e South, sterner and wilder and
rougher in the North, more homelike in the middle and western countries;
but always alike in their main features, and always having the same
meaning when we come to dig it out, and these forms and their meaning
being the same in the lands of the West Aryans as in those still peopled
by the Aryans of the East.

The story of _Cinderella_ is one of the many fairy tales which help us
to find out their meaning, and take us straight back to the far-off land
where fairy legends began, and to the people who made them. This
well-known fairy tale has been found among the myths of our Aryan
ancestors, and from this we know that it is the story of the _Sun_ and
the _Dawn_. Cinderella, gray and dark and dull, is all neglected when
she is away from the Sun, obscured by the envious clouds, her sisters,
and by her step-mother, the Night. So she is Aurora, the Dawn, and the
Fairy Prince is the Morning Sun, ever pursuing her, to claim her for his
bride. This is the legend as it is found in the ancient Hindoo books;
and this explains at once the _source_ and the _meaning_ of the fairy
tale.[557:1]

Another tale which helps us in our task is that of _Jack the
Giant-Killer_, who is really one of the very oldest and most widely
known characters in wonder-land. Now, who is this wonderful little
fellow? He is none other than the hero who, in all countries and ages,
fights with monsters and overcomes them; like Indra, the ancient Hindoo
Sun-god, whose thunderbolts slew the demons of drought in the far East;
or Perseus, who, in Greek story, delivers the maiden from the
sea-monster; or Odysseus, who tricks the giant Polyphemus, and causes
him to throw himself into the sea; or Thor, whose hammer beats down the
frost giants of the North. "The gifts bestowed upon Jack are found in
Tartar stories, Hindoo tales, in German legends, and in the fables of
Scandinavia."

Still another is that of _Little Red Riding-Hood_. The story of Little
Red Riding Hood, as we call her, or Little Red-Cap, as she is called in
the German tales, also comes from the same source, and (as we have seen
in Chapter IX.), refers to the _Sun_ and _Night_.

"One of the fancies in the most ancient Aryan or Hindoo stories was that
there was a great dragon that was trying to devour the Sun, to prevent
him from shining upon the earth, and filling it with brightness and life
and beauty, and that Indra, the Sun-god, killed the dragon. Now, this is
the