74 ASHIEPATTLE: OR HANS SEEKS HIS LUCK 



veying queens was unfamiliar to the mediaeval mind. 

 The primitive Aryans, however, whether Teuton or 

 Greek, knew of such a system. The winning of the 

 bride by a task done for her mother, for her father, or for 

 herself, which is so frequent a feature of the Marchen, 1 

 is no idle invention of the mediaeval story-teller. It 

 carries us back to a primitive form of civilisation 

 common to Aryan, Hebrew, and Zulu. It is impossible 

 to read De beiden Kilnigeskinner without being re- 

 minded of Jacob's service for Rachel and Leah, and feel 

 that in the primitive form of the story the king's son 

 won not the youngest, but all three daughters. Nor 

 can we fully appreciate the tasks set by the old queen 

 and her daughter in Die seeks Diener to would-be 

 husbands, without comparing it with customs like those 

 of the Bechuanas, among whom the wooer ploughs so 

 much ground and brings so many oxen for his mother- 

 in-law. The Mdrchen, to be understood, must be treated 

 as a quarry in which are to be found the fossils of an 

 antique civilisation, or rather of several successive 

 antique civilisations. 



In the Teutonic Mdrchen, however, the period of 

 mother-right appears to be the stratum richest in fossils. 

 The king is king, because he is the son of the queen, 

 because he is the queen's husband, 2 because he marries 

 her daughter. His power comes to him because he is of, 

 or belonging to, the queen or Kone. B The princess, as 

 heiress apparent, is the keynote of the typical Mdrclien. 



1 Typical examples in Die drei Sprachen, Dot Erdmanneken, and Der Vogel 

 Greif. 



2 The Celtic term "wedding the kingdom " is a very apt illustration. 



3 See Essay XI. later. 



