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B.WHEATLEY,
F.S.A.HON. TREASURER.
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STEWART LOCKHART.
HONORARY
SECRETARY.J. J.
FOSTER,
36,Alma Square,St.John'sWood, N.W.THE FOLK-TALES
OF
THE MAGYARS.
COLLECTED BY KRIZA, ERDELYI, PAP, AND OTHERS.
TRANSLATED AND EDITED, WITH COMPARATIVE
NOTES, BYTHE REV. W. HENRY JONES
AND
LEWIS L. KROPF.
LONDON
:PUBLISHED FOR THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY
BY
ELLIOT STOCK,
62, PATERNOSTER Row.1889.
J5/3
WESTMINSTER:
PRINTEDBYNICHOLS
AND
SONS, 26,PARLIAMENTSTREET.TO
PROFESSOR ARMINIUS VAMBERY,
WHOSE
INDEFATIGABLE LABOUESAND
INDOMITABLE ZEALHAVE DONE
SOMUCH
TOADVANCE OUR KNOWLEDGE
OFMANKIND
AND WHOSE
ILLUSTRIOUSLIFE IS SO BRIGHTAN EXAMPLE
TOEVERY
STUDENT,ON THE
STORIES OFTHE FATHERLAND
HE
LOVES SOWELL AND
SERVES SO FAITHFULLYPREFACE.
A VAST and precious
store ofEolk-Lore
is tobe found amongst the Magyars
asyet but
littleknown
to
English readers, and
so it ishoped that
thiswork on the subject may prove of some value
tothe student of Comparative Eolk-Lore. The
difficultyof the language
isone which makes
itwell nigh impossible for the unaided foreigner
todo anything
likejustice
tothe
stories.We laboured together
often
tilldawn to make the translation
as literal as possible,that the reader might have as true a render- ing of the Magyar
story-teller'smethod and manner
as
so differenta tongue
asEnglish would permit.
Whilst engaged on the Finnish,
storieswe received the greatest help from Einnish
friends, especiallyMr. A. NiemineD, Dr. Eagerlund, Dr. Krohn, Dr.
Rancken, Professor Ereudenthal, Mr. Halleen, and Mr. Walter von Bonsdorff. In the Lapp
storiesb
Vi
PREFACE.
Professor Friis of Christiania has ever been a true helper. Amongst numerous kindly helpers we tender thanks
toDr. Retzius, Stockholm; Professor Gittee, Charleroi; the Rev. Henry Jebb, of Pirbeck Hall;
Mr. Quigstad, of Troms; Mr. Nordlander; Mr. 0.
P. Petersson, Hernosand
;Mr. Lindholm
;Dr. R
Kohler; Baron Nordenskj old
;and the Rev. Walter H. James, rector of Meet.
We regret that we cannot do more than acknow- ledge the courtesy of the
lateDr. Greguss (Buda
Pest), whose lamented death removed a scholar and
friend to Englishmen.
If
thiscollection adds a mite
tothe knowledge of man, our labours
willnot have been in vain.*
W. H.
J.L.
L.K.
* Mr.
Kropf
desiresifctobestated,that lie isnot responsiblefor the Introductionand
Notesbeyond
supplyingcertain portionsof the materialfor their compilation.]INTRODUCTION.
BEFOKE
the arrival of the Magyars,Hungary
was the"
cock-pit of eastern
Europe;"
its history one incessant strugglebetween
nationand
nation,which
either perished orwas
driven outby some more
powerful neighbour. Firstwe
hear of the subjection of
what was known
as Pannonia,by
theEomans
; then,when
that greatpower began
to wane, a motley hordeunder the great Attila sweptdown and
founded a king-dom. "
Attila died in
Pannonia
in453.Almost
immediately afterwards the empirehe had
amassed rather thanconsolidatedfelltopieces. Histoo-numeroussons
began
to quarrel abouttheir inheritance; while Ardaric, theKing
of the Gepidae, placed himselfat thehead ofa general revolt of the dependent nations.The
inevitable strugglecame
toa crisis near the river Netad, in Pannonia,in a battle in which' 30,000 of theHuns and
their confederates, including Ellak,* Attila's eldest son, were slain.The
nation thus broken rapidly dispersed.One
hordesettledunder Koman
protection in Little Scythia (the Dobrudsha); others in Dacia Kipensis (on the confines of Servia and Bul- garia), oron
the southern borders of Pannonia." fA
tradition asserts that theMagyars
are descendants of thoseHuns, who,
after their defeat., returned to their
homes
in Asia.On
the other hand, one of their most learnedmen
says,we
cannot* "Aladar."inHungariantradition, f Enc.Britt."Huns."
1)2
viii
INTRODUCTION.
"form an accurate idea as to the part the
Hungarians
took in the irruption of theHuns,
withwhich
event they are associatedin national tradition."
