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100% found this document useful (11 votes)
35 views49 pages

Test Bank For Communication Matters, 3rd Edition, Kory Floyd - Download Now and Never Miss A Chapter

The document provides links to download various test banks and solution manuals, including the Test Bank for 'Communication Matters, 3rd Edition' by Kory Floyd. It also includes sample multiple-choice questions related to communication concepts and models. The content emphasizes the importance of communication in meeting various needs, such as physical, relational, and spiritual.

Uploaded by

kayamootia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 01 Communication: A First Look Answer Key

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which term best describes the process by which signs, symbols, and behaviors are used to
exchange information and create meaning?

A. interaction
B. communication
C. talking
D. feedback

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 List and summarize the needs communication helps us meet.
Topic: The Communication Process

2. Solitary confinement often results in the quickly deteriorating health of prisoners. Such punishment
therefore deprives prisoners of which type of basic need?

A. physical
B. spiritual
C. identity
D. instrumental

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 List and summarize the needs communication helps us meet.
Topic: Physical Needs

1-1
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
3. Robert is recently homeless and is suffering from mental illness. As a result, he feels increasingly
socially isolated. Although he used to be physically healthy, he is now sick quite often. Which
aspect of Robert’s health is directly affected by his lack of contact with others?

A. relational
B. spiritual
C. instrumental
D. physical

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Apply
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 List and summarize the needs communication helps us meet.
Topic: Physical Needs

4. The essential elements that we look for in our interactions with others are _______________
needs.

A. relational
B. spiritual
C. instrumental
D. physical

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 List and summarize the needs communication helps us meet.
Topic: Relational Needs

5. Which of the following is NOT a relational need?

A. affection
B. conflict
C. escape
D. companionship

Type of question: Analyze

1-2
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
6. Julio is a recent immigrant from Nicaragua. He cannot afford the technology, such as a cell phone
or a computer, that would allow him to communicate with his friends and family at home, and he
has yet to make friends in the United States because he is still learning English. Julio feels lonely
and often ignored in his new country. Which of his needs is NOT being met?

A. physical
B. spiritual
C. relational
D. instrumental

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Apply
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 List and summarize the needs communication helps us meet.
Topic: Relational Needs

7. Research shows that marital happiness is more important than income, job status, or education in
accounting for how happy people are overall. In the case of a happy marriage, which type of need
is being met?

A. spiritual
B. instrumental
C. physical
D. relational

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 List and summarize the needs communication helps us meet.
Topic: Relational Needs

8. Which of the following plays a critical role in the process of identity development?

A. adaptability
B. noise
C. communication
D. decoding

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 List and summarize the needs communication helps us meet.
Topic: Identity Needs

1-3
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
9. Kara views herself as a shy, introverted person, unlike her more outgoing friends. At social
gatherings, Kara’s friends often speak and answer questions on her behalf. Kara’s shyness is
based on beliefs she has about herself, but it affects the way her friends view her as well. Her
social habits play an important role in establishing which aspect of Kara’s sense of self?

A. identity
B. level of confidence
C. overall happiness
D. spirituality

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Evaluate
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 List and summarize the needs communication helps us meet.
Topic: Identity Needs

10. Which of the following statements does NOT reflect spirituality?

A. "I believe in loyalty and honesty."


B. "I believe in God."
C. "I never think about the meaning of life."
D. "It’s never okay to steal, no matter what."

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Analyze
Difficulty: 3 Hard
Learning Objective: 01-01 List and summarize the needs communication helps us meet.
Topic: Spiritual Needs

11. Kyle enjoys having philosophical discussions about the meaning of life in which he often touches
upon his own sense of purpose. These discussions meet which needs for Kyle?

A. physical needs
B. instrumental needs
C. relational needs
D. spiritual needs

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Apply
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 List and summarize the needs communication helps us meet.
Topic: Spiritual Needs

1-4
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
12. Most of the communication we engage in daily is routine and not emotionally charged, thus
helping us to meet _______________ needs.

A. physical
B. instrumental
C. spiritual
D. relational
AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 List and summarize the needs communication helps us meet.
Topic: Instrumental Needs

13. When Laura calls the salon to schedule a haircut, she is using communication to fill what type of
need?

A. relational
B. spiritual
C. instrumental
D. physical

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Application
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 List and summarize the needs communication helps us meet.
Topic: Instrumental Needs

14. What term is used for the formal description of a process such as communication?

A. model
B. definition
C. analysis
D. channel

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-03 Differentiate the action, interaction, and transaction models of communication.
Topic: Communication Models

15. Which of the following is NOT a model of communication?

A. interaction
B. action
C. reaction
D. transaction

Type of question: Remember

1-5
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
16. If you mail an annual family newsletter to update your loved ones and you don’t expect a
response, you are using which model of communication?

A. action
B. interaction
C. reaction
D. transaction
AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Differentiate the action, interaction, and transaction models of communication.
Topic: The Action Model

17. Which of the following is NOT a component of the action model of communication?

A. source
B. receiver
C. noise
D. feedback

Type of question: Analyze

18. Miles sends an instant message to his brother. According to the action model of communication,
which term best describes Miles’s role?

A. decoder
B. receiver
C. communicator
D. source

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Analyze
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Define the components of communication.
Topic: The Action Model

19. When you put your idea in the form of language or a gesture that the receiver can understand, you
are ____________ the message.

A. decoding
B. channeling
C. encoding
D. interpreting
AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Define the components of communication.
Topic: The Action Model

1-6
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
20. Yani is on the phone with her mother, who is explaining how to go about preparing dinner for the
family later. Yani is distracted by a humorous Twitter post by one of her friends. As dinnertime
nears, Yani realizes she has no idea how to cook the family meal as her mother instructed her to
do. During the conversation with her mother, Yani was experiencing which type of noise?

A. physical
B. psychological
C. physiological
D. practical

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-02 Define the components of communication.
Topic: The Action Model

21. Fatigue and hunger are examples of ______________ noise.

A. physical
B. practical
C. psychological
D. physiological

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Define the components of communication.
Topic: The Action Model

22. Wayne and Lindsay go on a blind date, and they both enjoy themselves. At the end of the
evening, Wayne tells Lindsay he will call her "soon." Lindsay expects to hear from Wayne by the
next day, as that is what "soon" means to her, but he does not call for three weeks. Lindsay most
likely made an error during which stage of the communication process?

A. noise
B. decoding
C. encoding
D. channeling

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Evaluate
Difficulty: 3 Hard
Learning Objective: 01-02 Define the components of communication.
Topic: The Action Model

1-7
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
23. Which two elements does the interaction model of communication add to the action model?

A. feedback and context


B. message and feedback
C. channel and noise
D. encoding and decoding

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Remember
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Define the components of communication.
Topic: The Interaction Model

24. When Liz asks her father if he minds her borrowing the car, she notices he frowns and shakes his
head. What is Liz observing in her father?

A. context
B. noise
C. feedback
D. decoding

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Define the components of communication.
Topic: The Interaction Model

25. According to the interaction model of communication, receivers are not passive. Instead, receivers
offer various verbal and nonverbal responses to messages. What are these responses called?

A. noise
B. feedback
C. context
D. channels

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Define the components of communication.
Topic: The Interaction Model

1-8
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
26. As you tell your brother about your first assignment in speech class, he nods his head and says,
"Uh huh," and even smiles when he hears you got an A. Which of the following terms best
describes your brother’s reaction to your story?

A. feedback
B. noise
C. messages
D. context

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Apply
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Define the components of communication.
Topic: The Interaction Model

27. Ralph went to a party over the weekend. Excited to share stories of his antics at the party with his
friend Sarah, he invites her to his house after school. While Ralph is telling his story, his mother
enters the room. Ralph immediately changes his loud, boisterous tone and stops using profanity.
According to the interaction model, Ralph is reacting to a change in what?

A. channel
B. noise
C. feedback
D. context

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Apply
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Define the components of communication.
Topic: The Interaction Model

28. One limitation of the interaction model of communication is that it doesn’t account for

A. the fact that communication occurs in both directions.


B. feedback from the receiver.
C. the simultaneous exchange of messages and feedback.
D. the interference of noise.

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Evaluate
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Differentiate the action, interaction, and transaction models of communication.
Topic: The Interaction Model

1-9
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
29. The ____________ model of communication maintains that both people in a conversation are
simultaneously sources and receivers.

