in
and Art.
Litemture
III
mimi, handed down traditionally from mimus to jougleur, how far they
are native in our race, or how far they were derived at a later date from
other fources. And in confidering this queftion, we mutt not forget that
the mediaeval jougleurs were not the only reprefentatives of the mimi,
for among the Arabs of the Eatt alfo there had originated from them,
modified under different circumttances, a very important clafis of minflrels
and Rory-tellers, and with thefe the jougleurs of the weft were brought
into communication at the commencement of the crufades. There can
be no doubt that a very large number of the ftories of the jougleurs
were borrowed from the Eaft, for the_evidence is furnifhed by the Itories
themfelves; and there can be little doubt alfo that the jougleurs
improved themfelves, and underwent fome modification, by their inter-
courfe with Eattern performers of the fame clafs.
On the other hand, We have traces of the exiftence of thefe popular
Rories before the jougleurs can have had communication with the Eall.
Thus, as already mentioned, we find, compofed in Germany, apparently
in the tenth century, in rhythmical Latin, the well-known ftory of the
wife of a merchant who bore a child during the long abfence of her
hufband, and who excufed herfelf by Rating that her pregnancy had been
the refult of fwallowing a Hake of fnow in a fnow-liorm. This, and
another of the fame kind, were evidently intended to be (ung. Another
poem in popular Latin verfe, which Grimm and Schmeller, who edited
it," believe may be of the eleventh century, relates a very amufing
ilory of an adventurer named Unibos, who, continually caught in
his own fnares, finiihes by getting the better of all his enemies, and
becoming rich, by mere ingenious cunning and good fortune. This fcory
is not met with among thofe of the jougleurs, as far as they are yet
known, but, curioufly enough, Lover found it exilling orally among the
Iriih peafantry, and inferted the Irifh Ilory among his "Legends of
Ireland." It is a curious illufiration of the pertinacity with which the
popular ttories defcend along with peoples through generations from the
remotefi
1 In a volume
Giittingen, 1838.
entitled
" Latcinisclle
Gedichte
des'
und
8vo.