Note 12.2 — Chapter VIII · THE LIFE-TOKEN IN TALE AND CUSTOM.

According to a märchen told by the Transylvanian Armenians, a maiden presses a gold coin into her lover’s hand and tells him that when it is rusty she will be dead.12.2 In the Russian tale of Marya Morevna, the hero leaves successively his silver spoon, fork and snuff-box with his three Animal Brothers-in-law, when he goes on the perilous adventure of rescuing his fair wife from Koshchei the Deathless. When he is killed and chopped into pieces by the ogre, all the silver turns black.12.3 The hero of a Tirolese tale and his sister kindle two lights; and he declares that if one of them go out, she must take it as a sign that something has happened to him and he will nevermore return.12.4 A candle is combined with the handkerchief which becomes bloody in a Russian story. The youngest brother going away in a Sicilian märchen touches a vase of cloves and utters the warning that the drying up of the cloves will be a signal of his having been turned to marble by the Medusa-witch.13.1 In Russian tales the hero’s horse stands in blood up to his knees, or even up to his neck, or up to his ankles in tears, when his master is dead.13.2 In another Russian tale a glass of water becomes tinged with blood.13.3 And in a Servian tale the eldest brother, on going out with the second, directs the youngest to put a kettle on the fire to boil, and to keep stirring the fire beneath it. If the water turn to blood, he is to let a little dog out of the cellar, and bid it follow the way the two elder brothers have taken.13.4 Similarly in a Georgian story the prince fills a cup with water and puts it near the fire. So long as it remains pure he will be alive; but on its changing to blood he will be dead.13.5 In the Egyptian manuscript the elder brother is warned of his younger’s fate by the beer he is about to drink turning into froth. Here again, it will be noted, there is no apparent connection with the hero, save that he has previously appointed this sign.