Note 1 — Chapter VI · The Grateful Dead and The Water of Life or Kindred Themes.

The most adequate treatment of the motive yet published is by August Wünsche, Die Sagen vom Lebensbaum und Lebenswasser, 1905, pp. 90–104. This is the same study which had previously been printed in the Zts. f. vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte, 1899, N.F. xiii. 166–180, but is furnished with a new introduction and a few additional illustrations. Dr. Wünsche’s monograph, thoroughgoing and conclusive as it is with reference to the myths of the Tree of life and the Water of Life, leaves much to be desired as an account of the folk-tale based on the latter belief. He himself says in his preface, p. iv: “Man sieht auch daraus, dass es sich um Wanderstoffe handelt, an die sich immer neue Elemente ankristallisiert haben.” These elements he has not studied with any degree of completeness. Thus, for example, he does not use Cosquin’s valuable contributions in Contes populaires de Lorraine, i. 212–222, which would have given him valuable assistance. The theme yet awaits definitive treatment.