Tulisa, the Wood-Cutter's Daughter

Tulisa, the Wood-Cutter's Daughter is an Indian legend from the Somadeva Bhaṭṭa. The tale concerns a woodcutter's daughter who hears a voice at a fountain: "Will you be my wife?" On the third time she refers the voice to her father - a woodcutter -, to whom the voice promises great wealth. The voice turns out to be that of a serpent king whom Tulisa meets at night but never sees. Soon after the daughter's marriage, her father becomes rich, arousing the jealousy of neighbours. After many turns the story culminates with Tulisa and her husband prince Basnak Dau clothed in royal robes.

Source

French folklorist Emmanuel Cosquin claimed that the tale was first collected in 1833, from a washerwoman in Benares (Varanasi). An English language version of the tale, published in 1842, in The Asiatic Journal, claimed that the tale was "a great favourite amongst the people of Hindustan".

Synopsis

Tulisa, the beautiful daughter of a poor woodcutter (Nur Singh, or Nursingh), approaches a fountain, when she hears a voice, with a most strange proposition: "Will you marry me?". Not knowing whose voice it is, she pays no heed. The episode repeats a few times, and she tells her father of the curious happening.

Her would-be suitor is the Prince (or King) of Snakes, Basnak Dau, and promises riches to Tulisa's father, in exchange for his daughter hand in marriage. She relents to the proposal and moves into a splendid palace. Tulisa marries the mysterious owner of the voice, under the condition that she may never see her husband when he comes to the bridal bed, at night, and that she must not receive any visitor.

At a certain point, she helps a squirrel, who tells her it will return the favor in the future. One day, an old lady (a creature named Sarkasukis, in disguise) was helped by Tulisa into the palace. In conversation with the mistress of the house, the old lady persuades Tulisa into asking the name of her husband. The fateful day arrives: when Tulisa asks him the question, he answers his name is "Basnak Dau", and suddenly the palace and the prince vanish, and leave her there, alone.

Tulisa returns to her parents, once again in poverty. One day, she receives the visit of the grateful squirrel, and learns of the mystery of her husband: he is the Prince of Snakes, dethroned by his own mother. If she succeeds in taking the eyes from the snake that coils around the Queen's neck, by a specific bird (the Huma bird), the Queen will be defeated and the true King restored.

Tulisa and the squirrel arrive at the palace of the Queen of the Serpents in order to fulfill the tasks assigned to her, thanks to the squirrel's help. First, she receives a crystal casket and must fill it with the perfume of a thousand flowers, but she is guided to a walled garden. The second task is to change a bag full of seed into precious stones.

The last quest is to steal the egg of the Huma bird, across a moat filled with poisonous snakes. Tulisa, with the help of bees and squirrels, manages to accomplish the task.

Alternate titles

The story is also known as The Tale of Tulisa, The Wood-cutter's Daughter and Die Holzbauer Tochter.

Translations

The tale was published in the West in German as Tulisa and Basnak Dau in Hermann Brockhaus' selections from the Somadeva Bhaṭṭa (Leipzig, 1843) and widely distributed through Ausland magazine (also 1843), The tale was also translated into German by Franz Hoffmann with the title Die Tochter des Holzfällers (Ein Märchen aus Hindostan).

It was also published in English in sources such as Household Tales from the East in The Dublin University Magazine in 1869, and The Wood-Cutter's Daughter and the Mysterious Voice in the compilation The Ruby Fairy Book.

The tale was also translated to Czech and published in some editions of literary supplement Česká Včela (cs) in 1844 (in segmented format), with the title Drwoštěpowa dcera.

The tale was also translated into French as La Fille du Bûcheron, and the translator noted its "remarkable analogy to the classic fable of Psyche".

Similarities with European folktales

Later commentators saw common elements with Cupid and Psyche.

Austrian consul Johann Georg von Hahn, in his book Griechische und Albanesische Märchen, acknowledged the story of Tulisa as a striking parallel to that of Cupid and Psyche.