A. action
B. transaction
C. reaction
D. interaction
AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-03 Differentiate the action, interaction, and transaction models of communication.
Topic: The Transaction Model

30. As Professor Li lectures during class, she notices several students yawning. Only one student
makes direct eye contact with her; the rest of the class is looking around the room. Professor Li
interprets these nonverbal cues as messages that she is boring, reflecting the simultaneous
nature of which model of communication?

A. action
B. reaction
C. interaction
D. transaction

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Apply
Difficulty: 3 Hard
Learning Objective: 01-03 Differentiate the action, interaction, and transaction models of communication.
Topic: The Transaction Model

31. Susan observes that her new classmate, Lupe, is having some difficulty keeping up in class.
Because Lupe has just learned the English language and has not yet adapted to the nonverbal
codes many Americans use, it takes her longer to decode messages that she receives. Susan
makes sure to stay after every class to share her notes with Lupe and to answer any questions
she has. According to the transaction model of communication, Susan has identified which aspect
of context as affecting how Lupe receives messages?

A. culture
B. gender
C. psychological environment
D. social environment

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Evaluate
Difficulty: 3 Hard
Learning Objective: 01-03 Differentiate the action, interaction, and transaction models of communication.
Topic: The Transaction Model

1-10
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
32. Submitting a written report to your supervisor for feedback best represents which model of
communication?

A. action
B. interaction
C. transaction
D. construction
AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Evaluate
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Differentiate the action, interaction, and transaction models of communication.
Topic: The Interaction Model

33. Which model of communication best describes complex face-to-face communication?

A. interaction
B. transaction
C. action
D. construction

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-03 Differentiate the action, interaction, and transaction models of communication.
Topic: The Transaction Model

34. How would you categorize the context of a "tweet," which relies on text alone, without the benefit
of the sender’s voice or gestures?

A. channel-less
B. channel-rich
C. channel-lean
D. channel-neutral

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 List and summarize the important characteristics of communication.
Topic: Characteristics of Communication

35. Which of the following is NOT an example of a perceptual filter in communication?

A. intelligence
B. gender
C. religious beliefs
D. All of the above are examples of perceptual filters.

Type of question: Remember

1-11
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
36. Frances and Jean are watching the president give a speech on television. Frances is a big
supporter of the president and identifies politically with his party. Jean did not vote for the
president and does not agree with his policies. While listening to the address, Frances is delighted
with the president’s message and thinks he is on point, whereas Jean thinks the president is not
addressing the issue at hand. Which characteristic of communication does this scenario
illustrate?

A. Communication passes through perceptual filters.


B. Communication has relational implications.
C. Communication sends messages, whether intentional or unintentional.
D. Communication is governed by rules.

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Evaluate
Difficulty: 3 Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 List and summarize the important characteristics of communication.
Topic: Characteristics of Communication

37. Where does the meaning of a word come from?

A. the symbol
B. the object being discussed
C. the people using it
D. the referent

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 List and summarize the important characteristics of communication.
Topic: Characteristics of Communication

38. Riley wants to play music during lunch and tells her visiting granddaughter to pick out her favorite
record. Her granddaughter is confused because all her music is digital, so she says, "You mean,
like a sports record?" What assumption did Riley make about her granddaughter?

A. Her granddaughter would have the same musical tastes as she does.
B. Her granddaughter understands the meaning she intended to communicate simply because
Riley understood it.
C. Her granddaughter understood the relational dimension to the message.
D. Her granddaughter is old enough to understand her use of symbols because she is old enough
to visit her.

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Apply
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 List and summarize the important characteristics of communication.
Topic: Characteristics of Communication

1-12
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
39. Robert is driving Samantha, his girlfriend, home from a party. He notices she is quiet and
withdrawn. Robert asks Samantha if she is okay. She replies, "I’m fine," in a snide tone while
rolling her eyes. Robert becomes angry and asks what her problem is. Robert is responding to
what dimension of Samantha’s message?

A. relational
B. content
C. symbolic
D. literal

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Apply
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 List and summarize the important characteristics of communication.
Topic: Characteristics of Communication

40. If your roommate tells you that you’re out of cereal and you interpret the statement as also
meaning, "I’m irritated you never replace food items when they are gone," you are interpreting
which dimension of your roommate’s message?

A. content
B. symbolic
C. underlying
D. relational

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 List and summarize the important characteristics of communication.
Topic: Characteristics of Communication

41. What do we call it when we communicate about how we communicate?

A. higher communication
B. metacommunication
C. intercommunication
D. interpersonal communication

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 List and summarize the important characteristics of communication.
Topic: Characteristics of Communication

1-13
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
42. Carolyn and Maxine are shopping for prom dresses. Carolyn asks Maxine’s opinion on a particular
dress and tells her to be honest. When Maxine laughs and says the dress makes Carolyn look
ridiculous, she is surprised to see Carolyn get upset. When Carolyn explains to Maxine that it is
not the opinion, but the way in which it was stated, that hurt her feelings, Carolyn is engaging in
what type of communication?

A. intercommunication
B. higher communication
C. metacommunication
D. interpersonal communication

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Apply
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 List and summarize the important characteristics of communication.
Topic: Characteristics of Communication

43. When you choose a specific suit to wear to a job interview because you want to communicate
professionalism, what type of message are you sending?

A. intentional
B. unintentional
C. content
D. relational

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Apply
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 List and summarize the important characteristics of communication.
Topic: Characteristics of Communication

44. Identify an example of following an explicit rule.

A. not making eye contact on an elevator


B. not cutting in line at the bank
C. abiding by your school’s weapons ban
D. keeping your voice down at a funeral

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Analyze
Difficulty: 3 Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 List and summarize the important characteristics of communication.
Topic: Characteristics of Communication

1-14
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
45. What are the two types of rules that govern communication?

A. content and relational


B. internal and external
C. norms and values
D. explicit and implicit

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 List and summarize the important characteristics of communication.
Topic: Characteristics of Communication

46. Stan mentally rehearses what he will say to break up with his girlfriend later in the day. Stan is
engaging in what kind of communication?

A. intrapersonal
B. interpersonal
C. unintentional
D. public

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-05 Differentiate the five types of communication in which humans engage.
Topic: Types of Communication

47. Which of the following is NOT an example of interpersonal communication?

A. exchanging instant messages with a friend


B. talking on the phone with a relative
C. visiting face-to-face with a co-worker
D. reminding yourself to call a friend later

Type of question: Analyze

48. What is the most common form of communication we engage in?

A. intrapersonal
B. interpersonal
C. small group
D. public

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-05 Differentiate the five types of communication in which humans engage.
Topic: Types of Communication

1-15
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
49. Lynn likes interacting with the members of her soccer team, especially engaging with them to
make decisions and working together to win. What type of communication does Lynn seem to
most enjoy?

A. interpersonal
B. public
C. small group
D. mass

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-05 Differentiate the five types of communication in which humans engage.
Topic: Types of Communication

50. Jeremiah has a speech to deliver in two weeks. He spends a lot of time researching and
organizing his presentation. He asks his friends to listen as he practices the speech. Jeremiah
may be spending so much time preparing and practicing his remarks because he is anticipating
engaging in what type of communication?

A. mass
B. interpersonal
C. public
D. small group

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Evaluate
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-05 Differentiate the five types of communication in which humans engage.
Topic: Types of Communication

51. Mass media includes all of the following, EXCEPT

A. blogs.
B. magazines.
C. instant messaging.
D. television.

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Analyze
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-05 Differentiate the five types of communication in which humans engage.
Topic: Types of Communication

1-16
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
52. Because its audience is so large, which type of communication works well for distributing news,
commentary, and entertainment?

A. public
B. mass
C. small group
D. electronic
AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-05 Differentiate the five types of communication in which humans engage.
Topic: Types of Communication

53. In a nationwide survey of U.S. adults conducted by the National Communication Association, 91
percent of respondents rated their communication skills as above average. This finding reflects
what common myth?

A. Everyone is a communication expert.


B. Communication will solve any problem.
C. Communication can break down.
D. Communication is inherently good.

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Analyze
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-06 List and summarize common misconceptions about communication.
Topic: Communication Myths

54. Kareem and Haidy have been engaged for two years, but they have been arguing a lot for the
past six months because they have different long-term goals. When Haidy tries to break off the
engagement, Kareem insists they try couples’ counseling first. He is sure that if they just work on
their communication skills, they can stay together. After a few weeks of counseling, Haidy still
chooses to end the engagement, despite the open communication they experienced in the
counseling sessions. Kareem is surprised, thus showing he most likely believes which
communication myth?

