Against these ideas M. Cosquin argues that if the Aryan people before its division preserved the myths only in their _earliest germinal form_, it is incredible that, when the separated branches had lost touch of each other, the final shape of their myths, the _märchen_, should have so closely resembled each other as they do. The Aryan theory (as it may be called for the sake of brevity) rejects, as a rule, the idea that tales can, as a rule, have been _borrowed_, even by one Aryan people from another.* "Nursery tales are generally the last things to be borrowed by one nation from another."** Then, says M. Cosquin, as the undivided Aryan people had only the myths in their least developed state, and as the existing peasantry have only the _detritus_ of these myths--the _märchen_--and as you say borrowing is out of the question, how do you account for a coincidence like _this_? In the Punjaub, among the Bretons, the Albanians, the modern Greeks and the Russians we find a _conte_ in which a young man gets possession of a magical ring. This ring is stolen from him, and recovered by the aid of certain grateful beasts, whom the young man has benefited. His foe keeps the ring in his mouth, but the grateful mouse, insinuating his tail into the nose of the thief, makes him sneeze, and out comes the magical ring! * Cox, Mythol. of Aryan Nations, i. 109. ** Max Müller, Chips, ii. 216. Common sense insists, says M. Cosquin, that this detail was invented once for all. It must have first occurred, not in a myth, but in a _conte_ or _märchen_, from which all the others alike proceed. Therefore, if you wish the idea of the mouse and the ring and the sneeze to be a part of the store of the undivided Aryans, you must admit that they had _contes, märchen_, popular stories, what you call the _detritus_ of myths, as well as myths themselves, before they left their cradle in Central Asia. "Nos ancetres, les peres des nations europeennes, auraient, de cette facon, emporte dans leurs fourgons la collection complete de contes Ibleus actuels." In short, if there was no borrowing, myths have been reduced (on the Aryan theory) to the condition of _detritus_, to the diamond dust of mar-chen, before the Aryan people divided. But this is contrary to the hypothesis. M. Cosquin does not pause here. The _märchen_--mouse, ring, sneeze and all--is found among _non-Aryan_ tribes, "the inhabitants of Mardin in Mesopotamia and the Kariaines of Birmanie".* Well, if there was no borrowing, how did the non-Aryan peoples get the story? * Cosquin, i, xi., xii., with his authorities in note 1.