on drawing near, beholds a woman diving
and washing in the water. Her clothes, strange in shape and of a ruddy
sunset colour, are hanging on a pine-tree near at hand. He takes them,
and thus compels her to marry him. She lives with him for ten years,
bearing him a son and a daughter. At the end of that time her fate is
fulfilled; she ascends a tree during her husband's absence, and, having
bidden her children farewell, glides off on a cloud and disappears. Both
in its approximation to the Hasan of Bassorah type and in its
attributing the separation of husband and wife to fate, this tale agrees
remarkably with the Lay of Weyland Smith, where we are told: "From the
south through Mirkwood, to fulfil their fates, the young fairy maidens
flew. The southern ladies alighted to rest on the sea-strand, and fell
to spinning their goodly linen. First Allrune, Cear's fair daughter,
took Egil to her bright bosom. The second, Swanwhite, took Slagfin. But
Lathgund, her sister, clasped the white neck of Weyland. Seven winters
they stayed there in peace, but the eighth they began to pine, the ninth
they must needs part. The young fairy maidens hastened to Mirkwood to
fulfil their fates." A Vidyadhari, too, who, in the Katha-sarit-sagara,
is caught in the orthodox manner, dwells with a certain ascetic until
she brings forth a child. She then calmly remarks to her holy paramour:
"My curse has been brought to an end by living with you. If you desire
to see any more of me, cook this child of mine with rice and eat it; you
will then be reunited to me!" Having said this, she vanished. The
ascetic followed her directions, and was thus enabled to fly after her.
In one of the New Zealand variants we are told that the time came for
Whai-tiri to return to her home. The same thing is indicated to the wife
in a Tirolese tale by means of a voice, which her husband hears as he
passes through the forest. The voice cried: "Tell Mao that Mamao is
dead." When he repeated this to his wife she disappeared; and he never
saw or heard of her after. In view of these narratives there can be
little doubt as to the meaning of the Arab tradition of the she-demon,
from whom one of the clans was descended. Her union with their human
father came suddenly to an end when she beheld a flash of
lightning.[227]

The Star's Daughter, however, returned to the sky because she was
homesick. Nor is she the only heroine of these tales who did so; but
homesick heroines are not ve