But
yethe
adds, "we
fairlyclaim that the ancestors of the Hungarians took part in the great devas- tating campaignswhich
Attila carried on againstRome and
the Christian West, as far as France."Legend
carries us still further back, sayingthat the giantKimrod had two
sonsnamed Hunyor and Magyar,
fromwhom
theHuns and Magyars
descended.*Leaving
legend, in historywe
find that theMagyars
appeared inEurope
about 884, firston
the Ural, later on the banks of the middleVolga
;and
then,marching
westward, passed over theDanube and
theBug,
crossing the Carpathiansbetween 888 and
900, underAlmos,
the father ofArpad,t
the founder ofmodern Hungary, who
is said tohave
claimedthecountry as his inheritancefrom Attila.The
Magyars,then, are part of the
numerous
hordes ofTurco-T
artar origin which, impelledby some mighty
impulse,lefttheirhome amid
the* See "
Rege a csoda-szarvasrol, by Arany Janos, an English translation ofwhich has beenpublishedbyMr.Butler in hisLegends,FolkSongs, ^'c.,from theHungarian." Cf.Hungary,byProfessorVambery,cap.iii.
t AccordingtoHungarianhistory,Arpadfoundnumeroussmall nationalities inheriting Attila's realm,with eachof
whom
hehadtosettle separately. The numberof nationalitieshas beenfurther increased byfresh arrivalsfromAsia, andimmigrants from"Western Europe during the past ten centuries: thuswe hear of the continuous irruption of Besseni (Petchenegs) during the reign of Stephen the Saint (first King of Hungary, A.D. 1000); ofCumani in the time ofSalamon(A.D. 1060) and his successors; and of Tartars underBatu Khan(A.D.1285)inthetimeofBela IV. Duringthis lastinvasion largetracts oflandbecamedepopulated, the inhabitantshaving either perished orfled; so that thekingwasobliged to invite immigrantsfrom WesternEurope, and this wasthe origin of theSaxon settlements in Transylvania. Thiswill to some extentshowthedifficultieswhichbeset the writerwho attemptstogive a sketch ofthe races inhabiting modern Hungary.A
further difficulty, in tracing the origin of such races, is due to the variety of spelling adopted by different writers in describing the same race,and the unscrupulous use of the names Huns, Scythae, &c.when writing about tribes inhabiting regions beyond the borders of the thenknowncivilisedworld. Videinfra,p.x.INTRODUCTION.
ix Altai mountains, and, conquering the divided forces on the rich plains ofHungary,
settleddown,
and so foundedthe racewhose
tales form thebody
ofthis work.*Another
people, the Szekely,f speak a dialect of Magyar, which, like otherMagyar
dialects, differs but slightlyfrom the written language. This race claims to be descendants of thoseHunnish
tribes that remained inEurope
after the defeats.They
say, thatwhen
theMagyars
arrived inmodern Hungary
theyfound
a Magyar-speaking people (the Szekely) inhabiting parts of Transylvania. Thisis confirmed tosome
extentby
the statement of Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, who, writingabout 950, asserted that,amongst
others,some Magyar
tribes lived onthe banksof the rivers
Maros
and Koros(Transylvania). Kriza, too, quotes several Szekely sayings referring to the Szekely-Magyar
relationship, e.g. :"
A
Szekely has borne theMagyar."
"
If there
were no
Szekelys inthe world, therewould
not beany Magyars."
"
There
is thesame
difference between a Szekely and aMagyar
as there isbetween
a man'sson andhis grandson.""Let
theMagyar
be thankful, that the Szekely is his acquaintance."With
regard to the alleged descent of the Szekelysfrom the*
We
have attemptedtogive but abrief sketch of theMagyars,feeling thatwhenthereissolucid aworkas "
Hungary," bysowell-known anauthority as ProfessorVambery,withinthereach of all,and dealingwith this subjectin a waythatitwouldbefollyfor ustoattempt,wemaycontent ourselveswithrefer- ing all readerstothatwork,and to Der Ursprung derMagyarenbythesame author.
t TheSzekely(inGerman"Szekler,"inLatin "Siculus")inhabit the eastern parts of Transylvania, the territoryoccupied bythem forming an oblongstrip between theSaxonsettlement of Besztercze andBrasso (Kronstadt), with two branchestothewestknownasMarosszek andUdvarhelyszek. Another district (szek) inhabited by them, Aranyos-szek,lies in the western part of Transyl- vaniabetweenthedistrictsofTordaandAlso-Fejer.
X INTRODUCTION.
