Note 31 — Chapter VI · The Grateful Dead and The Water of Life or Kindred Themes.

The question now arises as to what light the group just considered throws upon the variants which combine the simple theme of The Grateful Dead with The Water of Life or some such motive. It appeared, the reader will remember, that according to the elements foreign to the main motive they must be separated into four classes. Reference to these classes31 will show that the variants with The Thankful Beasts are in many respects different from any one of them as far as the features peculiar to The Water of Life, or kindred themes, are concerned. Yet because Maltese and the brief Venetian, though otherwise transformed, are the only tales aside from these32 that preserve the treachery of the hero’s brothers, it is safe to class them together. Both Maltese and Venetian come, it will be observed, from the same general region as all the other members of the group.