when all has been duly effected,
the treacherous youth squeezes the egg in two, and the giant instantly
bursts.

The same story has lately been found in Southern India, and is published
in Miss Frere's remarkable collection of tales entitled "Old Deccan
Days." In the Hindu version the seven daughters of a rajah, with
their husbands, are transformed into stone by the great magician
Punchkin,--all save the youngest daughter, whom Punchkin keeps shut up
in a tower until by threats or coaxing he may prevail upon her to marry
him. But the captive princess leaves a son at home in the cradle, who
grows up to manhood unmolested, and finally undertakes the rescue of his
family. After long and weary wanderings he finds his mother shut up in
Punchkin's tower, and persuades her to play the part of the princess
in the Norse legend. The trick is equally successful. "Hundreds of
thousands of miles away there lies a desolate country covered with thick
jungle. In the midst of the jungle grows a circle of palm-trees, and in
the centre of the circle stand six jars full of water, piled one above
another; below the sixth jar is a small cage which contains a little
green parrot; on the life of the parrot depends my life, and if the
parrot is killed I must die." [6] The young prince finds the place
guarded by a host of dragons, but some eaglets whom he has saved from a
devouring serpent in the course of his journey take him on their
crossed wings and carry him to the place where the jars are standing. He
instantly overturns the jars, and seizing the parrot, obtains from the
terrified magician full reparation. As soon as his own friends and a
stately procession of other royal or noble victims have been set at
liberty, he proceeds to pull the parrot to pieces. As the wings and legs
come away, so tumble off the arms and legs of the magician; and finally
as the prince wrings the bird's neck, Punchkin twists his own head round
and dies.

The story is also told in the highlands of Scotland, and some portions
of it will be recognized by the reader as incidents in the Arabian
tale of the Princess Parizade. The union of close correspondence in
conception with manifest independence in the management of the details
of these stories is striking enough, but it is a phenomenon with which
we become quite familiar as we proceed in the study of Aryan popular
literature. The legend of the Master Thief is no less remarkable than
that of Punchkin. In the Scand