Folklorist Joseph Jacobs, in his book Europa's Fairy Book, mentioned the tale of Tulisa as having some sort of connection to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, as written by Apuleius in The Golden Ass. In the commentaries about his reconstruction of the widespread tale of The Unseen Bridegroom (Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index ATU 425B), he noticed many similarities between both stories: the invisible husband; the violation of taboo; the mother-in-law's tasks; the wife's triumph at the end.

German philologist Ludwig Friedländer listed The Tale of Tulisa as part of the "Cupid and Psyche" cycle of stories (which later became known as "The Search for the Lost Husband").

Adolf Zinzow, in his 19th century study of the tale of Cupid and Psyche, listed Tulisa as one of two parallels to the Psychemärchen, the other being the story of Partonopeus de Blois.

Folklorists Johannes Bolte and Jiri Polívka, in their Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm, Second Volume, listed the tale of Tulisa as a variant of German folktale The Singing, Springing Lark, collected by the Brothers Grimm. The German story is itself a variant of the Cupid and Psyche myth.

Folklorist Alexander Haggerty Krappe also noted that "the Indian story of Tulisa" was "a version of the wide-spread" narrative of Cupid and Psyche.

Danish folklore researcher Inger Margrethe Boberg also cited the tale of Tulisa in her study on the story of Cupid and Psyche.

Variants

Europe

Transylvanian linguist Heinrich von Wlislocki collected and published a "Zigeunermärchen" from the Romani titled O thágár sápengré or Der Schlangenkönig (English: "The Snake King"). He noted the great resemblance to the Indian story of Tulisa: a girl named Lolerme goes to the forest to fetch firewood and finds some pieces of gold on the ground. She picks one up and sees that they make a trail to a cavern entry. When she sits to rest, a giant snake with "a head shining like gold" and a red beard appears and introduces itself as the King of Snakes, who has fallen in love with Lolerme. The girl is frightened at first but the snake reveals it wants to give her mother great wealth. They marry and she lives a comfortable life, but her husband comes at night in human form. One day, a pregnant Lolerme helps an ugly old woman in front of the cave; she advises the girl who asks herself who the father of the child is, and about the youth that comes at night. She does so: the youth reveals himself to be the Snake King who the ugly old woman, a witch, cursed into serpent form. The youth curses his wife that she will not give birth, nor she will ever see him again, and vanishes. Desolate, Lolerme cries on the forest ground, until a giant cat approaches her and gives her the egg of the Tscharana bird (de), which, if roosted, will hatch a bird that can kill the witch and bring her husband back. Johannes Bolte and Jiří Polívka also listed Wislocki's tale as another variant of The Singing, Springing Lark.

Azerbaijan

In an Azeri tale, "Шамси-Камар" ("Shamsi-Kamar" or "Sun-Moon"), the king notices it is past time to marry his daughters, so he organizes a contest: his daughters should cast three arrows at random, see where they land and marry the man that lives wherever the arrows land on. The two elders marry the son of a vizier and the son of a "vekila", while the youngest's arrow lands on a bush. The princess is dressed up and made to wait by the bush. A snake crawls out of the bush, summons a house and bids her enter. He takes off his scales, reveals he is a human named Shamsi-Kamar, and warns that the secret must stay between them, otherwise he will disappear and she must wear down a pair of iron shoes. Her family visits her and she tells her mother the secret of the snake skin. Her mother takes the animal skin and throws it in the fire. Shamsi-Kumar enters the room, admonishes his wife and disappears. The princess follows his instructions and wanders the world for seven years, until her pair of iron shoes is worn out. Nearby, she sees some servant girls fetching water for their master, Shamsi-Kamar. The princess drops her ring on a jug that is taken to her husband, and he notices it. He brings her home on the pretense of having her as a maid. His father, then, orders her to fetch firewood in the forest. Her husband teaches her how to perform it. That night, his father marries Shamsi-Kamar to another girl, but the prince goes to the kitchen, heats up two cauldrons of water, takes them and pours the scalding hot water on his second wife. He and the princess then escape on horses back to her kingdom.

