agic article. But the
Prince of No. 21, when he seeks the Bel-Princess, becomes invisible to
the "demons and fairies" who surround her, when he blows from the palm
of his hand, "all along his fingers," the earth which a friendly fakir
has given him for that purpose. A "sleep-thorn," or other somniferous
piece of wood, is commonly employed in our fairy tales, in order to
throw a hero or heroine into a magic slumber. In these Indian stories
a state of catalepsy, or of death, is produced or relieved by a
peculiar application of a magic stick. Thus the Princess who was
called the Golden Rani, "because her teeth and her hair were made of
gold," and who was stolen by a demon, informed the Prince who found
her, motionless but not sleeping, that "the Rakshas who had carried
her off, and whom she called papa, had a great thick stick, and when
he laid this stick at her feet she could not stir, but when he laid it
at her head she could move again." In "The Demon and the King's Son"
(No. 24), the hero opens a "forbidden chamber," and there finds the
demon's daughter lying on a bed, apparently lifeless; for "every day,
before her father went out he used to make the girl lie on her bed,
and cover her with a sheet, and he placed a thick stick at her head,
and another at her feet; then she died, till he came home in the
evening and changed the sticks, putting the one at her head at her
feet, and the one at her feet at her head. This brought her to life
again." An interesting parallel to the "sleep-thorn" is afforded by
the pin which, while it remains in the head of the bird which had been
the wife of the Pomegranate King (No. 2), prevents her from resuming
her human shape. When the Raja pulled out the pin, "his own dear
wife, the Pomegranate Rani, stood before him." Magic boxes are common
in fairy land. But there is something new in at least the name of the
"sun-jewel box," which was sent by the "Red Fairy," who lived at the
bottom of the well, to "The Princess who loved her father like salt"
(No. 23), and which contained "seven little dolls, who were all little
fairies."

* * * * *

Of more general interest than the few peculiarities of these tales are
the many points in which they resemble and illustrate some of the
familiar features of European folk-lore. As an example of the latter
may be taken a "husk-myth," which is a valuable contribution to the
literature of the "Beauty and the Beast" cycle. In