A. Everyone is a communication expert.


B. Communication is inherently good.
C. Communication can break down.
D. Communication will solve any problem.

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Evaluate
Difficulty: 3 Hard
Learning Objective: 01-06 List and summarize common misconceptions about communication.
Topic: Communication Myths

1-17
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
55. The idea that communication can "break down" is a myth. Which of the following statements best
explains why?

A. Communication is inherently good.


B. Our progress is halted because communication has halted.
C. The problem lies not with the communication itself but how we are using it.
D. Communication is not a process, so therefore it can be compared to a journey.
AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Evaluate
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-06 List and summarize common misconceptions about communication.
Topic: Communication Myths

56. How we use communication determines whether it will have positive or negative effects. This fact
dispels what myth?

A. Everyone is a communication expert.


B. Communication is inherently good.
C. Communication will solve any problem.
D. More communication is always better.

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-06 List and summarize common misconceptions about communication.
Topic: Communication Myths

57. Lulu disagrees with her friends’ position on the war in Afghanistan. She thinks her friends simply
aren’t informed of the nuances of the situation. Lulu talks at length about her understanding of the
conflict, and whenever her friends try to state their opinion, she simply speaks over them. She is
sure if they would just listen, they would come to understand and agree with her point of view. Lulu
probably believes which communication myth?

A. More communication is always better.


B. Communication will solve any problem.
C. Communication is inherently good.
D. Everyone is a communication expert.

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Evaluate
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-06 List and summarize common misconceptions about communication.
Topic: Communication Myths

1-18
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
58. According to a 2014 National Association of Colleges and Employers survey, which of the
following is one of the most important qualities employers look for in college graduates?

A. high grades
B. communication competence
C. personal connections
D. volunteer experience
AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-07 Explain communication competence.
Topic: Communication Competence

59. Someone with communication competence is able to communicate in ways that are
__________________ in a given situation.

A. literal and relational


B. symbolic and appropriate
C. effective and literal
D. effective and appropriate

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-07 Explain communication competence.
Topic: Communication Competence

60. In June 2010, President Obama went on NBC’s Today show to discuss the BP oil spill in the Gulf
of Mexico. During the interview, the president told host Matt Lauer he was holding discussions
with BP executives so he would know "whose [obscenity] to kick." In the following days, there was
much discussion and debate in the media over the use of obscenity in that situation. What does
this controversy demonstrate with regard to the communication decisions of the president and
other high-ranking officials?

A. It is important to communicate appropriately for the social and cultural context.


B. Communication should be objective, not emotional.
C. It is important to communicate effectively for the Today show audience.
D. A public figure should always be honest about his or her opinions.

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Evaluate
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-08 Analyze a situation for appropriate and inappropriate communication and effective and ineffective
communication.
Topic: Communication Competence

1-19
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
61. Which of the following is NOT a trait of competent communicators?

A. adaptable
B. self-aware
C. cognitively simple
D. empathic

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Analyze
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-09 List and summarize the five characteristics of competent communicators.
Topic: Communication Competence

62. Fred does not notice that he tends to dominate conversations because he is a(n) __________
self-monitor.

A. experienced
B. high
C. low
D. objective

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Apply
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 01-09 List and summarize the five characteristics of competent communicators.
Topic: Communication Competence

63. Which of the following can make someone a more competent communicator by enabling that
person to see how his or her behavior fits, or doesn’t fit, in a given social situation?

A. self-monitoring
B. adaptation
C. empathy
D. cognitive complexity

AACSB: Communication
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Bloom's: Understand
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 01-09 List and summarize the five characteristics of competent communicators.
Topic: Communication Competence

1-20
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
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suffered to touch the earth; [pg 081] probably they thought that the
celestial plant would have been profaned and its marvellous virtue lost by
contact with the ground. With the ritual observed by the Druids in cutting
the mistletoe we may compare the ritual which in Cambodia is prescribed in
a similar case. They say that when you see an orchid growing as a parasite
on a tamarind tree, you should dress in white, take a new earthenware pot,
then climb the tree at noon, break off the plant, put it in the pot, and let the
pot fall to the ground. After that you make in the pot a decoction which
confers the gift of invulnerability.257 Thus just as in Africa the leaves of one
parasitic plant are supposed to render the wearer invulnerable, so in
Cambodia a decoction made from another parasitic plant is considered to
render the same service to such as make use of it, whether by drinking or
washing. We may conjecture that in both places the notion of invulnerability
is suggested by the position of the plant, which, occupying a place of
comparative security above the ground, appears to promise to its fortunate
possessor a similar security from some of the ills that beset the life of man
on earth. We have already met with many examples of the store which the
primitive mind sets on such vantage grounds.258

Whatever may be the origin of these beliefs and practices concerning the
mistletoe, certain it is that some of them have their analogies in the folk-lore
of modern European peasants. For example, it is laid down as a rule in
various parts of Europe that mistletoe may not be cut in the ordinary way
but must be shot or knocked down with stones from the tree on which it is
growing. Thus, in [pg 082] the Swiss canton of Aargau “all parasitic plants
are esteemed in a certain sense holy by the country folk, but most
particularly so the mistletoe growing on an oak. They ascribe great powers
to it, but shrink from cutting it off in the usual manner. Instead of that they
procure it in the following manner. When the sun is in Sagittarius and the
moon is on the wane, on the first, third, or fourth day before the new moon,
one ought to shoot down with an arrow the mistletoe of an oak and to catch
it with the left hand as it falls. Such mistletoe is a remedy for every ailment
of children.”259 Here among the Swiss peasants, as among the Druids of old,
special virtue is ascribed to mistletoe which grows on an oak: it may not be
cut in the usual way: it must be caught as it falls to the ground; and it is
esteemed a panacea for all diseases, at least of children. In Sweden, also, it
is a popular superstition that if mistletoe is to possess its peculiar virtue, it
must either be shot down out of the oak or knocked down with stones.260
Similarly, “so late as the early part of the nineteenth century, people in
Wales believed that for the mistletoe to have any power, it must be shot or
struck down with stones off the tree where it grew.”261

Again, in respect of the healing virtues of mistletoe the opinion of modern


peasants, and even of the learned, has to some extent agreed with that of
the ancients. The Druids appear to have called the plant, or perhaps the oak
on which it grew, the “all-healer”;262 and “all-healer” is said to be still a
name of the mistletoe in the modern Celtic speech of Brittany, Wales,
Ireland, and Scotland.263 On St. John's morning (Midsummer morning)
peasants of Piedmont [pg 083] and Lombardy go out to search the oak-
leaves for the “oil of St. John,” which is supposed to heal all wounds made
with cutting instruments.264 Originally, perhaps, the “oil of St. John” was
simply the mistletoe, or a decoction made from it. For in Holstein the
mistletoe, especially oak-mistletoe, is still regarded as a panacea for green
wounds and as a sure charm to secure success in hunting;265 and at
Lacaune, in the south of France, the old Druidical belief in the mistletoe as
an antidote to all poisons still survives among the peasantry; they apply the
plant to the stomach of the sufferer or give him a decoction of it to drink.266
Again, the ancient belief that mistletoe is a cure for epilepsy has survived in
modern times not only among the ignorant but among the learned. Thus in
Sweden persons afflicted with the falling sickness think they can ward off
attacks of the malady by carrying about with them a knife which has a
handle of oak mistletoe;267 and in Germany for a similar purpose pieces of
mistletoe used to be hung round the necks of children.268 In the French
province of Bourbonnais a popular remedy for epilepsy is a decoction of
mistletoe which has been gathered on an oak on St. John's Day and boiled
with rye-flour.269 So at Bottesford in Lincolnshire a decoction of mistletoe is
supposed to be a palliative for this terrible disease.270 Indeed mistletoe was
recommended as a remedy for the falling sickness by high medical
authorities in England and Holland down to the eighteenth century.271 [pg
084] At Kirton-in-Lindsey, in Lincolnshire, it is thought that St. Vitus's dance
may be cured by the water in which mistletoe berries have been boiled.272 In
the Scotch shires of Elgin and Moray, down to the second half of the
eighteenth century, at the full moon of March people used to cut withes of
mistletoe or ivy, make circles of them, keep them all the year, and profess to
cure hectics and other troubles by means of them.273 In Sweden, apparently,
for other complaints a sprig of mistletoe is hung round the patient's neck or
a ring of it is worn on his finger.274
However, the opinion of the medical profession as to the curative virtues of
mistletoe has undergone a radical alteration. Whereas the Druids thought
that mistletoe cured everything, modern doctors appear to think that it
cures nothing.275 If they are right, we must conclude that the ancient and
widespread faith in the medicinal virtue of mistletoe is a pure superstition
based on nothing better than the fanciful inferences which ignorance has
drawn from the parasitic nature of the plant, its position high up on the
branch of a tree seeming to protect it from the dangers to which plants and
animals are subject on the surface of the ground. From this point of view we
can perhaps understand why mistletoe has so long and so persistently been
prescribed as a cure for the falling sickness. As mistletoe cannot fall to the
ground because it is rooted on the branch of a tree high above the earth, it
seems to follow as a necessary consequence that an epileptic patient cannot
possibly fall down in a fit so long as he carries a piece of mistletoe in his
pocket or a decoction of mistletoe in his stomach. Such a train of reasoning
would probably be regarded even now as cogent by a large portion of the
human species.
f
Again the ancient Italian opinion that mistletoe extinguishes [pg 085] fire
appears to be shared by Swedish peasants, who hang up bunches of oak-
f mistletoe on the ceilings of their rooms as a protection against harm in
general and conflagration in particular.276 A hint as to the way in which
mistletoe comes to be possessed of this property is furnished by the epithet
“thunder-besom,” which people of the Aargau canton in Switzerland apply to
the plant.277 For a thunder-besom is a shaggy, bushy excrescence on
branches of trees, which is popularly believed to be produced by a flash of
lightning;278 hence in Bohemia a thunder-besom burnt in the fire protects
the house against being struck by a thunder-bolt.279 Being itself a product of
lightning it naturally serves, on homoeopathic principles, as a protection
against lightning, in fact as a kind of lightning-conductor. Hence the fire
which mistletoe in Sweden is designed especially to avert from houses may
be fire kindled by lightning; though no doubt the plant is equally effective
against conflagration in general.