Huns,
the evidence in proof of sucha pedigree is very meagre.First, it has not as yet with
any
degree of accuracy been determinedwho
theHuns
were. Prof.Vambery
has,with infi- nite pains, collectedand
analysedsome
seventy words, mostly propernames
all that hascome down
tousof the oldHunnish
languageand come
to the conclusion that theHuns and Avars
forthe
greater part belonged tothe Turco-Tartar branch of the Ural-Altaic race; yet he is
bound
toacknowledge
that hewould
gladlywelcome
a fewhistorical facts to supporthim
in his conclusions,which
are builtupon
an almost entirelyphilo- logicalbasis.* Indeed,itseemsasthough
the term" Hun
"was
a sort of conventional designation, like "Scythian," or "Bar- barian5' with the ancient Greeks
and Romans
; or"Frenghi"
withthe
modern
Turks. Attilaand the various raceshe pressed into his service were, of course, theHuns par
excellence. After his deathand
the fatal battle near the riverNetad
his hordes appear to have well-nigh vanished fromEurope;
but theirterrible deeds left an indelible impression
upon
the peoplewho were
unfortunateenough
tohave
been brought into contactwith the "scourge ofGod" and
his fierce warriors.In
thelapse of time allkinds ofweird traditionsgathered
round
their names, in the usualway, when
greatnames
pass into the possession of theFolk
Historian;fand
sothey drifted through legends of saints into the region of myths.Thus we
find thename
Hiine (Heune,Hewne, Huyne) becomes synonymous
with"giant/
3
and
to thisday
the Westphalianand Dutch
peasant speaks of the great tumuli as"
Hiinen graber
"
graves of the giants, or
Huns.J To add
to the confusion, itwould
appear that* TheNationality of the Huns and Avars, a paper read before theHun- garianAcademyof Sciences, Oct.4, 1881. Cf. also "The Origin of theMa-
gyars,"bythesameauthor.
f Seep.380,infra.
J Kozmasays,that in the two above-mentioned countries theword"Huns"
wasused,uptothe thirteenthcentury,amongthe people as equivalenttogiants,
INTRODUCTION.
xi therewere some German
tribeswho
wereknown
as Hunes.Mr.
Karl Blind has pointed out inthe Gentleman's Magazine,*that our
own
VenerableBede
speaks ofHunes
asbeingamong
the tribes of
Germany
thatcame
over to Britain together with the Saxons. Elsewhere
fhe
explains"the
tribalorigin of Siegfried (of the
Nibelungen
lied) as aGerman
Hiine;" aword which
has nothing whatever to do with the MongolianHuns. We know
mediaaval writers were not very particular about facts,and
the licentia poeticawas
claimed not onlyby
poets, but also
by
historiographers,as an indisputable privilege.Thus,
Joao
Barros, in his chronicle of Clarimundus,J calmlytells us that
Count Henry
of Portugal, the Navigator, was ofHungarian
descent,and
that he found the statement in aMagyar
book. This alleged pedigreewas
the cause of afierce controversyamongst Hungarian
savants,and was
fullythreshed out in the early part ofthe present century.||Vigfusson^T remarks that the northern poet,
whom
he designates the"
Tapestry poet," uses
Hunar
(Huns),Hynske (Hunnish)
as avague word
for "foreign." Probably the East Baltic folk
would
have beenHuns
to the earlier poets.With
regard to theGerman and
ScandinavianHuns,
it isnoteworthy what
OlausMagnus
writes with regard to theu Huns
" of his time.The
learned prelate says that "in who figured in fairy tales. Simrock and Grimm are inclined to see real persons inthem,andsaythey weretheHuns,andinlaterhistory theMagyars.
* 1883,vol.i.pp. 466,467.
f CornUllMagazine,May,1882.
J Thefirsteditionappearedin 1520. Cf. Diccionario BiWograpUco Por- tuguez(Lisboa,1859) subvoce"Barros."
Heassertsthat his chronicleis a translation of"exlinguaUngara." Sofar asone knows,the originalremainsundiscoveredand unknown!
|| Cf. Geo. Fejer, Henricus Portagulliae Comesorigine Burgundus non Hungarus, Budce 1830, and other dissertations by M. Holeczy, &c. in the BritishMuseum. PressMark .10632 .
^
Corpus Poeticum Boreale, by VigfussonandPowell. Oxford,1883,p.Ixi.vol.i.
Xii
INTRODUCTION.
provincia Middelpadensi versus Boreales partes Suetise su- perioris, ubi fere major pars
virorum Huni nomine
appellanturtamquam
populi clarius contraHunos
olirn belligerantes ac triumphantes."* His statement is borne outby
his colleague, JoannesMagnus,f who
asserts that" non
desuntqui dicantipsos
Hunnos
a Septentrionale parte Scandiae utra Hel- singorum terras ex Medelphatiaprimum
erupisse: inqua
etiam hodie plurimi praestantissimse fortitudinishomines
inveniuntur, quiHunni
proprionomine
appellantur, quiquemagna
et prae-clara opera in tyrannos, qui patriaa libertatem vexaverat, pere- gerunt."
