o his animal companions. In the modern European
folk-tales these animal friends are rather supernumeraries and are
occasionally replaced by the formula of the Grateful Animals, to whom
the hero does some service during his wanderings, in reward for which
they rescue him from some extremity. In some ancient variants of the
Perseus legend there are traces of the Substituted Champion in the
form of Pentheus, a former suitor of Andromeda, who had failed to meet
the dragon.

It would be impossible here to consider the folk-lore analogies of the
four chief incidents of the tale which have occupied Mr. Hartland for
three fairly large volumes to develop, out of which have grown two
more (_Primitive Paternity_, London, 1910). It is only necessary here
to refer to a few points in their relation to the tale itself. The
Supernatural Birth, which is also treated by M. Saintyves (?) is found
attributed to heroes among all nations; it is only of significance in
the story here in its bearing upon the Life Token of the hero, which
is connected with it. With regard to the Life Token, Major Temple has
a full analysis in the notes to _Wide Awake Stories_, 1884, pp. 404-5,
under the title of the "Life Index," and is closely connected with
the idea of the External Soul, which Sir James G. Frazer has studied
in his _Balder_, London, 1913, pp. 95-152. The Fight with the Dragon
is celebrated outside folk-tales in the lives of the saints (whence
St. George, the titular saint of England, gets his emblem) in the saga
of Siegfried, and in the poetry of Schiller, where it is made the
subject of a moral apologue. The Medusa-witch, who transforms into
stone, or destroys life in other ways, is quite a familiar figure in
folk tales, but is usually thwarted, as here, by some means of cure.

The chief interest, however, of the "King of the Fishes," from a
folk-tale point of view, is the remarkable similarity of the later
folk-tales with the Greek legend, from which they are separated by so
many centuries. The absence of the Life Token in the Greek version and
the comparative insignificance of Medusa in the modern tales are
sufficient evidence that these latter are not directly derived from
the former. Yet even Mr. Hartland, who is a strong adherent of the
anthropological treatment of folk-tales, fully agrees that this
particular tale must have, at one time, been composed in artistic
unity, if not containing all the four chains of incidents at least
cont