Again, mistletoe acts as a master-key as well as a lightning-conductor; for it


is said to open all locks.280 However, in the Tyrol it can only exert this power
“under certain circumstances,” which are not specified.281 But perhaps the
most precious of all the virtues of mistletoe is that it affords efficient
protection against sorcery and witchcraft.282 That, no doubt, is the reason
why in Austria a twig of mistletoe is laid on the threshold as a preventive of
nightmare;283 and it may be the reason why in the north of [pg 086]
England they say that if you wish your dairy to thrive you should give your
bunch of mistletoe to the first cow that calves after New Year's Day,284 for it
is well known that nothing is so fatal to milk and butter as witchcraft.
Similarly in Wales, for the sake of ensuring good luck to the dairy, people
used to give a branch of mistletoe to the first cow that gave birth to a calf
after the first hour of the New Year; and in rural districts of Wales, where
mistletoe abounded, there was always a profusion of it in the farmhouses.
When mistletoe was scarce, Welsh farmers used to say, “No mistletoe, no
luck”; but if there was a fine crop of mistletoe, they expected a fine crop of
corn.285 In Sweden mistletoe is diligently sought after on St. John's Eve, the
people “believing it to be, in a high degree, possessed of mystic qualities;
and that if a sprig of it be attached to the ceiling of the dwelling-house, the
horse's stall, or the cow's crib, the Troll will then be powerless to injure
either man or beast.”286

With regard to the time when the mistletoe should be gathered opinions
have varied. The Druids gathered it above all on the sixth day of the moon,
the ancient Italians apparently on the first day of the moon.287 In modern
times some have preferred the full moon of March and others the waning
moon of winter when the sun is in Sagittarius.288 But the favourite time
would seem to be Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day. We have seen that
both in France and Sweden special virtues are ascribed to mistletoe
gathered at Midsummer.289 The rule in Sweden is that “mistletoe must be cut
on the night of Midsummer Eve when sun and moon stand in the sign of
their might.”290 Again, in Wales it was believed that a sprig of mistletoe
gathered on St. John's Eve (Midsummer Eve), or at any time before the
berries appeared, would induce dreams of omen, both good [pg 087] and
bad, if it were placed under the pillow of the sleeper.291 Thus mistletoe is
one of the many plants whose magical or medicinal virtues are believed to
culminate with the culmination of the sun on the longest day of the year.
Hence it seems reasonable to conjecture that in the eyes of the Druids, also,
who revered the plant so highly, the sacred mistletoe may have acquired a
double portion of its mystic qualities at the solstice in June, and that
accordingly they may have regularly cut it with solemn ceremony on
Midsummer Eve.
Be that as it may, certain it is that the mistletoe, the instrument of Balder's
death, has been regularly gathered for the sake of its mystic qualities on
Midsummer Eve in Scandinavia, Balder's home.292 The plant is found
commonly growing on pear-trees, oaks, and other trees in thick damp
woods throughout the more temperate parts of Sweden.293 Thus one of the
two main incidents of Balder's myth is reproduced in the great midsummer
festival of Scandinavia. But the other main incident of the myth, the burning
of Balder's body on a pyre, has also its counterpart in the bonfires which still
blaze, or blazed till lately, in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden on Midsummer
Eve.294 It does not appear, indeed, that any effigy is burned in these
f
bonfires; but the burning of an effigy is a feature which might easily drop
out after its meaning was forgotten. And the name of Balder's balefires
(Balder's Bălar), by which these midsummer fires were formerly known in
Sweden,295 puts their connexion with Balder beyond the reach of doubt, and
f
makes it probable that in former times either a living representative or an
effigy of Balder was annually burned in them. Midsummer was the season
sacred to Balder, and the Swedish poet Tegner, in placing the burning of
Balder at midsummer,296 may very well have followed an [pg 088] old
tradition that the summer solstice was the time when the good god came to
his untimely end.

Thus it has been shewn that the leading incidents of the Balder myth have
their counterparts in those fire-festivals of our European peasantry which
undoubtedly date from a time long prior to the introduction of Christianity.
f The pretence of throwing the victim chosen by lot into the Beltane fire,297
and the similar treatment of the man, the future Green Wolf, at the
midsummer bonfire in Normandy,298 may naturally be interpreted as traces
of an older custom of actually burning human beings on these occasions;
and the green dress of the Green Wolf, coupled with the leafy envelope of
the young fellow who trod out the midsummer fire at Moosheim,299 seems to
hint that the persons who perished at these festivals did so in the character
of tree-spirits or deities of vegetation. From all this we may reasonably infer
that in the Balder myth on the one hand, and the fire-festivals and custom
of gathering mistletoe on the other hand, we have, as it were, the two
broken and dissevered halves of an original whole. In other words, we may
assume with some degree of probability that the myth of Balder's death was
not merely a myth, that is, a description of physical phenomena in imagery
borrowed from human life, but that it was at the same time the story which
people told to explain why they annually burned a human representative of
the god and cut the mistletoe with solemn ceremony. If I am right, the story
of Balder's tragic end formed, so to say, the text of the sacred drama which
was acted year by year as a magical rite to cause the sun to shine, trees to
grow, crops to thrive, and to guard man and beast from the baleful arts of
fairies and trolls, of witches and warlocks. The tale belonged, in short, to
that class of nature myths which are meant to be supplemented by ritual;
here, as so often, myth stood to magic in the relation of theory to practice.

