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Frazer, James George, Sir, 1854-1941

"The Golden Bough"

" But Seyf el-Mulook got possession of the sparrow
and strangled it, and the jinnee fell upon the ground a heap of
black ashes. In a Kabyle story an ogre declares that his fate is far
away in an egg, which is in a pigeon, which is in a camel, which is
in the sea. The hero procures the egg and crushes it between his
hands, and the ogre dies. In a Magyar folk-tale, an old witch
detains a young prince called Ambrose in the bowels of the earth. At
last she confided to him that she kept a wild boar in a silken
meadow, and if it were killed, they would find a hare inside, and
inside the hare a pigeon, and inside the pigeon a small box, and
inside the box one black and one shining beetle: the shining beetle
held her life, and the black one held her power; if these two
beetles died, then her life would come to an end also. When the old
hag went out, Ambrose killed the wild boar, and took out the hare;
from the hare he took the pigeon, from the pigeon the box, and from
the box the two beetles; he killed the black beetle, but kept the
shining one alive.


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