Inthe face of all this, it is quite evident
how
difficult a task awaits thosewho
attempt toidentify the lineal descendants of the
Huns
:and
thosewho uphold
theHunnish
descent of the Szekelys do not appear, as yet, to have advanced sufficient historical grounds to establish the connection of themodern
Szekelys with the
Huns
ofAttila.J* Historia de Gentium Septentrionalium variis conditionibus Sfc. (Ba-
silese,1567). Lib.ii.cap.xviii.
f De Hunnis etHerulis Libri Sex. Joannes Magnus died in 1544. His
chronicleappearedinterspersedwith OlausMagnus'work.Cf. Lib.viii.cap.xiii.
J Cf.Paul Hunfalvy's polemic work,
A
Szeltelyelt.Budapest,1880. Thesame learned writer in hiswell-known EtlvnographyofHungary,disputes the sepa- rate origin of the Szekelys, and maintains that theyare not adistinctpeople fromtheMagyars, butthat they areMagyarswhohave migratedfrom Hungary Proper into their modernTransylvanian homes. This assertion gave rise to severe criticismonthe part of the defenders of the old traditionlikeDr.John Nagy,Farkas Deak, andothers; andtheabovementioned pamphlet wasareply, whereintheauthorfurtherdefends his assertion,on thetestimonyof compara- tivephilologyandhistory. One powerful argument infavourof the separate origin is,that for centuries the Szekely population has keptdistinct notonly fromtheSaxons, but alsofrom theMagyars inTransylvania; theyhad privi- legeswhich were deniedtotheMagyars. Theiradministrationuntilrecentlywas quitedistinct. Theirnamefirstoccurs ina deed signed byWilliam, Bishopof Transylvania, dated 1213, inwhichtheBishop renounces his right of collecting tithesfromsettlersintheBarczasag "awasteanduninhabited"track of land, ifthose settlersbe neitherMagyarsnorSzekelys.
INTRODUCTION.
Xlii It is wellknown
that theHun
descent of theMagyars
and Szekelys hasequally been questioned. Savants of such authority asBudenz and Hunfalvy
disclaim theHim
relationship, and en- deavour to prove the
Finn-Ugrian
origin of the Magyars.Whereas
ProfessorVambery,
in hiswork
on the "Origin of the Magyars,"
which
received so favourable a reception at the hands of thewhole
learned world, defends, aswe
saw above, a Turco-Tartar descent.It lies far
beyond
the limits of thiswork
to give even abrief outline of the history of the Szekelys: yet a few datamay
not be out ofplace to
show
that, although they are at the present time,and mayhap
always havebeen, a Magyar-speaking people, yet they are inmany
respects distinct from the raceknown
as the Magyars. Ibn Dasta, anArab
writer,* at the end of the ninth century,informsus that in histimesome
Bulgarians livedon
the banksof the River Itil (Volga); and that theycon sisted of three tribes, viz.: the Berzuls, the Esseghels, and theUz. He
further says that "the first territory of the
Magyars
liesbetween
the countryof the Bisseniand the Esseghel Bulgarians."Another Arab
writer, Ibn Muhalhal, about themiddle of the tenth century, mentions a peoplenamed
"Jikil,"who
lived next to the "Bajnak." If the writers
who would
identify in this Ashkal,Esseghel, or Jikil people, the parents of the Szekely race, beright in their conclusions, then the Siculi (as theyare called in Latindeeds) are of Bulgarian descent.fBut we know
* Abu-Ali Achmed ben Omar ibn Dastas. Information regarding tlie Kozars, Burtas, Bulgarians. Magyars, Slavs and Russ. Edited byD.A.
Chvolson,S.Petersburg,1869(in Russian); quoted by Hunfalvyinhis Ethno- graphyof Hungary.
f
Abn
Dolif Misaris ben Mohalhal De IntinereAsiatico Studio Kurd de Schloezer. Berolini, 1845. Cf. Defremery Fragments dc Geograplics, $c. in Journ.Asiat.ser. iv.torn. xiii. 4G6. Bothquoted byColonelYulein Cathay andtheWay
Thither. London,1866. Vol.i.pp.cxi.andclxxxvii.xiv
INTRODUCTION.
