In the literary references of Rittershaus (p. 77) we still find the simultaneous birth of a boy and an ichneumon in the Pantschatandra. Aso the son of a Brahman is born as a serpent, whose father, on the marriage night of his son, burned his serpent skin so that the son retained his human form.[1] (Benfey, "Pantschatandra, Fünf Bücher indischer Fabeln, Märchen und Erzählungen," Leipzig, 1859, Bd. II, p. 147, cited by Rittershaus, p. 77).
According to Benfey (cited by Rittershaus, p. 77) the burning of the animal hide, through which the enchanted man becomes compelled to keep his human form, is a Hindu belief.
It can hardly be demonstrated that the burning of the animal hide originally appears only in a sexual connection (as previously in the wedding night); however, it appears so in very many cases and the deliverance from enchantment and the espousal appear together almost always in the fairy tales, which represent sexual wish-structures, which, after what has been said of the significance of enchantment in the sexual wish-tales, is understandable. The Brahman story cited induces me, therefore, to draw attention to the sexually symbolic significance of fire in dreams, as Freud ("Bruckstück," etc.) confirmed by Jung (Diagnost. Assoc. Studien, VIII Beitrag) has explained and of which I myself possess good examples, and to point out that here again is shown an accumulation of sexual symbols (serpent, fire).
I also wish to call attention to the fire-engine dream. A double question, which at any rate the symbolism of "upward transposition" makes use of and at the same time explains, is propounded by the giantesses to the king's son whom they have stolen (Rittershaus, No. 41, p. 173). The peasant's daughter Signy, who sets out to seek and to save him, finds him in an enchanted sleep in the cave of the giantesses, listens how they awake him by the song of swans and how the younger asks him whether he wishes to eat? He answers no. Thereupon she asks him if he will marry her? To that also he replies no, with horror. Thereupon the prince is lulled to sleep again by the same song. This goes
- ↑ An example, that enchantment signifies a sexual revenge, one can find in B. Schmidt, "Das Volksleben der Neugriechen," p. 112. A nereid transformed her beloved, her untrue lover, into a serpent; he should remain enchanted until he found a sweetheart who was equal to her in beauty! (A special case, which allows us to assume, that also in the case of the serpent of Oda a sexual motive conditioned the enchantment.)
