of this family
group Bolte and Polivka construct as follows (2 : 37):--

A father wishes to test the skill of his three sons (or their wives),
and requests that they produce extraordinary or costly articles. The
despised youngest son wins the reward with the help of an enchanted
princess in the form of a cat, rat, frog, lizard, monkey, or as a doll,
or night-cap, or stocking. At last she regains her human form. The
disenchantment is sometimes accomplished by a kiss, or by beheading,
or by the hero's enduring for three nights in silence the blows
of spirits.

In only two of the variants cited by Bolte-Polivka (to Grimm, No. 63)
is the animal wife a monkey,--Comparetti, No. 58, "Le Scimmie;"
and Von Hahn, No. 67, "Die Aeffin." Of these, only the Greek story
resembles our tale; but here the similarities are so many, that I
will summarize briefly the main points of Von Hahn's version:--

An old king once called his three sons to him, and said, "My sons, I am
old; I should like to have you married, so that I may celebrate your
wedding with you before I die. Therefore each of you are to shoot an
arrow into the air, and to follow its course, for there each will find
what is appointed for him." The eldest shot first: his arrow carried
him to a king's daughter, whom he married. The second obtained a
prince's daughter. But the arrow of the third stuck in a dung-hill. He
dug a hole in it, and came to a marble slab, which, when raised,
disclosed a flight of stairs leading down. Courageously he descended,
and came to a cellar in which a lot of monkeys were sitting in a
circle. The mother of the monkeys approached him, and asked him what
he wanted. He answered, that, according to the flight of his arrow,
he was destined to have a monkey-wife. "Choose one for yourself,"
she said. "Here sit my maids; there, my daughters." He selected one,
and took her back to his father. His brothers, however, ridiculed him.

After a time the eldest son asked the king to divide up his kingdom,
as he was already old and was likely to die. "I'll give you three
tasks," said the king to his sons. "The one who performs them best
shall be king." The first count was to be won by the son whose house
forty days thence was cleanest and most beautifully adorned. The
youngest son was very sad when inspection-time approached. "Why so
sad?" said his wife. He told her; and she said to him on the morning
of the last day, "Go to my mother, and ask her for a hazel-