common men; they are magnified into giants and
magicians; they are remarkably swift and enduring; fierce and terrible
warriors." In the Hottentot story of the "Lion who took a woman's
shape," the lion and the woman address each other as "my aunt," and
"my uncle" (Bleek's _Hottentot Fables and Tales_, pp. 51, 52). In
Siberia the Yakuts worship the bear under the name of their "beloved
uncle" (Tylor's _Primitive Culture_, vol. II. p. 231); and when the
Russian peasant calls on the dreaded Lyeshy to appear he cries, "Uncle
Lyeshy" (Ralston's _Songs of the Russian people_, p. 159).

"Grannie" is the word used by Dunkni herself.

7. The Rakshas queen is tricked to her death in the same way as the
wicked step-mother in the "Pomegranate King," p. 12 of this
collection.

XII.--THE MAN WHO WENT TO SEEK HIS FATE.

1. Compare a Servian story, "Das Schicksal" (Karadschitsch,
_Volksmaerchen der Serben_, p. 106), in which a man sets out to seek
his fate, and on the road is commissioned by a rich householder to ask
the fate why, though he gives abundance of food to his servants, he
can never satisfy their hunger, and why his aged, miserable father and
mother do not die: by another man, to ask why his cattle diminish
instead of thriving: and, thirdly, by a river whose waters bear him
safely across it, to ask why no living thing lives in it. His fate
answers all these questions, and instructs him how to thrive himself.
In Fraeulein Gonzenbach's _Sicilian Fairy Tales_, "Die Geschichte von
Caterina und ihrem Schicksal," vol. I. p. 130, Caterina is persecuted
by her fate, who wears the form of a lovely woman. At last she begs
her mistress's fate, to whom she daily carries a propitiatory
offering, to intercede for her with her own fate. She is told in
answer that her own fate is wrapped in seven veils and so cannot hear
her prayer. Finally her mistress's fate leads her to her own. In the
same collection, in "Feledico und Epomata" (vol. I. p. 350),
Feledico's fate plays a personal part.

This Indian story looks like a relic of stock and stone worship (see
Tylor's _Primitive Culture_, vol. II. chapters XIV. and XV.). Compare
the man's beating his fate-stone with the treatment the Ostyak gives
his puppet. If it is good to him he clothes and feeds it with broth;
"if it brings him no sport he will try the effect of a good thrashing
on it, after which he will clothe and feed it again" (_ib._ p. 170).
Other examples are given at the same