he live with her family. The youth consents, and, ' from this union,' says the author, ' the existing Demarena (Arawak family) are supposed to have sprung. ' They bear, of course, their mother's name; and in ancient days considered it the "correct thing," in accordance with the legend, to marry solely with their father's family, the Korobohana.' > Brett, p. 176. 2 ji,i^^ p_ i78_ SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 193 Again in the case of the Maoris, we have tribes who followed more or less closely the matriarchal system.^ The husband went to live with his wife. If he wandered off for any reason, she stayed behind with the children among her relations. Now in just such a surrounding, I have pointed out the existence of stories where the woman courts the man : Tukutuku and Pare for example. The same thing appeared in the Father and Son Combat stories. Tukutuku tells her father that she means to marry the noble- looking stranger in the dogskin mat. Tini-rau hears of the prowess of Hine-te-iwaiwa and determines to go and see him, and obtain him for a husband if possible. The other traces of metrocracy are not so clear, but there are several worth calling attention to. First should be noted the appearance of the maternal uncle in our stories. As I have called attention to before in the matriarchal family, where the unions between men and women are of an ephemeral nature, the male guardian of any children who may be born is the eldest brother of the woman. If he is a chieftain, he transmits his dignities and wealth, not to his own children, ^ In addition to what I have said before, M'^Lennan, Studies in Ancient History, second series, p. 264, note quoting Taylor's saying that a beena husband in New Zealand was ' looked upon as one of the tribe or kapa to which his wife belonged, and in case of war, was often obliged to fight against his relations,' adds : 'He states, also, that this sort of marriage was common. The children would of course be of the mother's hapa, and, by fiction, of the father's also, ' We may be sure we have here a step in the transition to male kinship and descent through fathers. See also ibid. p. 113, and pp. 258-275. He considers that there is sufficient proof in evidence furnished by the mythology, legends, and, what is naturally more decisive, customs such as marriage by capture, and classes organised on the totemic principle, to show that exogamy was anciently the law of the Maoris. N 194 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM who may be scattered about the country, but to those of his sister. On account of long association, the tie which unites him to them is as strong and as tender as that which would exist between him and his own offspring. The sister's child appears not infrequently in literature. Beowulf is the nephew of Hygelac, Roland of Charlemagne, Gawain of Arthur, and in each case they are the men upon whom the monarchs place most reliance. Occasionally, the relationship can be of sinister nature, where, as in the case of Arthur and Mordred, the brother is the father of his sister's child.^ Its appearance in the Father and Son Combat stories is of course of especial significance. It will be remembered that when Gawain meets his son and asks him who he is, the boy says that he has always been called the son of his uncle. In other words, the connection of Gawain with the lad's mother having been of the most fleeting nature, his maternal uncle had supplied the place of a father to him. In this case, he adds, that his mother did not dare to mention Gawain's name before her brother on account of the — ' . . . . grant damage Qu'il avoit fait de son lignage.' The great wrong consisted in having killed the girl's father and two of her brothers. The resentment of the ^ Arthur and Mordred fight also, but the combat hardly belongs among the cases discussed. Roland of course in some of the epics is the offspring of an incestuous union between Charlevtagne and his sister, but this feature, belonging as it does to the later stage of the legend, may be imitated from the Arthurian romances. SOHRAB AND RUSTEM 195 uncle, however, does not lessen the importance of the in- cident, as being a reminiscence of the matriarchal family. In the episode of Iravat, there is also a hint of the maternal uncle, only here the hatred of the sister's husband is bestowed also upon her offspring. When Iravat meets his father, it is said that he had been abandoned by his wicked uncle on account of hatred of Arjuna, and had grown up in the kingdom of the Nagas, protected by his mother.^ The hostility between a man and his sister's husband, according to Kohler, is not at all uncommon. In speaking of the Hine-te-Iwaiwa myth, he says, ' that there the man lives for a time with his wife's relations, and there arises that ill-feeling in which the history of matriarchy is so rich.' - It is particularly noticeable in another Maori tale. Tapa-ue is killed by his wife's relatives and his bones are made into fishing-hooks. 'This tribe did not respect the fact that a female of rank and of their tribe had been the wife of Tapa-ue and his bones ought to have been sacred.' The children of his wife lived with her and her tribe. One day the youngest born hears a fisherman call out to his hook — " O son of Ue When shall we Obtain ours ?" The child is puzzled, and asks his mother what is meant, The mother said to her last born, ' O son ! it is your father, ^ For maternal uncle, see especially the story of Astika. * Kohler, J., Der Ursprung der Melusinetisagc : eine ethnologische Untersuchung, p. 56 Leipzig, 1895. 196 SOHRAB AND RUSTEM it is Tapa-ue, whose bones have been made into fishing- hooks.' ' When he heard the words of his mother, he wept. He knew that those who had used his father's bones in this insulting way were his own uncles, the brothers of his own mother. He now remembered the many acts of unkindness his uncles had been guilty of to him.' ^ In the particular class of stories we have been studying, we have among the Maori tales, the maternal uncle in the one about Tu-huruhuru. There we really have a maternal uncle and nephew variant of the Father and Son Combat, for the child is struck by his uncle Rupe, who is ignorant of his identity. The same story is of interest as exhibiting another characteristic of matriarchy, the strong bond of affection between brother and sister. Among peoples where we find metrocracy, the tie which binds brother to brother, and brother to sister, is generally much stronger than that which binds children to their father. This is not at all unnatural when we remember that while the latter may be but Httle with his family, indeed may never have been seen by his offspring, the children grow up together. Bachofen has laid great stress on the intimate ties between brother and sister in the literature and traditions of Greece, India, Germany, Norway, Servia, and New Zealand. ^ He quotes Kanitz as saying : ' Mit innigster Liebe, ja mit Begeisterung hangt die Serbin an ihrem Bruder Der Bruder steht der jungen Serbin oft naher als ihr Geliebter und Gatte . . . Er ist der Wachter und Racher ihrer Ehre. Gliicklich erscheint nur derjenige, welcher eine ^ White, iamsche Verwandtschafts- )iamen. 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