by Edwin Sidney Hartland
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Lastly, we considered the Swan-maiden as divine ancestress. We found her resident in heaven, we found her worshipped, we found her as the totem of a clan. The totemistic stories are widely spread,?so widely, indeed, as to afford a presumption that we have in them a clue to the whole meaning of the myth. For not only have we the complete totemistic form, as among the Dyaks and the tribes of the Gold Coast; but we find the superstition fading through the goddess Derceto into modern sagas of the supernatural mother of a family, who to her sometimes owe extraordinary powers, and over whose fate she continually watches.
Here, then, our study of this beautiful myth must close. I am far from suggesting that the subject is exhausted. On the contrary, it is so large and so complex that I have rigidly abstained from anything more than a very imperfect examination of its principal features. On some of the points here partially discussed I shall have something more to add in our final chapter, when discussing certain theories on the fairy beliefs.
[202] Grey, p. 66; Taylor, p. 138; White, vol. i. pp. 95, 115, et seqq., vol. ii. p. 127, et seqq.
[203] ?F. L. Journal,? vol. i. p. 202; ?Revue des Trad. Pop.? vol. iv. p. 305.
[204] Von Hahn, vol. ii. p. 78. In illustration of these remarks on marital relations in a society where female kinship only is recognized, let me quote the following paragraph concerning Maori customs. The Maories, it must be borne in mind, have only recently emerged from this stage; and many relics of it remain.
?Sometimes the father simply told his intended son-in-law he might come and live with his daughter; she was thenceforth considered his wife, he lived with his father-in-law, and became one of the tribe, or hapu, to which his wife belonged, and in case of war, was often obliged to fight against his own relatives. So common is the custom of the bridegroom going to live with his wife's family, that it frequently occurs, when he refuses to do so, she will leave him, and go back to her relatives; several instances came under my notice where young men have tried to break through this custom, and have so lost their wives? (Taylor, p. 337).
[205] Not entirely: see Burton, ?Suppl. Nights,? vol. vi. p. 363; ?F. L. Journal,? vol. i. p. 284; Sastri, p. 148.
[206] In speaking of a type as more or less recent than another, it must be recollected that I am not speaking of chronological order, but of the order of development. For aught we know, the story of the Marquis of the Sun may as a matter of date be actually older, could we trace it, than the far more archaic story of Tawhaki. But the society in which it took shape was more advanced than that disclosed in the Maori legend.
[207] Webster, p. 120; Campbell, vol. i. p. 25; ?Mélusine,? vol. i. p. 446; ?F. L. Espań.? vol. i. p. 187; Schneller, p. 71; Imbriani, p. 411; Cosquin, vol. i. pp. 9, 25; Sébillot, ?Contes,? vol. i. p. 197; Grundtvig, vol. i. p. 46; Cavallius, p. 255; Maspons y Labros, p. 102; ?F. L. Journal,? vol. i. p. 284, quoting Lewis.
[208] Waldau, p. 248; Ralston, ?R. F. Tales,? p. 120, from Afanasief.