full well
how
dangerous it is to buildup
theories on amere
similarity of
names amongst
barbarous or semi-barbarous races.The
firstreliableinformationwe have
aboutthem
is that about the year1116
A.D. Bisseniand
Siculi formed thebody-guard of theMagyar King
Stephen II. in hiswar
against the Czechs.They
supplied thevanguard
of thearmy
ofKing
GejzaagainstHenry
ofAustria about 1146.More
thanhalfacenturylater, i.e.A.D. 1211,
Andreas
II. presentedsome
uninhabited territory in TransylvaniatotheTeutonicknights; and, in a deed dated 1213, William, Bishop of Transylvania, granted the tithes of his terri- tory to thesame
order, but reserved to himself theright of collecting
them
from allMagyar
orSzkely
immigrantswho might
settleon
the lands in question.*King
Bela IV. ordered the Szekelysf to supplyhim
withonehundred mounted
warriors in war; and later on, toshow them
hisgratitude for their faithful services,he createdthem
military nobles:J"
Quod non
subcertonumero
(in abody
as hitherto) sed eomodo
sicut servientes regales, perse et personaliter armatanobiscum
exercituare tene- antur."The
Szekelys ofHungary
Proper graduallydisappear, but the Siculi of Transylvania figure throughout the pages ofHungarian
history as a separate people, with institutionsand
privileges of their
own, and
acting as a sort of border-fencibles in thenumerous
wars with the enemies of the Magyars.They
furnished a separate title to the Prince of Transylvania,[|
and, although recent reforms
have
sweptaway
old barriers,yet one still hears people speaking of the three nations of
*
On
the riverVag(in theNorthofHungaryProper).f Hunfalvy TheSzeMys,pp. 40-42.
J Ib. p. 41.
Cf. Republica Hungarica, ex off.Elzeviriana, 1634,p. 12.
"Nemo
apudillos (Ciculos) ignobilis esse censetur,etiam si manu aratrum tractet,ant ca- prino gregi praesit."
|| Georgius Rakoczy. Dei GratiaPrinceps Transylvania et Siculorum Comes,&c,
INTRODUCTION. xv
Transylvania, viz. the Magyars, the Szekelys, and the Saxons.*Whether
they ever spoke alanguage oftheirown we
areunable to say; they speak several dialects,which
have beencarefully studied
by
Kriza,f himself a Szekelyby
birth, and whichpossess peculiarities not to be found
amongst
the Magyars, orany
other part of the realm of St. Stephen.A
passageJ in awork
entitled"
Hungaria
et Attiia,"by
Nicolaus Olah, Arch- bishop ofEsztergom
(died 1568), might, perhaps, be quoted to provethat an independent Szekely language had existed once, but there is an ambiguity about the statement of the learned prelatewhich makes
it useless to thephilologist.At
any rate,we
do notpossess a single scrap of the old language, if itever existed.Having
thusmade
ourselves acquainted with the Szekelys,we may
proceed to consider the other Magyar-speakingnationalities.The
Csangos areHungarian
settlers in Moldavia; there are somany
similarities in theirtongue tothe Szekelydialects thatHunfalvy
appears to be quite confident that they are a people of Szekely origin.||Of
lateyears an attempthas beenmade
to resettlethem
in theless populouscrown
lands inHungary;
theresult, as one
might
expect, is, thatsome
are content, whilst otherslust after the flesh-pots ofMoldavia.Next come
theKuns
(Cumanians).The non-Magyar
writers,1Fwho
havemade
the old language of this people their study, declareit,with almostunanimous
consent,tobeaTurkishdialect, whereastheMagyar
writers, with very few exceptions, staunchly defendtheMagyar
origin of the Cumanians.*** Prior to 1876, the Szekelys administered their own affairs, and were divided intofive"szeks"
(scdes).
f Hisessay, entitled "
A
few words on the Szekely Dialects,"was published attheendof hiswork, Vadrozsak,vol.i.% Quotedinfra,p.xix. VideInfra,p.380.
|| Opuscitatum,p. 34.
^
Suchas Klaproth.** Cf.
HunfalvyEtJmograpfty,p. 408,
XVI
INTRODUCTION.
Foremost
in theranks of the latter partywas
the late Stephen Gydrfas,who
denied that a linguaCumenesca had
ever existed, and thatthe various extant specimens are the remnants of the languageof a people ofMagyar
descent,who had become Turks
during the lapse of centuries.* His most powerful antagonistis
Count
GejzaKuun,
thelearned editor oftheCodex Cumani-
cws,t
who
espouses the cause of the Turkish party. Besides the valuable Glossary preserved in the Codex, several versions of the Lord'sPrayerand
other scraps of theCumanian
tongue are in existence,and
have beenexamined by competent
scholars,and pronounced
to be ofundoubted
Turkish origin.JJazygo-Cumanians
have been quoted in the note,and
sowe
* Cf. The Historyof theCumanians, andalsoTheNationalityandLanguage
of theJazygo-Cumanians,by StephenGyarfas. Budapest, 1882.
fBudapest, 1880. The original MS. is in the Bibliotheca Marciana in Venice. ItwasdiscoveredbyCornides in 1770. Klaprothfirstmade itknown
in his"Memoirsrelatifsa 1'Asie,"III.andKoesler published aspecimenof its grammarin his"RomanischeStudien," pp. 352-356.
