r power of
flying, and so he caught Utahagi, the one whose robe he had stolen,
and took her for his wife, and she bore him a son. Now she was called
Utahagi from a single white hair she had, which was endowed with magic
power, and this hair her husband pulled out. As soon as he had done
it, there arose a great storm, and Utahagi went up to heaven. The child
cried for its mother, and Kasimbaha was in great grief, and cast about
how he should follow Utahagi up into the sky." Here we pass to the myth
of Jack and the Beanstalk. "A rat gnawed the thorns off the rattans, and
Kasimbaha clambered up by them with his son upon his back, till he came
to heaven. There a little bird showed him the house of Utahagi, and
after various adventures he took up his abode among the gods." [140]

In Siberia we find a legend of swan-maidens, which also reminds us of
the story of the Heartless Giant. A certain Samojed once went out to
catch foxes, and found seven maidens swimming in a lake surrounded by
gloomy pine-trees, while their feather dresses lay on the shore. He
crept up and stole one of these dresses, and by and by the swan-maiden
came to him shivering with cold and promising to become his wife if he
would only give her back her garment of feathers. The ungallant fellow,
however, did not care for a wife, but a little revenge was not unsuited
to his way of thinking. There were seven robbers who used to prowl about
the neighbourhood, and who, when they got home, finding their hearts
in the way, used to hang them up on some pegs in the tent. One of these
robbers had killed the Samojed's mother; and so he promised to return
the swan-maiden's dress after she should have procured for him these
seven hearts. So she stole the hearts, and the Samojed smashed six of
them, and then woke up the seventh robber, and told him to restore his
mother to life, on pain of instant death, Then the robber produced a
purse containing the old woman's soul, and going to the graveyard shook
it over her bones, and she revived at once. Then the Samojed smashed the
seventh heart, and the robber died; and so the swan-maiden got back her
plumage and flew away rejoicing. [141]

Swan-maidens are also, according to Mr. Baring-Gould, found among the
Minussinian Tartars. But there they appear as foul demons, like the
Greek Harpies, who delight in drinking the blood of men slain in battle.
There are forty of them, who darken the whole firmament in their flight;
but somet