The Tátos also appears in "Die Königstöchter," in Mailáth's Magyarische Sagen, vol. i. p. 61. See also "Zauberhelene," vol. ii. of the same collection, where we are told "Taigarot war ein wunderbares Pferd; es verstand die Reden der Menschen, antwortete auch und hatte neun Füsze." The whole story tells how Argilus carries off his wife, Helen, from the power of Holofernes, the fire-king, who has got her in his underground home. Taigarot belongs to Holofernes, and tells him where Helen is carried off, and so he recovers her. Argilus hears that the magic horse has a younger brother still more powerful although possessing but four legs. This horse belongs to one Iron nose, a witch, and so Argilus enters her service in order to obtain it. His duties are, first to control the witch's stud of brazen horses; next to look after her twelve black mares, who are her daughters, and then to milk them, and make a bath of their milk. He manages to do all by means of a magic staff, and so obtains the horse; whilst the witch is burnt to death in the bath which she thinks will make her young. The horse tells Argilus to wash it in the bath, and it at once becomes the colour of gold, and from every hair hangs a golden bell. With this horse Argilus carries off his wife. Holofernes follows on Taigarot, and not being able to overtake them, digs his spurs into Taigarot, who in his indignation at such treatment kicks Holofernes off, and so breaks his neck.
For magic horses in other lands cf. the following tales:—the Finnish "Oriiksi Muntettu Poika;" "The Little White Horse" in "Ferdinand the Faithful," Grimm, ii. p. 156; Katar, in "The Bay with a Moon and Star," Stokes, p. 131, which becomes changed by twisting his right ear; "Weisnittle," in Stier's Ungarische Volksmärchen, p. 61; Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged horse that used to carry the father of the gods as swift as the wind over land and sea, in Wagner's Asgard and the Gods; and "Bayard, Faithful Bayard!" the good steed in the Carolingian Legends in Wagner's Epics and Romances of the Middle Ages, pp. 367-396; "the shaggy dun filly" in "The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh," in Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands, vol. i. p. 4; and the "steed," in "The Rider of Grianaig," vol iii. p. 14 of the same book.
A magic horse appears in the Lapp story "Jætten og Veslegutten," (The Giant and the Vesle Boy), from Hammerfest; Friis, p. 48. In this case it assists the boy to escape from the giant, and to marry a king's daughter; and finally becomes a prince when its head is cut off. "A winged horse" appears in "Ivan, Kupiskas Søn," a story from Akkala, in Russian Finland; Friis, p. 170. In "Jætten Katten og Gutten" (the Giant, the Cat, and the Boy), from Alten, Friis, p. 63, the boy saves the giant's son from a troll cat, and is told by the lad he saves, that his father will offer him a gold horse and "a miserable one," and he is to be sure and choose the miserable one; and in like manner he was to choose a miserable box, and a miserable flute, in preference to golden ones, which would be offered to him. There is a somewhat similar Finnish story, "Paholaisen antamat Soittoneuwot" (Musical Instruments Given by the Devil), S. ja T., vol. i. p. 181, where the hero, when in the woods, sees the devil[22] running for his life, with a pack of wolves at his heels. The lad shoots into the pack, killing one wolf, and thus terrifying the rest. The grateful devil promises the lad whatever he wishes. Acting on the advice of a maid in the devil's house, he asks "for the mare which is in the third stall, on the right-hand side of the stable." The devil is very loath to give this, but is obliged to do so, and gives the boy a kantele, a fiddle, and a flute besides. The mare acts the part of a Tátos for part of the tale, and then changes into a woman, being the wife of the king, who appears at the latter part of the story, and who orders the hero to perform difficult tasks. The kantele is like the fiddle in the "Jew in a thicket" (Musical Myths, vol. ii. p. 122; Grimm, vol. ii. p. 97), it makes every one dance that hears it. The woman drops out of the story, and the persecuting king is kicked up into the clouds by the irate devil who comes to help the hero, and is never heard of again.
