The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 11 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 11 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
He brings the rose-tree to
her house and finds her at the point of death. Then he throws it into the
cellar, crying, “Behold her death!” and at once the whole building shakes,
“and becomes an island, on which are people who had been sitting in Hell,
and who offer up thanks to Prince Ivan.”(354) In another Russian story a
prince is grievously tormented by a witch who has got hold of his heart,
and keeps it seething in a magic cauldron.(355)
(M91) In a Bohemian tale a warlock’s strength lies in an egg which is in a
duck, which is in a stag, which is under a tree. A seer finds the egg and
sucks it. Then the warlock grows as weak as a child, “for all his strength
had passed into the seer.”(356) A Servian story relates how a certain
warlock called True Steel carried off a prince’s wife and kept her shut up
in his cave. But the prince contrived to get speech of her and told her
that she must persuade True Steel to reveal to her where his strength lay.
So when True Steel came home, the prince’s wife said to him, “Tell me,
now, where is your great strength?” He answered, “My wife, my strength is
in my sword.” Then she began to pray and turned to his sword. When True
Steel saw that, he laughed and said, “O foolish woman! my strength is not
in my sword, but in my bow and arrows.” Then she turned towards the bow
and arrows and prayed. But True Steel said, “I see, my wife, you have a
clever teacher who has taught you to find out where my strength lies. I
could almost say that your husband is living, and it is he who teaches
you.” But she assured him that nobody had taught her. When she found he
had deceived her again, she waited for some days and then asked him again
about the secret of his strength. He answered, “Since you think so much of
my strength, I will tell you truly where it is. Far away from here there
is a very high mountain; in the mountain there is a fox; in the fox there
is a heart; in the heart there is a bird, and in this bird is my strength.
It is no easy task, however, to catch the fox, for she can transform
herself into a multitude of creatures.” So next day, when True Steel went
forth from the cave, the prince came and learned from his wife the true
secret of the warlock’s strength. So away he hied to the mountain, and
there, though the fox, or rather the vixen, turned herself into various
shapes, he managed with the help of certain friendly eagles, falcons, and
dragons, to catch and kill her. Then he took out the fox’s heart, and out
of the heart he took the bird and burned it in a great fire. At that very
moment True Steel fell down dead.(357)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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