J Count GejzaKuun has,we are gladto say,not yet spoken his lastword;
forthat indefatigable scholar is busilyengaged on a largeworkonhis favorite subject,which, judging by the extracts he read (June 1st, 1885)before the Hungarian Academyof Sciences, promises to rank with the best writings of modernphilologists.
Itmaybe ofinterest heretoquote oneof theCumanianchildren'srhymes: Heli,heli,jadeuziirmeny
iizbeher!
Zeboralle,sarmamamile, Alobizon sasarma, Diizusztiirmo ducsiirmo Hejala hilala Zeborallediicsiirmo.
(Wolan,wolan, ichlosedas Geliibde, Der LenzistdaI
'
MitGebeten, Zauberzeichen Macheichden Zauber Unschadlich. Ichpreisedich!
Esistnurein Gott.
MitGebetenpreiseichdich).
Vide UngarlscUe Rente,viii.-ix., Heft, 1885,p. 644.
INTRODUCTION.
xvii proceed to consider the next race if onemay
uec theword
viz.: the Jazyges, formerly a military tribe, who, together with the
Cumanians,
live in centralHungary,
in the vicinity of the capital,and occupy
aterritoryon
thebanksof theriversDanube, Zagyva, Sarret, Tisza,and
Kurds.From
time immemorial, until quite recent times, they enjoyed certain privilegesand
administered theirown
affairs in three districts the Jaszsag, Kis-Kunsag,and Nagy-Kuns&g,
entirely separatefrom
the surrounding population, thus forming a state within a state.They had however
to surrendersome
of their old rights in 1848,and by
thelaw of1876
(cap. xxxiii.),
which
readjusted the political divisions of thekingdom,
the limits oftheir territorydisappeared altogether fromthe
map
ofHungary.*
With
regard, then, to the nationality of the Jasz people, theyare found at allperiods of history in
company
with the Ctnnanians,and
so, as their institutions are thesame
as their fellow armige-*
How
dangerous apractice it is to build up historyupon no otherground thanthemeresimilarityinthesoundofthenamesofnationalitiesisshewnin the history of themodern Jazyges. This name has led manya chroniclerastray.TheirMagyarpropername is "
Jasz," which, according toHunfalvy (Ethno- graphyofHungary,p. 376)isderivedfromtheword"ijasz,"i.e."anarcher,"
or"bowman,"anamedescribing their original occupation. Insomeold deeds ofthexivthandxvthcenturies, they arecalled"Jassones"and"
Pharetrarii,"
and things kept straight untilRanzanus thePapal Nuncio at the Court of Matthias Corvinus appeared onthe scene, and, struckbythesoundof thename
"
Jassones"andrinding that they lived on the veryterritorywhich,according
to Ptolemy, was occupied by the Jazyges: Metanastae in his time, at once jumpedtothe conclusion that theywere linealdescendants of the wild horse-
menmentioned bytheclassicauthor.
We
knowhowhard anythingfalse dies,andsowefind thisstatement copiedby subsequentwriters,and even disfiguring thepagesof so excellent awork asSmith's Dictionary ofGrecU and lloman
Geography,sub. art."
Jazyges."
A
still wilder mistake wasmadebyascribe of KingSigismund,who re-christened the Jasz folk "Philistrci,"which after- wards appears in many deeds. Itwould appear to be reasoned out thus; a
"
Jasz," or"
bowman," mustnaturallyhandle a bowand arrow; butan arrow
iscalled "pfeil"inGerman,which comes from the old German"phil,"hence Jasz-Philistaei,Q.E.
D
! Cf.Hunfalvy'sEthnographyloco citato.XVlli
INTRODUCTION.
rents,
we may
safely assume withHunfalvy
that they are a branch of theCumans,
if they be not offspring of thesame
mother-stock.Next come
the Palocz folk,*who
live scatteredamong
theotherraces in several of the northern counties of
Hungary, and
speak a dialect of theirown. Hunfalvy
asserts thatthey are thesame
people as the "Poiovczi "mentioned by
early Russianand
Slavonic writers.And
as Jerney, in hispaperThe
PaloczNation and The
Palocz Chronicle, has provedbeyond
doubtthat, whatever the
Magyar
Chroniclesand
Byzantine writers relateanent theCumans
can be traced, statement forstatement, in Russianand
Polish writers, with reference to the Poiovczi,Hunfalvy
draws the conclusion that the Pal6cz people areCumans.f
Their
name
firstoccurs in RussianAnnals
A.D. 1061,and
theMagyar
savanttowhose
rich store of learning thiswork
is so deeply indebtedthinks that the migration of theCumans
intoHungary
took place intwo
distinct streams, one.an
earlier one, from the North, via the Slave countries across the Northern Carpathians,and
another, later onefrom
the south-east, through thepassesand
defilesof the south-eastern extension of thesame
range ofmountains.Before leaving this
part of the subject,the reader
must
bereminded
that all the foregoing races or nationalities at the present time speak one or otherMagyar
dialect,Jand
that the* Videinfra,p.412, &c.
t EthnographyofHungary,p. 362.
