"Spieglein, spieglein an der Wand
Wer ist die schönste im ganzen Land?"
And receives the reply—
"Frau Königin. Thr seid die Schönste hier
Aber Schneewitchen ist thausendmal schöner.
Als Thr."
Cf. Pedroso Portuguese Folk-Tales, F.L.S. 1882. "The Vain Queen," and "The Maiden with the Rose on her Forehead."
Page [164]. The love-stricken ones is a touch of the Oriental method of describing the power of love. See numberless examples in Payne's Arabian Knights.
Page [165]. There is an Indian superstition noted in Temple's Legends of the Punjáb, p. 51, where we read, "he wore some coarse clothes over his own, so that her perspiration should not injure him," and in the footnote: "the woman's perspiration would take his 'virtue' out of him."
Page [165]. Magic Mirror. Besides the variants at the beginning of the notes, we may compare the Magic Mirror in the Norse Saga, "King Gram" and the Hanoverian tale, in Grimm, vol. ii. p. 379.
For spitting as a mode of enchantment, see numerous examples in Arabian Nights.
Page [172]. "The Pin, &c. which prevents the girl from moving." Cf. Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, p. xiii., "The Pomegranate King," p. 14, "The princess who loved her father like salt," p. 165; and notes on pp. 248, &c.
In the Finnish tale, "Här' än Korwista syntyneet Koirat siw" (Dogs which sprang from the ears of a bull), in S. ja T. 1, a girl scratches her brother's head with a devil's tusk, and so kills him; but his faithful dogs lick the wound, and so restore him to life.