The ocean of story, being C.H. Tawney's translation of Somadeva's ...

228 THE OCEAN OF STORY
We return to India and start on another route, this time
in a northerly direction. We find our motif firmly established
in Tibet, 1
among the Tartars, 2 Kalmucks 3 and Mongolians,
4 as well as among such tribes of Northern Siberia
5 6
as the Samoyedes, Yakuts and Chukchis, 7 who dwell on
Bering Strait. A most interesting feature is that at this
point the motif crosses 8
Bering Strait into North America
and so on to Greenland. 9
As this is about the farthest point from our startingplace,
it will be interesting to see the form the story has
now assumed. I choose one collected by K. Rasmussen, to
whom it was told by a middle-aged Greenlander during 1903-
1904. I would point out that all his Greenlandic stories are
based on oral tradition, not a single one having ever been
written down.
The tale in question is called " The Man who took a Wild
Goose for a Wife." It first appeared in Rasmussen's Nye
Mennesker, and was subsequently translated into Swedish,
when it was published in 1926. 10 The following translation
is taken from the latter, but, as my notes show, has also been
compared
with the Danish version :
1 See Ralston and Schiefner, Tibetan Tales, London., 1882, p. 4, and
M. Castren, Ethnologische Vorlesungen iiber die altaischen Volker, St Petersburg,
1857, p. 174.
2 See W. Radloff, Proben d. Volkslitteratur d. turkischen St'dmme Siid-Sibiriens,
St Petersburg, vol. ii, 1868, p. 201 ; vol. iv, 1872, pp. 318, 502; vol. vi, 1886,
p. 122; and also A. Schiefner, Die Heldensagen d. minussinschen Tataren, St
Petersburg, 1859, p. 201.
3 Memoires de la Societe Finno-ougrienne , 27, 1, Helsingfors, 1909, p. 120.
4 B. Julg, Mongolische M'drchen-Sammlung, Innsbruck, 1868, p. 192.
5 See Coxwell, op. cit., p. 503.
6 Ibid., p. 266.
7
Ibid., p. 82.
8 See J. G. Kohl, Kitchi- Garni : Wanderings round Lake Superior, Ldn.,
1859, p. 105; Ch. Leland, The Algonquin Legends of New England, Ldn.,
1884, pp. 140, 281, 300; J. A. Farrer, Primitive Manners and Customs, Ldn.,
1879, p. 256; Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian
Institute, Washington, 1888, vol. vi, p. 615 ; and The Journal of American Folk-
Lore, Boston, 1888, vol. i, p. 76.
9 P. E. Egede, Efterretninger om Gronland, Copenhagen, 1788, p. 55;
Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, 1875, p. 145; and K. Rasmussen,.
Nye Mennesker, Copenhagen and Christiania, 1905, p. 181.
10 Gronlandska Myter och Sagor, Stockholm, pp. 108-115.