ASHIEPATTLE: OR HANS SEEKS HIS LUCK 65 



und Nadel, the ' Pathe,' who provides so handsomely 

 for her godchild, are all ' white ' witches, magic-work- 

 ing old women, friendly to those who are respectful or 

 kindly towards them. It will be seen at once from the 

 cases cited that the ugly, mysterious old woman with 

 magical powers is not necessarily hostile to mankind. 

 Much that appears hostile is due either to our not 

 appreciating the struggle between two civilisations, or 

 to the real motive, sacrificial or social, of the witch's 

 conduct having become obscured in the long course of 

 tradition through minds charged with alien ideas. 



While the witch or priestess of the old civilisation is 

 generally pictured for 'us as living alone in a hut within 

 a forest-clearing, 1 we not infrequently find the priestly 

 united with the queenly office. The queen is a witch 2 

 for example in Sneewittchen and Die seeks Diener ; in 

 many cases the queen's daughter inherits her mother's 

 powers, 3 and a struggle ensues in magic between the two 

 (e.g. De beiden Kunigeskinner, and practically in the 

 Krautesel). Yet in others it is a king's daughter who, 

 by aid of her knowledge of magic, defeats the witch who 

 would prevent Hans from winning her and her kingdom 

 (e.g. in Der Trommler), 4 or uses magic for her own ends, 

 as in Die Gcinsemagd. We may, I think, conclude that 

 the primitive notion of witch was not that of an ugly 



1 In much the same solitary manner as the medicine-men of the Indians in 

 Sierra Madre. 



2 The Fuegians have a legend that their men once revolted against the 

 women, because the latter had monopolised tribal authority and the secrets of 

 witchcraft (Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kumai, p. 105). 



3 The inheritance of witchcraft by daughter from mother has been referred 

 to in Essay IX. p. 8. As among the Germans, so among the Celts, magic power 

 ran in the women of families (see Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, p. 199). 



4 Sometimes merely between one woman and another, as in Fundevogel. 



VOL. II F 