Albania

In an Albanian variant translated by Albanologist Robert Elsie as The Snake and the King's Daughter, a snake slithers into an old woman's basket and, after some time, asks the old woman to go to the king and request for the hand of his daughter in marriage. The king sets as condition three tasks for the future son-in-law, which the snake performs with a magic ring. The princess and the snake marry. On the nuptial night, he reveals he is a handsome prince named "Swift" (Shpejt/Shpeit) underneath the snakeskin and warns that she must not tell anything to her family. One day, the princess is invited to a wedding, and her husband appears lately at the occasion, to everyone's surprise. The princess reveals the man is her husband and he disappears. She goes on a quest for him with a pair of iron shoes, and passes by the houses of the Mother of the Sun, the Mother of the Moon and the Mother of the Winds. The Winds tell her her husband Swift is being held prisoner by a monster named Kulshedra, on an island across the sea, and she begs him to take her there. The wind carries her across the sea to the island and the Kulshedra captures her, taking her to its lair. Secretly, Swift lets his ring fall into a jug she is washing and she recognizes her husband is there. The next day, the Kulshedra forces the girl to sweep some parts of the floor and not sweep the other, and to fill two cauldrons with her tears - both tasks accomplished with her husband's advice. The Kulshedra plans to eat the prince, so he devises a plan: he disguises himself as a poor man and chops wood in the nearby forest. The Kulshedra approaches and inquires the man, who answers that he is fashioning a coffin for Swift. The man convices the Kulshedra to take a look inside the coffin, shoves the creature inside and burns it to ashes.

Kumik people

In a variant from the Kumyks, collected in Dagestan, an old man, unbeknownst to him, brings home a snake. The animal reveals himself and forces the man to deliver one of his daughters as ransom for his life. The youngest agrees to be the snake's bride. They depart to a shabby barn that becomes a palace, as the snake changes into a man. One day, her sisters, jealous of the youngest's good fortune, prepare a trap for the snake bridegroom the next time they meet: both women hide some blades near the hole through which the snake slithers and hurt him. Badly injured, he disappears from view and his human wife must seek him out. After a long search, the maiden reaches a fountain, where a servant is fetching water for her master, the snake. The maiden begs for a drink of water, and drops her ring as a token, that her husband may notice her. The servant takes the jug to the snake bridegroom, and he recognizes the ring. He orders the servant to bring the maiden inside the castle, and tells his wife that his family (mother and aunt) are both azhdaha, evil draconic-like beings, and they have set him up with another bride. His mother and aunt notice the strange connection between the youth and the maiden, and decide to force her to do chores for them: the maiden is to sweep the road between the mother's house and the aunt's; and to bring yeast from the aunt's house. The serpent husband advises the maiden to compliment the thorns and dirty rivers on the way there, to give the correct food to a dog and a horse, take the yeast and flee as soon as possible. At last, the azhdaha family takes the serpent youth to marry the false bride they have chosen for him. He kills the bride, takes his former wife and both escape in a Magic Flight sequence by throwing objects behind them.

Dargin people

In a variant from the Dargins, collected in Dagestan, a snake appears to a poor old man and demands one of his daughters in marriage; only the youngest agrees to become the snake's wife. The girl is brought to a splendid palace, where the snake reveals a human shape and his name: Agaykhan. Some time later, her sisters come to visit her and become jealous of her good fortune. Inquiring about the snake husband, the girl reveals he sheds his snake skin to become a man. While they sweep the palace, the sisters find the snake skin and burn it. To the girl's horror, the snake husband disappears into a hole in the ground. She decides to venture into the hole to bring her husband back to the upper world. Down there, she reaches a fountain near a palace, where a young servant is fetching water. She drops her ring into the jug that is taken to Agaykhan and he recognizes the token. The prince takes the girl inside and warns her that his mother, cruel Wakhig, will force her to perform difficult chores for her: to clean the place using needles, to thatch the roof with bird feathers and to go behind the mountains to get a zurna and drums for Agaykhan's wedding to another bride. The snake husband advises her on all three tasks, but on the third the girl must drink from a river of blood and bile and praise it, to give hay to the horse and a bone to the dog, close an open door and open a closed one, get the instruments and escape. At last, Agaykhan's wedding happens, but he kills his second bride and escapes with the human wife by shapeshifting into pigeons.

