ry
stone. The ring advised him thus: "Go to the cave, and, in order to
gain admittance, show me to the serpents. I am sacred to them, and
they will fulfil whatever commands my possessor gives them." Juan
proceeded to the cave in the mountains. He had no sooner entered it
than hissing serpents came towards him in threatening attitudes. Juan,
however, showed them the signet ring; and they at once became tame,
and showed him that they were glad to obey whatever he should command
them to do. "Go and get the dragon's stone," he ordered, and soon
they came back with the much-coveted treasure.

When the king saw that Juan had fulfilled two of the hardest
conditions, he became alarmed because the new bridegroom was to be a
person of very low birth: so he devised the most difficult question
possible, with the view of preventing Juan from winning his daughter
the princess.

Juan now presented himself before the king and his court to perform the
third and last task. "What am I thinking about now?" asked the king.

Juan appeared to hesitate a moment, but he was really consulting
his ring. The ring said to him, "The king has in mind the assurance
that you will not be able to answer his question." Then looking up,
Juan answered the king's question in the precise words of the ring,
and thus answered it correctly.

Astonished at the wonderful power of Juan, the king gave his daughter
to him; and when he died, the young couple inherited the crown of
the kingdom.

Notes.

I know of no parallels to this story as a whole. In its separate
incidents it is reminiscent of other tales; and in its main outline,
from the point where the hero sets out to seek adventures with the
help of his magic ring, the narrative belongs to the "Bride Wager"
group. In this group Von Hahn distinguishes at least two types (1 :
54, Nos. 23 and 24): in the one, the hero bets his head against the
bride, and wins by performing difficult tasks; in the other, he wins
by answering riddles. In our story there is no formal staking of his
head by the hero, but undertaking the first two tasks amounts to the
same thing. The third task, it will be noticed, is the answering of a
difficult question, which in a way connects our story with Von Hahn's
second type.

The two distinctive features in our story are the introduction and
the first task. The cruelty displayed by the hero's father is not
unusual in folk-tales, but his method of getting rid of his son
is. The b