J ThetruebornMagyarrepudiateswithscorn the idea that thereisany such thing as a dialect, boasting that rich andpoor speak the same tongue.
Ct
Galcotl Martii,de Matthiceegregie,sapicnter,fortiterctjocose dictisac factis libdlus.ed. Cassovirc, 1(511. "UndefitutcarmenlinguaHungaricacompositum rusticis et civibus,mediisetextremis,eodemtenore intelligatur." Galeotiwas anItalianbybirth,and PapalNuncio at the Courtof MatthiasI, (Coryinus), KingofHungary.
INTRODUCTION.
xixold
Cuman
tongue is the only other languageofwhich we know
anything.*Having, we
hope,somewhat
cleared theway
astopeopleamongst
whom
thestorieshave beencollected,we may now
proceedtosay a fewwords
aboutthetalesthemselves.Of
course,thestorieswillbe found to bear a strongresemblanceto other collections, asindeed theymust
do; the very fact of thestrikingway
inwhich
not only tales,but even littlesuperstitions,reappear inall
manner
of strange places,f is ofitselfa factwhich
isof the deepestinterest tothosewho
study thehistory of
man. We
have attempted to givesome
few variants to the tales in this work, chiefly con- fining ourselves toLapp
and Finnish tales,which
are but littleknown
in England,and
of which, as of theMagyar,
thereisa rich store.The more
one considers comparative folk-lore, themore
oneis convinced thatmany
of these taleswere thecommon
property of
mankind
before they migrated from their Asiatic* Thereisa passagein the writings of Nicolaus Olah Hungaria ctAttila, cap. xix. 3)whichatfirstsightseems to ascribe a separatelanguageto each of the peoplesnamedin thetext. Accordingtohim,"thewholeofHungaryin our days (xvith century) contains various nations, viz., Magyars, Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Saxons, Szekelys, Wallachs, Servians, Cumans, Jazyges,Ruthens,andfinallyTurks,and allthese (nations)"different! inter se utuntur lingua,"exceptthatsomeof thewordsmayappearsomewhatsimilarand identicalinsoundinconsequenceof (their)protracted useand(the continuous) contact (of the said nationswith each other)." Against this, we may urge, thatif the language of the Szekelys, for example,differed no more from the Magyar thantheGermanspeechfrom that of the Saxons,theycanscarcely be described as two different languages. Moreover, anotherwriter says, that the
"Hungarinobilesejusdemregionis (Transylvanite)passim intermixti Saxoni- bus,cumCiculispropemodumtarnsermone,quamvestitu etarmisconveniunt."
SeeRespiiblicaHungarica,1634.
We
have goodreasons for believing that the passage has beencopied bytheElzevirian compiler from the Chronigrapliica Transylvania)ofGeorgeReijchersdorffer, 1550.f Cf.Simpletonstoriesandlyingstories, manyofwhichas told inHungary, Finland,andFlanders,andeven amongstthe Lapps,areidenticalwith thosewe hearin Yorkshire, Lincolnshire,Northumberland, andNorfolk,
XX INTRODUCTION.
home.* Of
courselocalcircumstances often colour thestories,but do not change the theme.Amidst
thestories fromHungary we
find, as
we might
presume, the Szekely stories telling ofsnow-
clad mountains, whilst those from thebanks
of theDanube
dwellon
the beauties of theHungarian
plains.The
fierce con- flicts of thepast, too, have lefttheirmarks on
the stories,and
sowe
find the Turkish Sultanfand
theDog-headed
TartarJ as the tyrants of thetale;and
even, in one case, somodern
a fact as theFrench
invasion is used to frighten an old -world witch.We
see later on the influence of
Mohammedanism, and
also themarks
ofChristianity,] insome
taleswhich become
as itwere, a folk-lore palimpsest.Kor must we
omit otherways by which
the taleshave been modified.Many
of themedieval
romanceswere, of course, translated into
Hungarian
;and
even to thisday
thepenny
bookstall is always present at fairsand
popular gatheringswhere "
yards of literature
"
are to be obtained for a nominal sum.
