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

APPENDIX I "THE SWAN-MAIDEN" MOTIF 231
numerous that they resembled a large cloud, but the man
took his whip, swung it, and killed most of them.
" Only a few escaped, but they returned with assistance
so strong that they formed an enormous flock;
he swung his whip and killed them. And this
but again
time none
escaped.
"
Then the man lived for a long time on all those slain,
fat wild geese."
And here this story ends !
It is a strange story, and one that is well worth recording.
I think we can describe it as another example of a mongrel
tale an imported motif embedded in local hero legends.
A thorough knowledge of Greenlandic oral traditions is
necessary before we can speak with any authority. In
this connection we would have welcomed an annotation to
Rasmussen's important collections. Perhaps this will come
later.
We must, however, continue our travels.
Returning once more to India we set out eastwards, and
find the swan-maiden occurring in stories from Burma, 1
Indo-China, 2
China, 3
Japan, 4 and also the Philippines. 5
we travel in a south-easterly direction we will find it in
Sumatra, 6 the Mentawei Islands, 7
Java, 8
Borneo, 9
If
Celebes, 10
1 See Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, 1 839, vol. viii, p. 536.
2 A. Landes, Contes et legendes annamites, Saigon, 1886, p. 123.
3 N. B. Dennys, The Folklore of China, Ldn., 1876, p. 140; Folk-Lore
Journal, 1889, vol. vii, p. 318; T'oung Pao, Archives pour servir a I etude de
Vhistoire . . . et de I'ethnographie de I'Asie orientate, Leide, 1896, vol. vi, p. 68.
4
T'oung Pao, vol. vi, p. 66 ; A. B. Mitford, Tales of Old Japan, Ldn.,
1903, p. Ill; D. Brauns, Japanische Marchen und Sagen, Leipzig, 1885,
p. 388.
5 Journal of American Folk-Lore, 1907, vol. xx, p. 95.
6
Mittheilungen d. Seminars f. orient. Sprachen, ii, 1, Berlin, 1899, p. 128;
and C. M. Pleyte, Bataksche Vertellingen, Utrecht, 1894, pp. 109, 217.
7 See M. Morris, Die Mentawai-Sprache, Berlin, 1900, p. 57.
8 T. J. Bezemer, Volksdichtung aus Indonesien, Sagen, Tierfabeln und
Marchen, Haag, 1904, p. 46.
9 E. H. Gomes, Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo, Ldn.,
1911, p. 278 ; and Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, N.S., ii,
1863, pp. 26-27.
10 See S. J. Hickson, A Naturalist in North Celebes, Ldn., 1889, pp. 264-
265 ;
and also Zeit. d. d. morgen. Gesell., vol. vi, Leipzig, 1852, p. 536.