Note 9 — Chapter XLII

This resembles the German story of the two brothers as given in Cox’s Aryan Mythology, Vol. I, p. 162. See also Gonzenbach’s Sicilianische Märchen, Nos. 39 and 40, with Dr. Köhler’s note. He there refers us to his own remarks on the 4th of Campbell’s West Highland Tales in Orient und Occident, Vol. II, p. 118, and to Grimm, Nos. 60 and 85, Hahn No. 22, Widter-Wolf, No. 8, Vernaleken, No. 35, &c. In Grimm’s No. 60, we have a magic sword, and the temporary death of one of the brothers is indicated by the dimming of one side of a knife. This story resembles Grimm’s more closely, than that of Aśokadatta and Vijayadatta in ch. 25. See also Bartsch’s Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 474. See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, p. 328, Vol. II, p. 317. The story of Amys and Amylion, in Ellis’s Metrical Romances, resembles closely the tale, as given by Grimm and Gonzenbach. So too do the 7th and 9th stories of the 1st day in the Pentamerone of Basile, and the 52nd in Coelho’s Contos Populares Portuguezes, p. 120. Perhaps the oldest mythological pair of brothers are the Aśvins, who have their counterpart in the Dioscuri and in Heracles and Iphiclus.