P. 404 a. The Two Noble Kinsmen, V, ii, 67, 68,
G.L.K.
404 b. Death the penalty for not guessing riddles. There is no occasion to accumulate examples, but this Oriental one is worth mentioning. In the tale of Gôsht-i Fryânð, Akht, the sorcerer, will give three and thirty riddles to Gôsht, and if Gôsht shall give no answer, or say, I know not, he will slay him. After answering all the riddles, Gôsht says he will give Akht three on the same terms, and the sorcerer, failing to solve them, is slain. Ardâ-Vîrâf, Pahlavî text, etc., Haug and West, Bombay and London, 1872, pp. 250, 263 f. This tale Köhler has shown to be one with that of the fine Kirghish lay 'Die Lerche,' in Radloff, Proben der Volkslitteratur der turkiscben Stamme Süd-Sibiriens, III, 780: see Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, XIX, 633 ff.
Additions to the literature, by Dr. R. Köhler.
405 b. The tale cited by Vfncent of Beauvais is told by Étienne de Bourbon, A. Lecoy de la Marche, Anecdotes historiques, légendes et apologues, tirés du recueil inédit d'Étienne de Bourbon, No 86.
In an as yet unprinted fifteenth-century Low German poem on the Seven Deadly Sins (Josefs Gedicht von den sieben Todsünden ... nach der Handschrift bekannt gemacht von Dr. Babucke, Oster-Programm des Progymnasiums zu Norden, 1874, p. 18), a king puts an abbot four questions:
De erste vraghe was, wor dat ertrike wende Unn were hoghi'st, eft he dat kende; De ander, wor dat unghelucke queme Unn bleve, wan dat eyn ende neme; Dat drtidde, wo gr.d de konig were na rade Wan he stunde in synem bestcn wade; De verde, we syner eldermoder beneme De maghedom unn dar wedder in greme.
The abbot's swineherd, named Reyneke, answers:
Die erste vraghe, wor de erdc hoyhest were, Reyneke sede: In deme hemmel konimet, here, By dem vadere Cristus syn vordere hant, Dar is de hoghe unn keret de erde bekant. De andere, wor dat lucke ghinghe an, Dar moste dat ungelucke wenden unn stan, Unn kende nerghen vorder komen. Dat hebbe ik by my sulven vornomen: Ghisterne was ik eyn sweyn, nu bin ik beschoren, Undo byn to eyneme heren koren.
The replies to the third and fourth questions are wanting through the loss of some leaves of the Manuscript As to the first question, compare the legend of St. Andrew, Legenda Aurea, ed. Grasse, p. 21, ubi terra sit altior omni coelo; to which the answer is made, in coelo empyreo, ubi residet corpus Christi. See, also, Gering, Íslendzk Æventýri, Mo 24, I, 95, II, 77, and note. For the fourth question see Kemble's Salomon and Saturn, p. 295, and Kbhler in Germania, VII, 476.
408 b. Other repetitions of the popular tale, many of them with the monk or miller sans souci. Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen u. Gebrauche aus Meklenburg, I, 496 (Pater ohne Sorgen); Asbjørnsen, Norske Folke-Eventyr, Ny Samling, 1876, p. 128, No 26; Bondeson, Halländske Sagor, p. 103, No 27; the same, Svenska Folksagor, p. 24, No 7 (utan all sorg), cf. p. 22, No 6; Wigstrbni, Sagor och Äfventyr upptccknade i Skåne, p. 109, in Nyare bidrag till kännedom om de svenska landsmålen och svenskt folklif, V, 1; Lespy, Proverbcs du Pays de Béarn p. 102; Bladé, Contes pop. de la Gascogne, III, 297; Moisant de Brieux, Origines de quelques coutumes anciennes, etc., Caen, 1874, I, 147, II, 100; Armana prouvençau, 1874, p. 33 (parson, bishop, gardener, middle of the earth, weight of the moon, what is my valuation? what am I thinking?); Pitré, Fiabe, Novelle, etc., II, 323, No 97 (senza pinseri); Imbriani, La novellaja fiorentina, etc., p. 621, V (Milanese, senza pensà); Braga, Contos tradicionaes do povo portuguez, I, 157, No 71, previously in Era Nova, 1881, p. 244 (sem cuidados), and No 100; Krauss, Sagen u. Märchen der Sudslaven, II, 252, No 112 (ohne Sorgen); Erman, Archiv für die wissenschaftliche Kunde von Russland, XXIV, 146 (Czar Peter, kummerloses Kloster); Vinson, Le Folk-Lore du Pays basque, p. 106; Cerquand, Légendes et recits pop. du Pays basque, No 108.
Unterhaltende Räthsel-Spiele in Fragen u. Antworten, gesammelt von C.H.W., Merseburg, 1824, has the story of king, abbot, and shepherd, with the three riddles, How far is it to heaven? How deep is the sea? What is better than a gold coach? The shepherd prompts the abbot, and the abbot answers the king in person. The answer to the third is, the rain that falls between Whitsuntide and St John's. For this reply compare Archiv für slavische Philologie, V, 56, lines 25-36.
408 note *. Add the Æsopian tale, P. Syrku, Zur mittelalterlichen Erzählungsliteratur aus dem Bulgarischen, Archiv für slavische Philologie, VII, 94-97.
410 a. The Jewish-German story is given in Grünbaum's Jüdischdeutsche Chrestomathie, 1882, pp. 440-43. The third question is, What am I thinking? with the usual answer.
410 b. Some additions to the literature in Keller, Fastnachtspiele, Nachlese, p. 338, note to 199.
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