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
and though at first she was nearly frightened to death, she was soon very
glad to have him with her. From her he learned that she was no other than
the daughter of the magician, who kept her there for safety at the bottom
of the sea. The two now laid their heads together, and she told him what
to do. There was a certain king who owed her father money and had not the
wherewithal to pay; and if he did not pay by such and such a day, his head
was to be cut off. So the young man was to take service with the king,
offer him the bushels of money which he had earned in the service of the
magician, and go with him to the magician to pay his debt. But he was to
dress up as the court Fool so that the magician would not know him, and in
that character he was to indulge in horse-play, smashing windows and so
on, till the magician would fall into such a rage that though the king had
paid his debt to the last farthing he would nevertheless be condemned to
instant execution unless he could answer the magician’s questions. The
questions would be these, “Where is my daughter?” “Would you know her if
you saw her?” Now the magician would cause a whole line of phantom women
to pass by, so that the young man would not be able to tell which of them
was the sorcerer’s daughter; but when her turn came to pass by she would
give him a nudge as a sign, and so he would know her. Then the magician
would ask, “And where is my heart?” And the young man was to say, “In a
fish.” And the magician would ask, “Would you know the fish if you saw
it?” And he would cause all sorts of fishes to pass by, and the young man
would have to say in which of them was the heart of the magician. He would
never be able of himself to tell in which of them it was, but the girl
would stand beside him, and when the right fish passed by, she would nudge
him and he was to catch it and rip it up, and the magician would ask him
no more questions. Everything turned out exactly as she had said. The king
paid his debt to the last farthing; but the young man disguised as the
court Fool cut such capers and smashed so many glass windows and doors
that the heaps of broken glass were something frightful to contemplate. So
there was nothing for it but that the king, who was of course responsible
for the pranks of his Fool, should either answer the magician’s questions
or die the death. While they were getting the axe and the block ready in
the courtyard, the trembling king was interrogated by the stern magician.
“Where is my daughter?” asked the sorcerer. Here the court Fool cut in and
said, “She is at the bottom of the sea.” “Would you know her if you saw
her?” enquired the magician. “To be sure I would,” answered the Fool. So
the magician caused a whole regiment of girls to defile before him, one
after the other; but they were mere phantoms and apparitions. Almost the
last of all came the magician’s daughter, and when she passed the young
man she pinched his arm so hard that he almost shrieked with pain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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