But if the victims—the human Balders—who died by fire, whether in spring


or at midsummer, were put to death as living embodiments of tree-spirits or
deities of vegetation, it would seem that Balder himself must have been a
tree-spirit [pg 089] or deity of vegetation. It becomes desirable, therefore,
to determine, if we can, the particular kind of tree or trees, of which a
personal representative was burned at the fire-festivals. For we may be
quite sure that it was not as a representative of vegetation in general that
the victim suffered death. The idea of vegetation in general is too abstract
to be primitive. Most probably the victim at first represented a particular
kind of sacred tree. Now of all European trees none has such claims as the
oak to be considered as pre-eminently the sacred tree of the Aryans. Its
worship is attested for all the great branches of the Aryan stock in Europe.
We have seen that it was not only the sacred tree, but the principal object
of worship of both Celts and Lithuanians.300 The roving Celts appear to have
carried their worship of the oak with them even to Asia; for in the heart of
k
Asia Minor the Galatian senate met in a place which bore the pure Celtic
name of Drynemetum or “temple of the oak.”301 Among the Slavs the oak
seems to have been the sacred tree of the great god Perun.302 According to
Grimm, the oak ranked first among the holy trees of the Germans. It is
f
certainly known to have been adored by them in the age of heathendom,
and traces of its worship have survived in various parts of Germany almost
to the present day.303 Among the ancient Italians the oak was sacred above
all other trees.304 The image of Jupiter on the Capitol at Rome seems to
have been originally nothing but a natural oak-tree.305 At Dodona, perhaps
the oldest of all Greek sanctuaries, Zeus was worshipped as immanent in
the sacred oak, and the rustling of its leaves in the wind was [pg 090] his
voice.306 If, then, the great god of both Greeks and Romans was represented
in some of his oldest shrines under the form of an oak, and if the oak was
the principal object of worship of Celts, Germans, and Lithuanians, we may
certainly conclude that this tree was venerated by the Aryans in common
before the dispersion; and that their primitive home must have lain in a land
which was clothed with forests of oak.307

Now, considering the primitive character and remarkable similarity of the


fire-festivals observed by all the branches of the Aryan race in Europe, we
may infer that these festivals form part of the common stock of religious
observances which the various peoples carried with them in their
wanderings from their old home. But, if I am right, an essential feature of
those primitive fire-festivals was the burning of a man who represented the
tree-spirit. In view, then, of the place occupied by the oak in the religion of
the Aryans, the presumption is that the tree so represented at the fire-
festivals must originally have been the oak. So far as the Celts and
Lithuanians are concerned, this conclusion will perhaps hardly be contested.
But both for them and for the Germans it is confirmed by a remarkable
piece of religious conservatism. The most primitive method known to man of
producing fire is by rubbing two pieces of wood against each other till they
ignite; and we have seen that this method is still used in Europe for kindling
sacred fires such as the need-fire, and that most probably it was formerly
resorted to at all the fire-festivals under discussion. Now it is sometimes
required that the need-fire, or other sacred fire, should be made by the
friction of a particular kind of wood; and when the kind of wood is
prescribed, whether among Celts, Germans, or [pg 091] Slavs, that wood
appears to be generally the oak.308 Thus we have seen that amongst the
Slavs of Masuren the new fire for the village is made on Midsummer Day by
causing a wheel to revolve rapidly round an axle of oak till the axle takes
fire.309 When the perpetual fire which the ancient Slavs used to maintain
chanced to go out, it was rekindled by the friction of a piece of oak-wood,
which had been previously heated by being struck with a grey (not a red)
stone.310 In Germany and the Highlands of Scotland the need-fire was
regularly, and in Russia and among the South Slavs it was sometimes,
kindled by the friction of oak-wood;311 and both in Wales and the Highlands
of Scotland the Beltane fires were lighted by similar means.312 Now, if the
sacred fire was regularly kindled by the friction of oak-wood, we may infer
that originally the fire was also fed with the same material. In point of fact,
it appears that the perpetual fire of Vesta at Rome was fed with oak-
wood,313 and that oak-wood was the fuel consumed in the perpetual fire
which burned under the sacred oak at the great Lithuanian sanctuary of
Romove.314 Further, that oak-wood was formerly the fuel burned in the
midsummer fires may perhaps be inferred from the custom, said to be still
observed by peasants in many mountain districts of Germany, of making [pg
092] up the cottage fire on Midsummer Day with a heavy block of oak-
wood. The block is so arranged that it smoulders slowly and is not finally
reduced to charcoal till the expiry of a year. Then upon next Midsummer Day
the charred embers of the old log are removed to make room for the new
one, and are mixed with the seed-corn or scattered about the garden. This
is believed to guard the food cooked on the hearth from witchcraft, to
preserve the luck of the house, to promote the growth of the crops, and to
preserve them from blight and vermin.315 Thus the custom is almost exactly
parallel to that of the Yule-log, which in parts of Germany, France, England,
Servia, and other Slavonic lands was commonly of oak-wood.316 At the
Boeotian festival of the Daedala, the analogy of which to the spring and
midsummer festivals of modern Europe has been already pointed out, the
great feature was the felling and burning of an oak.317 The general
conclusion is, that at those periodic or occasional ceremonies the ancient
Aryans both kindled and fed the fire with the sacred oak-wood.318

But if at these solemn rites the fire was regularly made of oak-wood, it
follows that any man who was burned in it as a personification of the tree-
spirit could have represented no tree but the oak. The sacred oak was thus
burned in duplicate; the wood of the tree was consumed in the fire, and
along with it was consumed a living man as a personification [pg 093] of the
oak-spirit. The conclusion thus drawn for the European Aryans in general is
confirmed in its special application to the Scandinavians by the relation in
which amongst them the mistletoe appears to have stood to the burning of
the victim in the midsummer fire. We have seen that among Scandinavians
it has been customary to gather the mistletoe at midsummer. But so far as
appears on the face of this custom, there is nothing to connect it with the
midsummer fires in which human victims or effigies of them were burned.
Even if the fire, as seems probable, was originally always made with oak-
wood, why should it have been necessary to pull the mistletoe? The last link
between the midsummer customs of gathering the mistletoe and lighting
the bonfires is supplied by Balder's myth, which can hardly be disjoined
from the customs in question. The myth suggests that a vital connexion may
once have been believed to subsist between the mistletoe and the human
f representative of the oak who was burned in the fire. According to the
k myth, Balder could be killed by nothing in heaven or earth except the
mistletoe; and so long as the mistletoe remained on the oak, he was not
only immortal but invulnerable. Now, if we suppose that Balder was the oak,
the origin of the myth becomes intelligible. The mistletoe was viewed as the
seat of life of the oak, and so long as it was uninjured nothing could kill or
even wound the oak. The conception of the mistletoe as the seat of life of
the oak would naturally be suggested to primitive people by the observation
that while the oak is deciduous, the mistletoe which grows on it is
evergreen. In winter the sight of its fresh foliage among the bare branches
must have been hailed by the worshippers of the tree as a sign that the
divine life which had ceased to animate the branches yet survived in the
mistletoe, as the heart of a sleeper still beats when his body is motionless.
Hence when the god had to be killed—when the sacred tree had to be burnt
—it was necessary to begin by breaking off the mistletoe. For so long as the
mistletoe remained intact, the oak (so people might think) was invulnerable;
all the blows of their knives and axes would glance harmless from its
surface. But once tear from the oak its sacred heart—the mistletoe—and the
tree nodded [pg 094] to its fall. And when in later times the spirit of the oak
came to be represented by a living man, it was logically necessary to
suppose that, like the tree he personated, he could neither be killed nor
wounded so long as the mistletoe remained uninjured. The pulling of the
mistletoe was thus at once the signal and the cause of his death.

On this view the invulnerable Balder is neither more nor less than a
personification of a mistletoe-bearing oak. The interpretation is confirmed
by what seems to have been an ancient Italian belief, that the mistletoe can
be destroyed neither by fire nor water;319 for if the parasite is thus deemed
indestructible, it might easily be supposed to communicate its own
indestructibility to the tree on which it grows, so long as the two remain in
conjunction. Or to put the same idea in mythical form we might tell how the
kindly god of the oak had his life securely deposited in the imperishable
mistletoe which grew among the branches; how accordingly so long as the
mistletoe kept its place there, the deity himself remained invulnerable; and
how at last a cunning foe, let into the secret of the god's invulnerability, tore
the mistletoe from the oak, thereby killing the oak-god and afterwards
burning his body in a fire which could have made no impression on him so
long as the incombustible parasite retained its seat among the boughs.

But since the idea of a being whose life is thus, in a sense, outside himself,
must be strange to many readers, and has, indeed, not yet been recognized
in its full bearing on primitive superstition, it will be worth while to illustrate
it by examples drawn both from story and custom. The result will be to
shew that, in assuming this idea as the explanation of Balder's relation to
the mistletoe, I assume a principle which is deeply engraved on the mind of
primitive man.

[pg 095]
Chapter X. The Eternal Soul in Folk-Tales.