Asia

India

In a variant collected by Alice Elizabeth Dracott, in Simla, with the title The Snake's Bride, Rajah Bunsi Lall becomes a snake and moves to a new home underground. One day, he sees a maiden named Sukkia in the forest gathering sticks and asks her if she wants to marry him. She returns to her stepmother and tells her the incident. The stepmother says she must agree if the snake can fill her house with silver. Sukkia becomes the Snake's Bride, and notices that her husband can transform into human form at night, but never reveals his true name. Sukkia's stepmother, who knows the whole story, convinces her stepdaughter to ask the snake his true name. She does and he disappears, going back to his underground home. Sukkia wanders through the world and arrives at Rajah Bunsi Lall's kingdom while fetching water. She gives her engagement ring to the Rajah's servants, who take it to their master. The Rajah's mother discovers her daughter-in-law is trying to contact her son and, enraged, tries to kill Sukkia, first by filling a room with scorpions, second by making her count mustard seeds - punishable by death if failing - and lastly by making Sukkia carry torches during the Rajah's wedding procession. Sukkia's husband, the Rajah, helps her in all three attempts and takes her back to their home.

Iran

In a Persian tale published by professor Mahomed-Nuri Osmanovich Osmanov (ru) with the title "Бнбинегар и Майсаскабар" ("Bibinegar and Maysaskabar"), a childless woman promises her unborn child to a tree stump. A girl is born and given the name Bibinegar. A voice emerges from the tree stump to remind her mother to give what it is owed. Bibinegar cries but decides to sit beside the tree stump. A man comes out of it with a grand retinue, introduces himself as Maysaskabar and gives the girl a coat. He tells her that she can never part with the coat, lest he will disappear. Bibinegar's aunt burns the coat in order to get rid of him and to marry the girl to her son. The man disappears, his only memento a turquoise ring. Bibinegar decides to seek him out, and passes by a flock of sheep, a caravan of camels and a herd of cows - all presents from Maysaskabar to Bibinegar. She reaches a fountain where a boy is getting water. She begs for a drink and the boy refuses, and she curses the water the boy is carrying to become pus and blood. The boy returns to fetch water again and she drops his ring inside it. Maysaskabar notices the ring and gets the maiden to a house of divs. He convinces the divs to take her as a servant. He plans to escape with her that night after he kills the wife he was forced to marry. They escape in a "Magic Flight" sequence as the man's mother-in-law pursues them. She is killed, but lets a drop of blood drip on the ground and become a gazelle. Maysaskabar decides to take the gazelle as a pet, but once he is away the animal attacks Bibinegar. One night, the gazelle becomes human, hides everyone in bottles and prepares a cauldron of boiling water to drop Bibinagar in. Bibinegar tricks the woman and goes to the roof to pray, to buy herself some time, and a fairy appears. The fairy tells the girl to break the bottle Maysaskabar is in. She does and he is released. The man tosses the gazelle into the cauldron, reveals it is all a setup by his aunt and sends Bibinegar with a bottle with his aunt's life inside to his aunt. He advises her to feed the dog and the camel with the correct food, water the garden, clean the rug and the bed, and to delouse his aunt when she asks for it. She follows through with the instructions, slams the aunt's head against the floor and runs away. The dog attacks Maysaskabar's aunt, as Bibinegar returns to her beloved, now human.

