rings from its bones a tree which
befriends the girl, and gains her a lordly husband. In a Servian
variant of the story, it is distinctly stated that the protecting cow
had been the girl's mother--manifestly in a previous state of
existence, a purely Buddhistic idea.[340]

In several of the Skazkas we find an account of a princess who is won
in a similar manner to that described in the story of Helena the Fair.
In one case,[341] a king promises to give his daughter to anyone "who
can pluck her portrait from the house, from the other side of ever so
many beams." The youngest brother, Ivan the Simpleton, carries away
the portrait and its cover at the third trial. In another, a king
offers his daughter and half his kingdom to him "who can kiss the
princess through twelve sheets of glass."[342] The usual youngest
brother is carried towards her so forcibly by his magic steed that, at
the first trial, he breaks through six of the sheets of glass; at the
second, says the story, "he smashed all twelve of the sheets of glass,
and he kissed the Princess Priceless-Beauty, and she immediately
stamped a mark upon his forehead." By this mark, after he has
disappeared for some time, he is eventually recognized, and the
princess is obliged to marry him.[343] In a third story,[344] the
conditions of winning the princely bride are easier, for "he who takes
a leap on horseback, and kisses the king's daughter on the balcony, to
him will they give her to wife." In a fourth, the princess is to marry
the man "who, on horseback, bounds up to her on the third floor." At
the first trial, the _Durak_, or Fool, reaches the first floor, at the
next, the second; and the third time, "he bounds right up to the
princess, and carries off from her a ring."[345]

In the Norse story of "Dapplegrim,"[346] a younger brother saves a
princess who had been stolen by a Troll, and hidden in a cave above a
steep wall of rock as smooth as glass. Twice his magic horse tries in
vain to surmount it, but the third time it succeeds, and the youth
carries off the princess, who ultimately becomes his wife. Another
Norse story still more closely resembles the Russian tales. In "The
Princess on the Glass Hill"[347] the hero gains a Princess as his wife
by riding up a hill of glass, on the top of which she sits with three
golden apples in her lap, and by carrying off these precious fruits.
He is enabled to perform this feat by a magic horse, which he obtains
by watching hi