If we proceed by more drastic methods, by the methods of statistics, we shall arrive at much the same conclusion.[109] Taking the first twelve stories in Grimm's great collection, we find that seven of them yield elements which we are entitled to call savage, because they are so far removed from the European culture amidst which the folk-tales have lived, and because these elements belong not to the accidentals of the stories but to the essentials. Thus, if we divide the folk-tale into its components, we shall find that it consists of three features:-- 1. The story radicals, or essential plot; 2. The story accidentals, or illustrative points; 3. Modern gloss upon the events in the story-- and if we go on to allocate the various incidents of the stories to these three heads, we get the following common results with regard to seven out of the twelve first stories of Grimm's great collection:-- I.--FROG PRINCE ---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+-------------- | Story | Story | Added | Modern | radicals | accidentals | features | gloss ---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+-------------- |Youngest | | | | daughter | | | |Fountain or | | | | well the | | | | locality of | | | | leading | | | | incident | | | |Frog | | | 1. Savage | prince=totem| | | elements |Frog prince | -- | -- | -- | stays at the| | | | house of his| | | | future wife | | | |Exogamous | | | | marriage, | | | | the prince | | | | coming from | | | | a foreign | | | | country | | | ---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+-------------- | | |Faithful | 2. Fantastic | | | servant | element | -- | -- | whose heart | -- | | | is bound by | | | | iron bands | ---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+-------------- | | | |Kingly state