A horse that can talk plays a prominent part in another Finnish tale, "The Golden Bird."—"Dapplegrim" is the magic foal in the Norse; see Dasent, pp. 313 and 367. See also the "brown foal" in Grimm, "Two Brothers," No. 107, and the "white horse," in "Ferdinand the Faithful," No. 126, and note.
Note also horses in "Der goldne Vogel," "Das Zauberross," and "Der Knabe und der Schlange," in Haltrich's, Siebenbuergische Märchen; "La Belle aux cheveux d'or," in Contes des Fées, par Mme. D'Aulnoy; "Schönchen Goldhaar," Märchensaal aller Völker für Jung und Alt, Dr. Kletke, i. p. 344; "Der goldne Apfelbaum," in Kaiadschitsch, Volksmärchen der Serben, p. 33; and Denton, p. 43. Enchanted horses play a prominent part in "Simple Johnny," p. 36, and "The Black Charger of Hernando," p. 292, in Patranas or Spanish Stories.—Cf. "The little Mare" from Mentone, F. L. Record, vol. iii. p. 44. The Russians tell of "a sorry colt rolling in the muck," which possesses marvellous powers in "Marya Morevna," Ralston, p. 94; and in "Koshchei, the Deathless," there is an heroic steed, ibidem, p. 101. See also "Ivan Kruchina," Naake, p. 124. "The marvellous white horse" appears also in Austria; see Land of Marvels, pp. 48, 256, 260, 272, 342.
In the story of the third royal mendicant, in the Arabian Nights, Agib mounts a black horse and flies through the air. Similar incidents will be found in Nos. 1, 2, 4, 10, 17 of Dietrich's Runische Volksmärchen. Several variants, together with the author's view of their significance, are to be found in Gubernatis, vol. i., chap. ii.
The following, quoted from Stokes's Fairy Tales, p. 278, is worthy of notice:—
"On the morning of the day which was to see his last fight, Cúchulainn ordered his charioteer, Loeg, to harness the Gray to his chariot. 'I swear to God what my people swears' said Loeg, 'though the men of Conchobar's fifth (Ulster) were around the Gray of Macha, they could not bring him to the chariot.... If thou wilt, come thou, and speak with the Gray himself.' Cúchulainn went to him. And thrice did the horse turn his left side to his master.... Then Cúchulainn reproached his horse, saying that he was not wont to deal thus with his master. Thereat the Gray of Macha came and let his big round tears of blood fall on Cúchulainn's feet. The hero then leaps into his chariot and goes to battle. At last the Gray is sore wounded, and he and Cúchulainn bid each other farewell. The Gray leaves his master; but when Cúchulainn, wounded to death, has tied himself to a stone pillar to die standing, then came the Gray of Macha to Cúchulainn to protect him so long as his soul abode in him, and the 'hero's light' out of his forehead remained. Then the Gray of Macha wrought the three red routs all around him. And fifty fell by his teeth and thirty by each of his hooves. This is what he slew of the host. And hence is (the saying) 'Not keener were the victorious courses of the Gray of Macha after Cúchulainn's slaughter.' Then Lugaid and his men cut off the hero's head and right hand and set off, driving the Gray before them. They met Conall the Victorious, who knew what had happened when he saw his friend's horse. And he and the Gray of Macha sought Cúchulainn at the pillar-stone. Then went the Gray of Macha and laid his head on Cúchulainn's breast. And Conall said, 'A heavy care to the Gray of Macha is that corpse.' Conall himself, in the fight he has with Lugaid, to avenge his friend's slaughter, is helped by his own horse, the Dewy-Red. When Conall found that he prevailed not, he saw his steed, the Dewy-Red, by Lugaid. And the steed came to Lugaid and tore a piece out of his side."
("Cúchulainn's Death," abridged from the "Book of Leinster," in Revue Celtique, Juin, 1877, pp. 175, 176, 180, 182, 183, 185).
See also, Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Stallybrass, vol. i. pp. 328, 392; McGregor's Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland, p. 131; and Belludo, the goblin horse of Alhambra. Nor must we forget "Phooka," the wild horse of Erin's isle.