In a former part of this work we saw that, in the opinion of primitive people,
the soul may temporarily absent itself from the body without causing
death.320 Such temporary absences of the soul are often believed to involve
considerable risk, since the wandering soul is liable to a variety of mishaps
at the hands of enemies, and so forth. But there is another aspect to this
power of disengaging the soul from the body. If only the safety of the soul
can be ensured during its absence, there is no reason why the soul should
not continue absent for an indefinite time; indeed a man may, on a pure
calculation of personal safety, desire that his soul should never return to his
body. Unable to conceive of life abstractly as a “permanent possibility of
sensation” or a “continuous adjustment of internal arrangements to external
relations,” the savage thinks of it as a concrete material thing of a definite
bulk, capable of being seen and handled, kept in a box or jar, and liable to
be bruised, fractured, or smashed in pieces. It is not needful that the life, so
conceived, should be in the man; it may be absent from his body and still
continue to animate him by virtue of a sort of sympathy or action at a
distance. So long as this object which he calls his life or soul remains
unharmed, the man is well; if it is injured, he suffers; if it is destroyed, he
dies. Or, to put it otherwise, when a man is ill or dies, the fact is explained
by saying that the material object called his life or soul, whether it be in his
body or out of it, has either sustained injury or been destroyed. But there
may [pg 096] be circumstances in which, if the life or soul remains in the
man, it stands a greater chance of sustaining injury than if it were stowed
away in some safe and secret place. Accordingly, in such circumstances,
primitive man takes his soul out of his body and deposits it for security in
some snug spot, intending to replace it in his body when the danger is past.
Or if he should discover some place of absolute security, he may be content
to leave his soul there permanently. The advantage of this is that, so long as
the soul remains unharmed in the place where he has deposited it, the man
himself is immortal; nothing can kill his body, since his life is not in it.
Evidence of this primitive belief is furnished by a class of folk-tales of which
the Norse story of “The giant who had no heart in his body” is perhaps the
best-known example. Stories of this kind are widely diffused over the world,
and from their number and the variety of incident and of details in which the
leading idea is embodied, we may infer that the conception of an external
soul is one which has had a powerful hold on the minds of men at an early
stage of history. For folk-tales are a faithful reflection of the world as it
appeared to the primitive mind; and we may be sure that any idea which
commonly occurs in them, however absurd it may seem to us, must once
have been an ordinary article of belief. This assurance, so far as it concerns
the supposed power of disengaging the soul from the body for a longer or
shorter time, is amply corroborated by a comparison of the folk-tales in
question with the actual beliefs and practices of savages. To this we shall
return after some specimens of the tales have been given. The specimens
will be selected with a view of illustrating both the characteristic features
and the wide diffusion of this class of tales.321

[pg 097]

In the first place, the story of the external soul is told, in various forms, by
all Aryan peoples from Hindoostan to the Hebrides. A very common form of
f it is this: A warlock, giant, or other fairyland being is invulnerable and
immortal because he keeps his soul hidden far away in some secret place;
but a fair princess, whom he holds enthralled in his enchanted castle, wiles
his secret from him and reveals it to the hero, who seeks out the warlock's
soul, heart, life, or death (as it is variously called), and, by destroying it,
simultaneously kills the warlock. Thus a Hindoo story tells how a magician
called Punchkin held a queen captive for twelve years, and would fain marry
her, but she would not have him. At last the queen's son came to rescue her,
and the two plotted together to kill Punchkin. So the queen spoke the
magician fair, and pretended that she had at last made up her mind to
marry him. “And do tell me,” she said, “are you quite immortal? Can death
never touch you? And are you too great an enchanter ever to feel human
suffering?” “It is true,” he said, “that I am not as others. Far, far away,
hundreds of thousands [pg 098] of miles from this, there lies a desolate
country covered with thick jungle. In the midst of the jungle grows a circle
of palm trees, and in the centre of the circle stand six chattees full of water,
piled one above another: below the sixth chattee is a small cage, which
contains a little green parrot;—on the life of the parrot depends my life;—
and if the parrot is killed I must die. It is, however,” he added, “impossible
that the parrot should sustain any injury, both on account of the
inaccessibility of the country, and because, by my appointment, many
thousand genii surround the palm trees, and kill all who approach the
place.” But the queen's young son overcame all difficulties, and got
possession of the parrot. He brought it to the door of the magician's palace,
and began playing with it. Punchkin, the magician, saw him, and, coming
out, tried to persuade the boy to give him the parrot. “Give me my parrot!”
cried Punchkin. Then the boy took hold of the parrot and tore off one of his
wings; and as he did so the magician's right arm fell off. Punchkin then
stretched out his left arm, crying, “Give me my parrot!” The prince pulled off
the parrot's second wing, and the magician's left arm tumbled off. “Give me
my parrot!” cried he, and fell on his knees. The prince pulled off the parrot's
right leg, the magician's right leg fell off; the prince pulled off the parrot's
left leg, down fell the magician's left. Nothing remained of him except the
trunk and the head; but still he rolled his eyes, and cried, “Give me my
parrot!” “Take your parrot, then,” cried the boy; and with that he wrung the
bird's neck, and threw it at the magician; and, as he did so, Punchkin's head
twisted round, and, with a fearful groan, he died!322 In another Hindoo tale
an ogre is asked by his daughter, “Papa, where do you keep your soul?”
“Sixteen miles away from this place,” he said, “is a tree. Round the tree are
tigers, and bears, and scorpions, and snakes; on the top of the tree is a
very great fat snake; on his head is a little cage; in the cage is a bird; and
my soul is in that bird.” The end of the ogre is like that of the magician in
the previous tale. As the bird's [pg 099] wings and legs are torn off, the
ogre's arms and legs drop off; and when its neck is wrung he falls down
dead.323

In another Hindoo story a princess called Sodewa Bai was born with a
golden necklace about her neck, and the astrologer told her parents, “This is
no common child; the necklace of gold about her neck contains your
daughter's soul; let it therefore be guarded with the utmost care; for if it
were taken off, and worn by another person, she would die.” So her mother
caused it to be firmly fastened round the child's neck, and, as soon as the
child was old enough to understand, she told her its value, and warned her
never to let it be taken off. In course of time Sodewa Bai was married to a
prince who had another wife living. The first wife, jealous of her young rival,
persuaded a negress to steal from Sodewa Bai the golden necklace which
contained her soul. The negress did so, and, as soon as she put the
necklace round her own neck, Sodewa Bai died. All day long the negress
used to wear the necklace; but late at night, on going to bed, she would
take it off and put it by till morning; and whenever she took it off, Sodewa
Bai's soul returned to her and she lived. But when morning came, and the
negress put on the necklace, Sodewa Bai died again. At last the prince
discovered the treachery of his elder wife and restored the golden necklace
to Sodewa Bai.324 In another Hindoo story a holy mendicant tells a queen
that she will bear a son, adding, “As enemies will try to take away the life of
your son, I may as well tell you that the life of the boy will be bound up in
the life of a big boal fish which is in your tank, in front of the palace. In the
heart of the fish is a small box of wood, in the box is a necklace of gold,
that necklace is the life of your son.” The boy was born and received the
name of Dalim. His mother was the Suo or younger queen. But the Duo or
elder queen hated the child, and learning the secret of his life, she caused
the boal fish, with which his life was bound up, to be caught. Dalim was
playing near the tank at the [pg 100] time, but “the moment the boal fish
was caught in the net, that moment Dalim felt unwell; and when the fish
was brought up to land, Dalim fell down on the ground, and made as if he
was about to breathe his last. He was immediately taken into his mother's
room, and the king was astonished on hearing of the sudden illness of his
son and heir. The fish was by the order of the physician taken into the room
of the Duo queen, and as it lay on the floor striking its fins on the ground,
Dalim in his mother's room was given up for lost. When the fish was cut
open, a casket was found in it; and in the casket lay a necklace of gold. The
moment the necklace was worn by the queen, that very moment Dalim died
in his mother's room.” The queen used to put off the necklace every night,
and whenever she did so, the boy came to life again. But every morning
when the queen put on the necklace, he died again.325

