air
throw various common objects behind them, which are changed into magical
obstacles and check the pursuit of the father. The myth has various
endings, usually happy, in various places. Another form of the narrative
is known, in which the visitors to the home of the hostile being are, not
wooers of his daughter, but brothers of his wife. {88} The incidents of
the flight, in this variant, are still of the same character. Finally,
when the flight is that of a brother from his sister's malevolent ghost,
in Hades (Japan), or of two sisters from a cannibal mother or step-mother
(Zulu and Samoyed), the events of the flight and the magical aids to
escape remain little altered. We shall afterwards see that attempts have
been made to interpret one of these narratives as a nature-myth; but the
attempts seem unsuccessful. We are therefore at a loss to account for
the wide diffusion of this tale, unless it has been transmitted slowly
from people to people, in the immense unknown prehistoric past of the
human race.

* * * * *

Before comparing the various forms of the myth in its first shape--that
which tells of the mortal lover and the giant's or wizard's daughter--let
us give the Scottish version of the story. This version was written down
for me, many years ago, by an aged lady in Morayshire. I published it in
the 'Revue Celtique'; but it is probably new to story-comparers, in its
broad Scotch variant.

NICHT NOUGHT NOTHING.

There once lived a king and a queen. They were long married and had
no bairns; but at last the queen had a bairn, when the king was away
in far countries. The queen would not christen the bairn till the
king came back, and she said, 'We will just call him Nicht Nought
Nothing until his father comes home.' But it was long before he came
home, and the boy had grown a nice little laddie. At length the king
was on his way back; but he had a big river to cross, and there was a
spate, and he could not get over the water. But a giant came up to
him, and said, 'If you will give me Nicht Nought Nothing, I will carry
you over the water on my back.' The king had never heard that his son
was called Nicht Nought Nothing, and so he promised him. When the
king got home again, he was very happy to see his wife again, and his
young son. She told him that she had not given the child any name but
Nicht Nought Nothing, until he should come home again himself.