In another Iranian variant by Osmanov, "Сабзкаба и Шакархава" ("Sabzkaba and Shakarkhava"), a poor woodcutter finds a snake near a sack of flour. He wants to kill it, but the snake introduces himself as Sabzkaba ("Green Kaftan"), and wishes to become his son. One day, Sabzkaba asks his father to ask for the hand of the governor's daughter, Shakarkhava. Her father demands his prospective son-in-law arrive with a great wedding retinue. He does and the governor consents to their marriage. Sabzkaba takes off his snake skin and shows himself to his wife as human, warning her that no one must burn his skin, otherwise she might not see him again. One day, Shakarkhava is visited by her relatives, and one of her sisters burns the snakeskin. Shakarkhava, in despair, sees her husband disappear, so she commissions seven pairs of iron shoes, seven iron dresses and seven iron canes, and goes on a quest for him. She passes by seven springs, where she meets many girls complaining that their father Sabzkaba has disappeared because of Shakarkhava's fault and wishing harm on her. On the seventh spring, she asks for a bit of water to drink and tosses her ring inside the jug. Her husband Sabzkaba recognizes the ring and brings his wife to his house, where he warns her his family is made of divs. He convinces her to suckle on his div mother's breast to warm up to her. The div mother forces her to cry on the floor and sweep it; to wash a black cloth white; and to take a sieve to the div's sister. One day, the div family organizes a wedding and forces both Sabzkaba and Shakarkhava to hold one candle on each of their fingers during the ceremony. Later that night, they kill the wedding couple and escape in a Magic Flight sequence. They are pursued by Sabzkaba's relatives, his uncle, his father and lastly his mother (whom he kills when she threatens his wife with a sword).

In a variant from Luristan with the title The Akhund (Luri language: Axun), collected from teller Khudâbas of Bahârvand, an akhund finds a cucumber floating in the river, brings it home and eats it. The man becomes pregnant and gives birth to a turtle. After some time, the animal pleads his human father to ask for the hand of the princess in marriage, but the king insists the turtle suitor performs some tasks first. He does and he marries the princess. After the wedding, the turtle husband takes off his turtle shell and becomes a handsome man, but insists to his wife that she can never tell anyone. One day, the human wife wants to visit his family, so he transforms her into a needle, pins it into his hat, becomes a dove and flies away to his relatives. In the case they are found out, the husband instructs the girl to press his mother's breast and to force her to swear on mother's milk and father's pain not to harm her. She does exactly that, but his mother forces her to do impossible tasks: she sends her to his aunt to get a mortar (since his aunt did not make the same oath she has) and to wash a blackboard white. She accomplishes it with her husband's guidance and help. Lastly, the turtle prince's mother betrothes her son to another bride and prepares their wedding. The youth tricks his family by killing the bride, and putting his human wife in her place with the false bride's clothes. The couple turn into a pair of doves and escape. His family discovers the body of the false bride and pursue the couple. To distract them, the princess and her husband shapeshift into a calf (her) and a shepherdess (him), and a flower and a tree. Finally, the turtle prince delivers his wife to his father-in-law and becomes a pomegranate growing on the back of his hand, as a final trick on his aunt and mother. The collector noted that The Akhund was essentially "the same [tale] as" the Iranian tale Le Sultan Serpent, also of type ATU 425 and collected from Khorassan by Adrienne Boulvin.

Literary versions

Author Behzad Sohrabi published the tale The Man in Green Robe, with similar plot points: princess Golnar, the third and youngest daughter of a king, marries a mysterious "Man in Green Robe". After the wedding, he warns her against a prohibition imposed on him. She disobeys, he disappears and she has to find him in a distant city, by wearing down seven pairs of iron shoes and carrying an iron cane. When she reaches her destination, she meets her mother-in-law, and begs her to promise not to harm her on her son's name. Her husband, the Man in Green Robe, is set to be married to his cousin, and her mother-in-law forces her to do some chores for her, including bearing a letter to his aunt with a command to kill the princess. Before Golnar visits the woman, her husband intercepts her and exchanges the letter for another with a request for a pair of "scissors that cut and sew by themselves". Having failed the first time, the mother sends her again with another letter, and again the Man in Green Robe replaces the command with a simple request for a musical instrument ("the tambourine that sings and dances"). As his wedding ceremony approaches, the Man in Green Robe dispatches his human wife to the wilderness and instructs her to wait for him with ten candles on her fingers, while he deals with the false bride. After ruining his wedding, he meets Golnar and they escape from his parents by transforming into different things. After the dust settles, they regain human form and create a kingdom for themselves with his magic powers. Some time later, his father-in-law visits them and names Golnar's husband as his successor.

