ASHIEPATTLE: OR HANS SEEKS HIS LUCK 61 



pregnant wife. The enraged witch, who has found him 

 in the act of stealing, is pacified when she hears the 

 cause of his theft, but demands the child about to be 

 born. " All shall be well with it, and I will tend it as 

 a mother." Frau Gothel is not unkind to the child, 

 until a king's son with patriarchal principles comes to 

 steal her. " He took her to his kingdom, and they 

 lived for long in happiness and contentment." Again 

 we see the hostility of the witch associated with the 

 new form of marriage the Raubehe. As a contrast to 

 these two hostile witches, we may note the witch in 

 Die Gansehirtin am Brunnen. Here we are certainly 

 in a matriarchal community, for the kingdom goes to 

 the king's daughters ; at least to the elder daughters, 

 for the younger is driven out into the forest for a pre- 

 sumed want of affection for her father. Here she 

 becomes goose -girl to a ' steinaltes Miitterchen,' who 

 lives with her herd of geese in a small hut on a forest- 

 clearing. This old woman spends her time in collecting 

 grass and wild fruit, and, like the modern Tyrolese 

 peasant woman, is able to carry a greater burden than 

 the passing stranger who offers his services. To such a 

 stranger she may sternly teach a lesson, but she is at 

 heart friendly to him as well as to the maiden. She is 

 a typical representative of primitive womanhood, busy 

 with the spinning-wheel and the besom, and knowing 

 in forest-lore, and, when occasion requires, enchantment. 

 She makes her hut into a palace for the princess, and 

 to that, not to his own home, the hero takes his 

 bride. Then the tale concludes with the suggestive 

 words : 