In a Cashmeer story a lad visits an old ogress, pretending to be her


grandson, the son of her daughter who had married a king. So the old
ogress took him into her confidence and shewed him seven cocks, a
f spinning wheel, a pigeon, and a starling. “These seven cocks,” said she,
“contain the lives of your seven uncles, who are away for a few days. Only
as long as the cocks live can your uncles hope to live; no power can hurt
them as long as the seven cocks are safe and sound. The spinning-wheel
contains my life; if it is broken, I too shall be broken, and must die; but
otherwise I shall live on for ever. The pigeon contains your grandfather's life,
and the starling your mother's; as long as these live, nothing can harm your
grandfather or your mother.” So the lad killed the seven cocks and the
pigeon and the starling, and smashed the spinning-wheel; and at the
moment he did so the ogres and ogresses perished.326 In another story from
Cashmeer an ogre cannot die unless a particular pillar in the verandah of his
palace be broken. Learning the secret, a prince struck the pillar again and
again till it was broken in pieces. And it was as if each [pg 101] stroke had
fallen on the ogre, for he howled lamentably and shook like an aspen every
f time the prince hit the pillar, until at last, when the pillar fell down, the ogre
also fell down and gave up the ghost.327 In another Cashmeer tale an ogre is
represented as laughing very heartily at the idea that he might possibly die.
He said that “he should never die. No power could oppose him; no years
could age him; he should remain ever strong and ever young, for the thing
wherein his life dwelt was most difficult to obtain.” It was in a queen bee,
which was in a honeycomb on a tree. But the bees in the honeycomb were
many and fierce, and it was only at the greatest risk that any one could
catch the queen. However, the hero achieved the enterprise and crushed the
queen bee; and immediately the ogre fell stone dead to the ground, so that
the whole land trembled with the shock.328 In some Bengalee tales the life
of a whole tribe of ogres is described as concentrated in two bees. The
secret was thus revealed by an old ogress to a captive princess who
pretended to fear lest the ogress should die. “Know, foolish girl,” said the
ogress, “that we ogres never die. We are not naturally immortal, but our life
depends on a secret which no human being can unravel. Let me tell you
what it is, that you may be comforted. You know yonder tank; there is in the
middle of it a crystal pillar, on the top of which in deep waters are two bees.
If any human being can dive into the waters, and bring up to land the two
bees from the pillar in one breath, and destroy them so that not a drop of
their blood falls to the ground, then we ogres shall certainly die; but if a
single drop of blood falls to the ground, then from it will start up a thousand
ogres. But what human being will find out this secret, or, finding it, will be
able to achieve the feat? You need not, therefore, darling, be sad; I am
practically immortal.” As usual, the princess reveals the secret to the hero,
who kills the bees, and that same moment all the ogres drop down dead,
each on the spot where he happened to be standing.329 In another Bengalee
story it is [pg 102] said that all the ogres dwell in Ceylon, and that all their
lives are in a single lemon. A boy cuts the lemon in pieces, and all the ogres
die.330

In a Siamese or Cambodian story, probably derived from India, we are told


that Thossakan or Ravana, the King of Ceylon, was able by magic art to take
his soul out of his body and leave it in a box at home, while he went to the
wars. Thus he was invulnerable in battle. When he was about to give battle
to Rama, he deposited his soul with a hermit called Fire-eye, who was to
keep it safe for him. So in the fight Rama was astounded to see that his
arrows struck the king without wounding him. But one of Rama's allies,
knowing the secret of the king's invulnerability, transformed himself by
magic into the likeness of the king, and going to the hermit asked back his
soul. On receiving it he soared up into the air and flew to Rama, brandishing
the box and squeezing it so hard that all the breath left the King of Ceylon's
body, and he died.331 In a Bengalee story a prince going into a far country
f
planted with his own hands a tree in the courtyard of his father's palace,
and said to his parents, “This tree is my life. When you see the tree green
and fresh, then know that it is well with me; when you see the tree fade in
some parts, then know that I am in an ill case; and when you see the whole
tree fade, then know that I am dead and gone.”332 In another Indian tale a
prince, setting forth on his travels, left behind him a barley plant, with
instructions that it should be carefully tended and watched; for if it
flourished, he would be alive and well, but if it drooped, then some
mischance was about to happen to him. And so it fell out. For the prince
was beheaded, and as his head rolled off, the barley plant snapped in two
and the ear of barley fell to the ground.333 In the legend of [pg 103] the
origin of Gilgit there figures a fairy king whose soul is in the snows and who
can only perish by fire.334

In Greek tales, ancient and modern, the idea of an external soul is not
uncommon. When Meleager was seven days old, the Fates appeared to his
mother and told her that Meleager would die when the brand which was
blazing on the hearth had burnt down. So his mother snatched the brand
from the fire and kept it in a box. But in after-years, being enraged at her
son for slaying her brothers, she burnt the brand in the fire and Meleager
expired in agonies, as if flames were preying on his vitals.335 Again, Nisus
King of Megara had a purple or golden hair on the middle of his head, and it
was fated that whenever the hair was pulled out the king should die. When
Megara was besieged by the Cretans, the king's daughter Scylla fell in love
with Minos, their king, and pulled out the fatal hair from her father's head.
So he died.336 Similarly Poseidon made Pterelaus immortal by giving him a
golden hair on his head. But when Taphos, the home of Pterelaus, was
besieged by Amphitryo, the daughter of Pterelaus fell in love with Amphitryo
and killed her father by plucking out the golden hair with which his life was
bound up.337 In a modern Greek folk-tale a man's strength lies in three
golden hairs on his head. When his mother pulls them out, he grows weak
and timid and is slain by his enemies.338 Another Greek story, in which we
may perhaps detect a reminiscence of Nisus and [pg 104] Scylla, relates
how a certain king, who was the strongest man of his time, had three long
hairs on his breast. But when he went to war with another king, and his
own treacherous wife had cut off the three hairs, he became the weakest of
men.339 In another modern Greek story the life of an enchanter is bound up
with three doves which are in the belly of a wild boar. When the first dove is
killed, the magician grows sick; when the second is killed, he grows very
sick; and when the third is killed, he dies.340 In another Greek story of the
same sort an ogre's strength is in three singing birds which are in a wild
boar. The hero kills two of the birds, and then coming to the ogre's house
finds him lying on the ground in great pain. He shews the third bird to the
ogre, who begs that the hero will either let it fly away or give it to him to
eat. But the hero wrings the bird's neck, and the ogre dies on the spot.341 In
a variant of the latter story the monster's strength is in two doves, and
when the hero kills one of them, the monster cries out, “Ah, woe is me! Half
my life is gone. Something must have happened to one of the doves.” When
the second dove is killed, he dies.342 In another Greek story the incidents of
the three golden hairs and three doves are artificially combined. A monster
has on his head three golden hairs which open the door of a chamber in
which are three doves: when the first dove is killed, the monster grows sick;
when the second is killed, he grows worse; and when the third is killed, he
dies.343 In another Greek tale an old man's strength is in a [pg 105] ten-
headed serpent. When the serpent's heads are being cut off, he feels
unwell; and when the last head is struck off, he expires.344 In another Greek
story a dervish tells a queen that she will have three sons, that at the birth
of each she must plant a pumpkin in the garden, and that in the fruit borne
by the pumpkins will reside the strength of the children. In due time the
infants are born and the pumpkins planted. As the children grow up, the
pumpkins grow with them. One morning the eldest son feels sick, and on
going into the garden they find that the largest pumpkin is gone. Next night
the second son keeps watch in a summer-house in the garden. At midnight
a negro appears and cuts the second pumpkin. At once the boy's strength
goes out of him, and he is unable to pursue the negro. The youngest son,
however, succeeds in slaying the negro and recovering the lost pumpkins.345
Ancient Italian legend furnishes a close parallel to the Greek story of
Meleager. Silvia, the young wife of Septimius Marcellus, had a child by the
god Mars. The god gave her a spear, with which he said that the fate of the
child would be bound up. When the boy grew up he quarrelled with his
maternal uncles and slew them. So in revenge his mother burned the spear
on which his life depended.346 In one of the stories of the Pentamerone a
certain queen has a twin brother, a dragon. The astrologers declared at her
birth that she would live just as long as the dragon and no longer, the death
of the one involving the death of the other. If the dragon were killed, the
only way to restore the queen to life would be to smear her temples, breast,
pulses, and nostrils with the blood of the dragon.347 In a modern Roman
version of “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp,” the magician tells the
princess, whom he holds captive in a floating rock in mid-ocean, that he will
never die. The princess reports this to the prince her husband, who has
come to rescue her. The prince replies, “It is impossible [pg 106] but that
there should be some one thing or other that is fatal to him; ask him what
that one fatal thing is.” So the princess asked the magician, and he told her
that in the wood was a hydra with seven heads; in the middle head of the
hydra was a leveret, in the head of the leveret was a bird, in the bird's head
was a precious stone, and if this stone were put under his pillow he would
die. The prince procured the stone, and the princess laid it under the
magician's pillow. No sooner did the enchanter lay his head on the pillow
than he gave three terrible yells, turned himself round and round three
times, and died.348

