And stories of class A fall into two subdivisions: (1) in which the password is the name of some plant, (2) in which it consists of some other magical formula.
A further small point to which an investigator's attention may be drawn is the consistency with which a tree appears as the hiding place. Sometimes the hero is concealed in the branches, sometimes in a hollow trunk, but the tree nearly always appears, even where the scene is laid in the desert.
Of modern Greek variants I note the following: Dawkins, Modern Greek in Cappadocia, p. 447 (Silata), is too poor a version to classify with certainty, and Ἀρχέλαος, Σινασός, p. 211 (Sinasós, Cappadocia), is not at present accessible to me.
Dawkins, op. cit. p. 515 (Phálasa), A (1), "Open Hyacinth."
Stamatiadis, Σαμιακά, v. p. 598 (Samos), A (1), "Open Tree." In this case the robber's hoard is located inside the tree.
Ζωγράφειος Ἀγών, 1. p. 418 (Nisyros), A (2), "Up my little rock—Down my little rock."
Dawkins, op. cit. p. 363 (Ulaghátsh), B.
Πυρνασός, iv. p. 228 (=Geldart, Folklore of Modern Greece, p. 9) (Syra), B.
The Turkish version recorded by Kunos, Türkische Volks-Märchen aus Stambul, p. 231, belongs to group A (2), the magic words being tschanga—tschunga, as does the only Indian variant which I happen to know, Knowles, Folktales of Kashmir, p. 267, where the words composing the magical formula are not given. A poor Lithuanian version is recorded by Jurkschat, Litanische Märchen und Erzählungen, i. p. 76, No. 38. A maiden hidden in a tree witnesses the robbers' entry and exit. The password is "Open Mr. So-and-so"; the narrator had forgotten the magical name. The heroine enters but forgets the mountain's name. When the robbers re-enter, she, however, successfully slips out. She informs her friends, but when they visit the spot they find that the robbers have removed the treasure. This at first sight appears to fall into category A (2), but it may, like Grimm No. 142, "Open Mt. Semsin," have arisen from the misunderstanding of the formula of the Arabian Nights version. For there can be little doubt that the name of the mountain, Semsin, is an echo of "Open Sesame." In the Welsh gypsy
