58 ASHIEPATTLE: OR HANS SEEKS HIS LUCK 



(iii.) Does the kingdom pass to the king's daughter 

 or to a son ? 



The last test is practically identical with the follow- 

 ing : Does the hero take his bride home with him, or 

 go and live in her country or among her kin ? 



Many Mdrchen judged by these tests will be found 

 to be compound, a later addition or expansion over- 

 laying a more primitive story ; but generally the great 

 bulk of Mdrchen will be found to belong to a matri- 

 archal and not a patriarchal people, to a people rather 

 in the transition stage (6), than in the stage (c) as de- 

 scribed above. 



A few statistics may be of interest. Out of 200 

 Mdrchen examined by these tests, 74 could be dis- 

 tinguished by the third criterion. Of these 6 had a 

 mixed law of descent. In no less than 48 the king- 

 dom passed through the daughter, or the husband 

 went to live with his bride. In 20 only did the king- 

 dom descend to a prince, or a hero take his bride to his 

 own home. In one case out of these twenty, the king- 

 dom went to the youngest son ; in four cases the witch 

 was purely malevolent ; in seven cases references occurred 

 to church or priest ; and in eight cases there were no 

 further data to guide one as to the period of origin. 

 We may therefore, I think, conclude that the great 

 bulk of Mdrchen date from an age in which pro- 

 perty descended only to relations by the womb. Pleni- 

 tude of kings and inheritance by daughters are not 

 signs of the topsy-turvydom of Mdrchenland, but 

 characteristics of the age from which it dates. Read 

 between the lines, the stories of Agamemnon and 



