[164] The most adequate treatment of the motive yet published is by August Wuensche, Die Sagen vom Lebensbaum und Lebenswasser, 1905, pp. 90-104. This is the same study which had previously been printed in the Zts. f. vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte, 1899, N.F. xiii. 166-180, but is furnished with a new introduction and a few additional illustrations. Dr. Wuensche's monograph, thoroughgoing and conclusive as it is with reference to the myths of the Tree of life and the Water of Life, leaves much to be desired as an account of the folk-tale based on the latter belief. He himself says in his preface, p. iv: "Man sieht auch daraus, dass es sich um Wanderstoffe handelt, an die sich immer neue Elemente ankristallisiert haben." These elements he has not studied with any degree of completeness. Thus, for example, he does not use Cosquin's valuable contributions in Contes populaires de Lorraine, i. 212-222, which would have given him valuable assistance. The theme yet awaits definitive treatment. [165] See Wuensche, p. 92. [166] P. 71. [167] "The Fountain of Youth," Journal of the American Oriental Society, xxvi. 1st half, 19 and 55. [168] Hopkins, pp. 19, 42, 55, etc. [169] Wuensche, p. iii: "Es sind altorientalische Mythen, die in alle Kulturreligionen uebergangen sind. Zeit und Ort haben ihnen ein sehr verschiedenes Gepraege gegeben, der Grundgedanke ist derselbe geblieben." [170] P. 71. See also Hopkins, p. 55. [171] Contes populaires de Lorraine, i. 213. [172] Pp. 90 f. [173] See pp. 125-127 below. [174] Pp. 212-214. He regards the story in Wolf, Hausmaerchen, p. 230, as linking the two. [175] P. 91. Cosquin, it will be noted, makes the fruit an alternative of the water of life. [176] For example, "The Baker's Three Daughters" in Mrs. M. Carey's Fairy Legends of the French Provinces, 1887, pp. 86 ff., unites the water of life with both the magical apples and the bird. [177] The need of such a study may be shown by stating that, while Wuensche has treated about thirty variants, I know at present of something like four times that number. [178] See p. 118 above.