The
vendor cannot afford a booth orstall, so a
* ProfessorVamberysays: there aremanyfeatures in HungarianFolk-Tales whichcanbefound in the talesof China,and other Asiatic countries, ancient andmodern. Thecharacteristics of the chiefpersonagesinthetalesshow that thetales have been imported bythe Magyars from their oldAsiatic homes, althougha Slavonic influencecannot bedenied.
f P.239infra. Seealsoremains of theTurkish occupation and their bar- barousdoings in the childrens'rhyme :
"
Ladybird,ladybird,flyaway,flyaway, FortheTurksarecoming!
Theywillthrow youintoawellfullofsaltwater:
Theywilltakeyouout,andbreakyouonthewheel."
Darkwine producedatEger(Erlau)iscalled"Turk'sblood."
% Pp.70,118.
P. 5,infra.
||
"
StephentheMurderer,""Fisher Joe," and the"Baa Lambs"in this col- lection. Cf. "Die Engel-lammer"
Am
der iin Aitftrage dcr Kisfaludy- GeselUcJiaft vonLad AranyiindPaul Gyulai lesorgtcn. Ungarische Revueviii. ix. Heft, 1885, p. 640, and note, which says: "Eines der wenigen un- garischenVolkmarchen,inwelchediechristlicheMythologiehineinspielt."
INTRODUCTION.
XXImat
or tarpaulin is spread on the ground,and
weighted atthe four corners with brickbats or pavingstones, hence theHun-
garian
name
"ponyva-irodalom"(tarpaulin literature).
Here we
find mediaeval romances, bitsof nationalhistory, biographies
and
panegyrics of famous robbers, the wicked doings of the mistress ofsome
castleand
her punishment, the exploits ofMagyar
heroes, the chronicles ofNoodledom,
inprose, orversi- fiedby some
such favourite poet of the people as PeterTatar;and by
thismeans
certain taleshave
been imported, others modified.Then
again, thewandering
students were entertainedby
the country folk duringtheirperegrinations,and
no doubt in returnamused
the old folks with the latestnews
fromthe town,and
theyoung
ones with tales from the Greek andEoman
Mythologies.*Another mode
of disseminationand
modificationwas
the soldiers.When
theHapsburgs
were at the height of their glory the emperor-king's soldiers were scattered farand wide
over Europe; arid, after long years of service in an infantryregimentand
absencefromhome,
the old private returned to his native village,and
at eventide in the village inn relatedhow
he, as"
Sergeant of Hussars," caught with his
own hand
theEmperor
Napoleon, and only lethim go
at the earnest entreaties of his wife, andupon
receiving a rich bribe in gold.fThe
old soldierwas
well received in every family,and
enjoyed great authority as aman who had
seen the world.The
children satupon
hisknee, or stood round abouthim
open-mouthed,and
listened to hismarvellous yarns.!In
Hungary,
as in other countries, until the labours of the BrothersGrimm
directed attention to the importance of the Folk-tales,nothingwas done
in theway
ofcollectingthem
; and,* Cf. Suchstoriesas HandsomePaul,"p.29infract scq.
t Seeallthisbeautifully sketchedbyC/uczor, inhispoemJoannesUary.
% ThattheMagyar soldiercan tell stories maybe seen inGaal'stales,most
ofwhich Aranytells us haveamost undesirable flavour of the barracks about them.
XX11
INTRODUCTION.
even after
Grimm's work
appeared,no move was made
inHungary
untilHenszlman
read his paper in 1847 before the Kisfaludy Societyon
the "Popular Tales of
Hungary,"
inwhich
paper heexamined some
14 taleswhich
afterwards appeared in Erdelyi's Collection, vols. 1 and 2. LadislausArany
inMay 1867
read another paper before thesame
societyand
according to his calculationsome 240
taleshad
been col- lectedup
to that date: the collections quotedby him were
as follows:John
Erdelyi,*Folk-Songsand Popular
Tales, 3vols.
George
Gaal,fHungarian
Folk-Tales, 3 vols.John
Erdelyi,Hungarian Popular
Tales,1 vol.
Ladislaus Merenyi, Original
Popular
Tales, 2 vols.Ladislaus Merenyi,
Popular
Talesfrom
theValleyoftheSajo, 2 vols.
LadislausMerenyi,
Popular
Talesfrom
theBanks
oftheDanube,
2 vols.Ladislaus Arany, Original
Popular
Tales, 1 vol.John
Kriza,JWild
Roses, 1 vol.Julius Pap, Palocz Folk-Poetry, 1 vol.
containing
34
talcs53
1365
35 20
6226
* JohnErdelyi (born 1814, died 1868),Hungarian poet and author, elected
Memberof the HungarianAcademyof Science, 1839.
t Thesetaleswerecollectedfromsoldiers: andarefullofunnecessaryflourishes andcoarsebarrack-roomjokes.
% JohnKriza (born 1812, died 1875), born in a small village of Szckely parents. Unitarianminister, professor, poet,andauthor, electedMemberof the Academy,1841.