To this we shall return
after some specimens of the tales have been given. The specimens
will be selected with a view of illustrating both the characteristic
features and the wide diffusion of this class of tales.
In the first place, the story of the external soul is told, in
various forms, by all Aryan peoples from Hindoostan to the Hebrides.
A very common form of it is this: A warlock, giant, or other
fairyland being is invulnerable and immortal because he keeps his
soul hidden far away in some secret place; but a fair princess, whom
he holds enthralled in his enchanted castle, wiles his secret from
him and reveals it to the hero, who seeks out the warlock's soul,
heart, life, or death (as it is variously called), and by destroying
it, simultaneously kills the warlock. Thus a Hindoo story tells how
a magician called Punchkin held a queen captive for twelve years,
and would fain marry her, but she would not have him. At last the
queen's son came to rescue her, and the two plotted together to kill
Punchkin. So the queen spoke the magician fair, and pretended that
she had at last made up her mind to marry him.
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