See also

• Cupid and Psyche
• Beauty and the Beast
• Habrmani (Armenian folk tale)
• Khastakhumar and Bibinagar
• King Lindworm (a serpent prince woos the maiden)
• The Enchanted Snake, Italian literary fairy tale
• The Snake Prince, a Punjabi tale included in Andrew Lang's The Olive Fairy Book
• Princess Himal and Nagaray, Kashmiri folktale
• Eglė the Queen of Serpents, Lithuanian fairy tale about a maiden and a snake husband
• The Sprig of Rosemary
• Animal bridegroom tales, e.g., Hans My Hedgehog, The Pig King, The Donkey, The Frog Prince, The Bird Lover, The Singing, Springing Lark, White-Bear-King-Valemon

Bibliography

• Bonilla y San Matin, Adolfo. El mito de Psyquis: un cuento de niños, una tradición simbólica y un estudio sobre el problema fundamental de la filosofía. Barcelona: Imprenta de Henrich y Cia. 1908. p. 341.
• Cosquin, Emmanuel. Contes populaires de Lorraine comparés aves les contes de autres provinces de France et des pays étrangers, et précédes d'un essai sur l'origine et la propagation des contes populaires européens. Tome II. Paris: Vieweg. 1887. pp. 225–227.
• Dunlop, John Colin. History of Prose Fiction. A new edition, with revised notes, appendices and index. Vol. I. London: George Bell and Sons. 1896. pp. 110–112 (footnote).
• Friedländer, Ludwig. Roman life and manners under the early Empire. Vol. IV. London: Routledge. 1913. pp. 112-115 and 122-123.
• Hahn, Johann Georg von. Griechische und Albanesische Märchen 1–2. München/Berlin: Georg Müller. 1918 [1864]. pp. 481–483.
• Hood, Gwenyth. "Husbands and Gods as Shadowbrutes: Beauty and the Beast from Apuleius to C. S. Lewis." Mythlore 56 Winter (1988): pp. 33–43, 60. doi:10.2307/26812032. www.jstor.org/stable/26812032.
• Jacobi, Hermann; Meyer, Johann Jakob. Hindu Tales. London: Luzac & Co. 1909. p. 288. (footnote nr. 4).
• Jacobs, Joseph. European Folk and Fairy Tales. New York, London: G. P. Putnam's sons. 1916. pp. 246–249.
• Morton, Marsha. Max Klinger and Wilhelmine Culture: On the Threshold of German Modernism. London and New York: Routledge. 2016. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-4094-6758-8
• Purser, Louis Claude. The Story of Cupid and Psyche as related by Apuleius. London: George Bell and Sons. 1910. pp. xlvii-li.
• Zinzow, Adolf. Psyche und Eros: ein milesisches märchen in der darstellung und auffassung des Apulejus beleuchtet und auf seinen mythologischen zusammenhang, gehalt und ursprung zurückgeführt. Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses. 1888. pp. 302-306.
• "Tulisa, la figlia del taglialegna". In: Storie di Amore e Psiche. A cura di Annamaria Zesi. Roma: L'Asino d'Oro Edizioni. 2010. pp. 42-57. ISBN 978-88-6443-052-2.

Further reading

• Felton, D. "Apuleius' Cupid Considered as a Lamia (Metamorphoses 5.17-18)." Illinois Classical Studies, no. 38 (2013): 229-44. doi:10.5406/illiclasstud.38.0229.