Myths and Myth-Makers | Page 7

home his bride. Luxman overhears two owls talking about the perils
that await his master and mistress. First he saves them from being
crushed by the falling limb of a banyan-tree, and then he drags them
away from an arch which immediately after gives way. By and by, as
they rest under a tree, the king falls asleep. A cobra creeps up to the
queen, and Luxman kills it with his sword; but, as the owls had foretold,
a drop of the cobra's blood falls on the queen's forehead. As Luxman
licks off the blood, the king starts up, and, thinking that his vizier is
kissing his wife, upbraids him with his ingratitude, whereupon Luxman,
through grief at this unkind interpretation of his conduct, is turned into
stone.[5]
[5] See Cox, Mythology of the Aryan Nations, Vol. I. pp. 145-149.
For further illustration we may refer to the Norse tale of the "Giant who
had no Heart in his Body," as related by Dr. Dasent. This burly
magician having turned six brothers with their wives into stone, the
seventh brother--the crafty Boots or many-witted Odysseus of
European folk-lore--sets out to obtain vengeance if not reparation for
the evil done to his kith and kin. On the way he shows the kindness of
his nature by rescuing from destruction a raven, a salmon, and a wolf.
The grateful wolf carries him on his back to the giant's castle, where the
lovely princess whom the monster keeps in irksome bondage promises
to act, in behalf of Boots, the part of Delilah, and to find out, if possible,
where her lord keeps his heart. The giant, like the Jewish hero, finally
succumbs to feminine blandishments. "Far, far away in a lake lies an
island; on that island stands a church; in that church is a well; in that
well swims a duck; in that duck there is an egg; and in that egg there
lies my heart, you darling." Boots, thus instructed, rides on the wolf's
back to the island; the raven flies to the top of the steeple and gets the
church-keys; the salmon dives to the bottom of the well, and brings up
the egg from the place where the duck had dropped it; and so Boots
becomes master of the situation. As he squeezes the egg, the giant, in

mortal terror, begs and prays for his life, which Boots promises to spare
on condition that his brothers and their brides should be released from
their enchantment. But when all has been duly effected, the treacherous
youth squeezes the egg in two, and the giant instantly bursts.
The same story has lately been found in Southern India, and is
published in Miss Frere's remarkable collection of tales entitled "Old
Deccan Days." In the Hindu version the seven daughters of a rajah,
with their husbands, are transformed into stone by the great magician
Punchkin,--all save the youngest daughter, whom Punchkin keeps shut
up in a tower until by threats or coaxing he may prevail upon her to
marry him. But the captive princess leaves a son at home in the cradle,
who grows up to manhood unmolested, and finally undertakes the
rescue of his family. After long and weary wanderings he finds his
mother shut up in Punchkin's tower, and persuades her to play the part
of the princess in the Norse legend. The trick is equally successful.
"Hundreds of thousands of miles away there lies a desolate country
covered with thick jungle. In the midst of the jungle grows a circle of
palm-trees, and in the centre of the circle stand six jars full of water,
piled one above another; below the sixth jar is a small cage which
contains a little green parrot; on the life of the parrot depends my life,
and if the parrot is killed I must die."[6] The young prince finds the
place guarded by a host of dragons, but some eaglets whom he has
saved from a devouring serpent in the course of his journey take him on
their crossed wings and carry him to the place where the jars are
standing. He instantly overturns the jars, and seizing the parrot, obtains
from the terrified magician full reparation. As soon as his own friends
and a stately procession of other royal or noble victims have been set at
liberty, he proceeds to pull the parrot to pieces. As the wings and legs
come away, so tumble off the arms and legs of the magician; and
finally as the prince wrings the bird's neck, Punchkin twists his own
head round and dies.
[6] The same incident occurs in the Arabian story of Seyf-el-Mulook
and Bedeea-el-Jemal, where the Jinni's soul is enclosed in the crop of a
sparrow, and the sparrow imprisoned in a small box, and this