Note 60.1 — Chapter XVII · THE RESCUE OF ANDROMEDA IN SAGAS.

In Germany the maiden’s victory is localised on the far-famed Drachenfels. While Rome was yet mistress of the left bank of the Rhine, and Christianity under her power had established itself there, the heathen hordes on the right bank continued to assert their independence, and made constant raids on the opposite side. On one of these freebooting excursions they captured a Christian king’s daughter. The son of the ruler of the Löwenburg fell in love with her, and would have wedded her had she not refused to give her hand to a worshipper of false gods. Whereupon it was decreed in a council of the chiefs that the damsel should be offered up to a ferocious dragon dwelling in a cave on that one of the Seven Mountains whose steep top looked down into the green waves of the surging Rhine. Early on the morrow, while the dragon yet slept, she was accordingly dragged up the rock and fettered to a tree near the cavern. At the foot of the mountain gathered an expectant crowd—among them her heathen lover, who longed to hasten up and shield the maiden’s life with his own; but she was condemned to death by the nobles, and he durst not interfere. Meanwhile she stood unterrified; and as she quietly awaited the dragon, she drew from her bosom a crucifix and fixed her trustful gaze upon it. Out came the monster from his hole, and, catching sight of the sacrifice provided for him, he rushed upon her. The crucifix, however, proved too much for him. When he beheld it in her hands terror and stupefaction seized him; he fell down in the most natural way and rolled from the precipitous cliff right into the foaming flood below, there to find a watery grave. Nothing more of course was wanted to convert the heathen; and the legend winds up, in a manner somewhat more idyllic than orthodox, with the wedding of the pious maiden to the king’s son after he had received “the bath of regeneration.”60.1 The story has clearly been provided with a religious and literary gloss; but there is no reason why in substance it may not be of traditional origin, and the conclusion indicates a strong probability that as originally told it was the king’s son who effected the maiden’s deliverance. The Kwang-po-wu-chih, a compilation of the end of the sixteenth century, furnishes a Chinese version also literary in appearance, the popular provenience of which cannot be doubted. “In the eastern regions of Yueh Min (the present Fuhkien) there exists a range of mountains called the Yung Ling, many tens of li in height, in the north-western recesses of which there abode a mighty serpent, seven or eight chang (seventy or eighty feet) in length and ten feet in circumference, which was held in great awe by the people of the country. At a certain time it signified, either to some person in a dream or to those versed in the art of divination, that it lusted to devour a maiden of the age of twelve or thirteen; and the governors and men in authority of that region, equally alarmed respecting the monster, sought out female bond-servants and the daughters of criminals to satisfy the serpent’s appetite. In the morning of the day in the eighth moon, after offering sacrifices, the victim was taken to the mouth of the serpent’s cavern, and at night the serpent suddenly issued forth and devoured its prey. Year after year this happened, until at length nine maidens in all had been offered up; and a fresh demand was being made but no victim could be obtained. At this time Li Tan, Magistrate of Tsing Lo, had six daughters and no sons. His youngest daughter, named Ki, responded to the call and was ready to proceed (to the cavern), but her parents refused consent. She urged, however, that she was unable to be of use to her parents, as was Ti Ying (the faithful daughter of olden times), and being a mere source of useless expense might as well bring her life to a speedy close, and only requested to be supplied with a good sword and a dog that would bite at snakes. In the morning of the day of the eighth month she visited the Temple with the sword beside her and the dog provided. She had also previously prepared several measures of boiled rice mixed with honey, which she placed at the mouth of the cavern. At night the serpent came forth, its head as large as a rice stock and its eyes like mirrors two feet across—when, perceiving the aroma of the mess of rice, it began to devour it. Ki forthwith let loose her dog which seized the serpent in its teeth, and the maiden hereupon hacked the monster from behind, so that after dragging itself to the mouth of its cave it died. The maiden entered the cavern and recovered the skeletons of the nine previous victims, whose untimely fate she bewailed. After this she leisurely returned home, and the Prince of Sueh, hearing of her exploit, raised her to be his Queen.”62.1