GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MYTHS. 337 



man said to tlie fisli^ " Gro take liold of it, and swallow it as fast 

 as you can." The fish, darted towards the old shoe, and swal- 

 lowed it ; the boy-man laughed to himself, but said nothing 

 till the fish was fairly caught, and then he took hold of the line 

 and hauled himself to shore. When the sister began to cut 

 the fish open she heard her brother^s voice from inside the fish, 

 calling to her to let him out, so she made a hole, and he crept 

 through, and told her to cut up the fish and dry it, for it would 

 last them a long while for food.^ 



In the Old World, the Hindoo story of Saktideva tells that 

 there was once a king's daughter who would marry no one but 

 the man who had seen the Golden City, and Saktideva was in 

 love with her ; so he went travelling about the world seeking 

 some one who could tell him where this Golden City was. In 

 the course of his journeys he embarked on board a ship bound 

 for the island of Utsthala, where lived the King of the Fisher- 

 men, who, Saktideva hoped, would set him on his way. On 

 the voyage there arose a great storm and the ship went to 

 pieces, but a great fish swallowed Saktideva whole. Then, 

 driven by the force of fate, the fish went to the island of Uts- 

 thala, and there the servants of the King of the Fishermen 

 caught it, and the King, wondering at its size, had it cut open, 

 and Saktideva came out unhurt, to pass through other adven- 

 tures, and at last to see the Golden City, and to marry, not the 

 Princess only, but her three sisters beside.^ 



The analogy of these curious tales with the leading episode 

 of the Book of Jonah is of course evident, and it might ap- 

 pear as though this very ancient story were possibly the direct 

 origin of one or both of them ; as regards dates, the American 

 story has been but recently taken down, and even the Hindoo 

 tale only comes out of a medigeval Sanskrit collection. But 

 both agree in differing from the history of Jonah, in the fish 

 being cut open to let the man out. Something very like this 

 occurs in the myth of the Polynesian Sun-god Maui. He was 

 born on the sea-shore, and his mother flung him into the foam 

 of the surf; then the seaweed wrapped its long tangles round 



' Schoolcraft, part iii. pp. 318-20. 



- Somadeva BliattUj vol. ii. pp. 118-184. 



