Note 3 — Chapter XXV

In the story of the Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth, (Thorpe, Yule-tide Stories, p. 158) an old woman sends the youth, who is in quest of the palace, to her old sister, who again refers him to an older sister dwelling in a small ruinous cottage on a mountain. In Signora von Gonzenbach’s Sicilianische Märchen, p. 86, the prince is sent by one “Einsiedler” to his brother, and this brother sends him to an older brother and he again to an older still, who is described as “Steinalt” see also p. 162. Compare also the story of Hasan of El Basra in Lane’s Arabian Nights. Cp. also Kaden’s Unter den Olivenbäumen, p. 56. We have a similar incident in Melusine, p. 447, The story is entitled La Montagne Noire on Les Filles du Diable. See also the Pentamerone of Basile, Tale 49, Ralston’s Russian Folk-Tales, p. 76; Waldau’s Böhmische Märchen, pp. 37 and 255 and ff; and Dasent’s Norse Tales, pp. 31–32, 212–213, and 330–331.