[1] See pp. 1 and 2.
[2] P. 181.
[3] Abhandlungen der k. bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1893, pp. 89–166. Reprinted, with some additional notes by the editor, in Gesammelte Abhandlungen von Wilhelm Hertz, ed. F. von der Leyen, 1905, pp. 156–277.
[4] The existing versions go back to the pseudo-Aristotelian De secretis secretorum or De regimine principum, which was taken from the Arabic in the twelfth century (Hertz, p. 92). It is probable, however, that the tale existed far earlier than this and came from India (Hertz, pp. 151–155).
[5] Pp. 115 ff.
[6] Two Asiatic parallels not cited by Hertz will serve to illustrate the theme further. One of these is “The Story of Swet-Basanta” from Lal Behari Day, Folk-tales of Bengal, 1883, pp. 100 f. The hero is found by an elephant and made king of a land, where the successive sovereigns are killed every night mysteriously. He watches and sees something like a thread coming from the queen’s nostrils. This proves to be a great serpent, which he kills, thus remaining as king. The other is from J. H. Knowles, Folk-tales of Kashmir, 1888, pp. 32 ff., “A Lach of Rupees for a Bit of Advice.” A prince pays a lach of rupees for a paper containing four rules of conduct. His father exiles him for this extravagance. In his wanderings the prince finds a potter alternately laughing and crying because his son must soon marry a princess, who has to be wedded anew each night. So the prince marries the woman instead and kills two serpents that come from her nostrils, thus retaining the kingdom. In these two stories there is no question of aid coming to the hero; he is saved by his own watchfulness.
[7] Tobit, Danish III. (Andersen’s tale), and Peele’s Old Wives’ Tale.
[8] For example, it appears in Schischmánoff’s Légendes religíeuses bulgares, 1896, pp. 194–201, side by side with our Bulgarian tale.
[9] I summarize from Köhler’s reprint in Germania, iii. pp. 202 ff.