Another Italian tale sets forth how a great cloud, which was really a fairy,
used to receive a young girl as tribute every year from a certain city; and
the inhabitants had to give the girls up, for if they did not, the cloud would
throw things at them and kill them all. One year it fell to the lot of the king's
daughter to be handed over to the cloud, and they took her in procession,
to the roll of muffled drums, and attended by her weeping father and
mother, to the top of a mountain, and left her sitting in a chair there all
alone. Then the fairy cloud came down on the top of the mountain, set the
princess in her lap, and began to suck her blood out of her little finger; for it
was on the blood of girls that this wicked fairy lived. When the poor princess
was faint with the loss of blood and lay like a log, the cloud carried her away
up to her fairy palace in the sky. But a brave youth had seen all that
happened from behind a bush, and no sooner did the fairy spirit away the
princess to her palace than he turned himself into an eagle and flew after
them. He lighted on a tree just outside the palace, and looking in at the
window he beheld a room full of young girls all in bed; for these were the
victims of former years whom the fairy cloud had half killed by sucking their
blood; yet they called her mamma. When the fairy went away and left the
girls, the brave young man had food drawn up for them by ropes, and he
told them to ask the fairy how she might be killed and what was to become
of them when she died. It was a delicate question, but the fairy answered it,
saying, “I [pg 107] shall never die.” However, when the girls pressed her,
she took them out on a terrace and said, “Do you see that mountain far off
there? On that mountain is a tigress with seven heads. If you wish me to
die, a lion must fight that tigress and tear off all seven of her heads. In her
body is an egg, and if any one hits me with it in the middle of my forehead,
I shall die; but if that egg falls into my hands, the tigress will come to life
again, resume her seven heads, and I shall live.” When the young girls
heard this they pretended to be glad and said, “Good! certainly our mamma
can never die,” but naturally they were discouraged. However, when she
went away again, they told it all to the young man, and he bade them have
no fear. Away he went to the mountain, turned himself into a lion, and
fought the tigress. Meantime the fairy came home, saying, “Alas! I feel ill!”
For six days the fight went on, the young man tearing off one of the
tigress's heads each day, and each day the strength of the fairy kept ebbing
away. Then after allowing himself two days' rest the hero tore off the
seventh head and secured the egg, but not till it had rolled into the sea and
been brought back to him by a friendly dog-fish. When he returned to the
fairy with the egg in his hand, she begged and prayed him to give it her, but
he made her first restore the young girls to health and send them away in
handsome carriages. When she had done so, he struck her on the forehead
with the egg, and she fell down dead.349 Similarly in a story from the
western Riviera a sorcerer called Body-without-Soul can only be killed by
means of an egg which is in an eagle, which is in a dog, which is in a lion;
and the egg must be broken on the sorcerer's forehead. The hero, who
achieves the adventure, has received the power of changing himself into a
lion, a dog, an eagle, and an ant from four creatures of these sorts among
whom he had fairly divided the carcase of a dead ass.350

[pg 108]

Stories of the same sort are current among Slavonic peoples. In some of
them, as in the biblical story of Samson and Delilah, the warlock is
questioned by a treacherous woman as to the place where his strength
resides or his life or death is stowed away; and his suspicions being roused
by her curiosity, he at first puts her off with false answers, but is at last
beguiled into telling her the truth, thereby incurring his doom through her
treachery. Thus a Russian story tells how a certain warlock called Kashtshei
or Koshchei the Deathless carried off a princess and kept her prisoner in his
golden castle. However, a prince made up to her one day as she was
walking alone and disconsolate in the castle garden, and cheered by the
prospect of escaping with him she went to the warlock and coaxed him with
f false and flattering words, saying, “My dearest friend, tell me, I pray you,
will you never die?” “Certainly not,” says he. “Well,” says she, “and where is
your death? is it in your dwelling?” “To be sure it is,” says he, “it is in the
broom under the threshold.” Thereupon the princess seized the broom and
threw it on the fire, but although the broom burned, the deathless Koshchei
remained alive; indeed not so much as a hair of him was singed. Balked in
her first attempt, the artful hussy pouted and said, “You do not love me
true, for you have not told me where your death is; yet I am not angry, but
love you with all my heart.” With these fawning words she besought the
warlock to tell her truly where his death was. So he laughed and said, “Why
do you wish to know? Well then, out of love I will tell you where it lies. In a
certain field there stand three green oaks, and under the roots of the largest
oak is a worm, and if ever this worm is found and crushed, that instant I
shall die.” When the princess heard these words, she went straight to her
lover and told him all; and he searched till he found the oaks and dug up
the worm and crushed it. Then he hurried to the warlock's castle, but only
to learn from the princess that the warlock [pg 109] was still alive. Then she
fell to wheedling and coaxing Koshchei once more, and this time, overcome
by her wiles, he opened his heart to her and told her the truth. “My death,”
said he, “is far from here and hard to find, on the wide ocean. In that sea is
an island, and on the island there grows a green oak, and beneath the oak
is an iron chest, and in the chest is a small basket, and in the basket is a
hare, and in the hare is a duck, and in the duck is an egg; and he who finds
the egg and breaks it, kills me at the same time.” The prince naturally
procured the fateful egg and with it in his hands he confronted the
deathless warlock. The monster would have killed him, but the prince began
to squeeze the egg. At that the warlock shrieked with pain, and turning to
the false princess, who stood by smirking and smiling, “Was it not out of
love for you,” said he, “that I told you where my death was? And is this the
return you make to me?” With that he grabbed at his sword, which hung
from a peg on the wall; but before he could reach it, the prince had crushed
the egg, and sure enough the deathless warlock found his death at the
same moment.351

In another version of the same story, when the cunning warlock deceives
the traitress by telling her that his death is in the broom, she gilds the
broom, and at supper the warlock sees it shining under the threshold and
asks her sharply, “What's that?” “Oh,” says she, “you see how I honour you.”
“Simpleton!” says he, “I was joking. My death is out there fastened to the
f oak fence.” So next day when the warlock was out, the prince came and
gilded the whole fence; and in the evening when the warlock was at supper
he looked out of the window and saw the fence glittering like gold. “And
pray what may that be?” said he to the princess. “You see,” said she, “how I
respect you. If you are dear to me, dear too is your death. That is why I
have gilded the fence in which your death resides.” The speech pleased the
warlock, and in the fulness of his heart he revealed to her the fatal secret of
the egg. When the prince, with the help of some friendly animals, obtained
possession of the egg, he put it in his bosom and repaired to [pg 110] the
warlock's house. The warlock himself was sitting at the window in a very
gloomy frame of mind; and when the prince appeared and shewed him the
egg, the light grew dim in the warlock's eyes and he became all of a sudden
very meek and mild. But when the prince began to play with the egg and to
throw it from one hand to the other, the deathless Koshchei staggered from
one corner of the room to the other, and when the prince broke the egg,
Koshchei the Deathless fell down and died.352 “In one of the descriptions of
Koshchei's death, he is said to be killed by a blow on the forehead inflicted
by the mysterious egg—that last link in the magic chain by which his life is
darkly bound. In another version of the same story, but told of a snake, the
fatal blow is struck by a small stone found in the yolk of an egg, which is
inside a duck, which is inside a hare, which is inside a stone, which is on an
island.”353 In another Russian story the death of an enchantress is in a blue
rose-tree in a blue forest. Prince Ivan uproots the rose-tree, whereupon the
enchantress straightway sickens. He brings the rose-tree to her house and
finds her at the point of death. Then he throws it into the cellar, crying,
“Behold her death!” and at once the whole building shakes, “and becomes
an island, on which are people who had been sitting in Hell, and who offer
up thanks to Prince Ivan.”354 In another Russian story a prince is grievously
tormented by a witch who has got hold of his heart, and keeps it seething in
a magic cauldron.355
In a Bohemian tale a warlock's strength lies in an egg which is in a duck,
which is in a stag, which is under a tree. A seer finds the egg and sucks it.
Then the warlock grows as weak as a child, “for all his strength had passed
into the seer.”356 A Servian story relates how a certain warlock called True
Steel carried off a prince's wife and kept her shut up in his cave. But the
prince contrived to get speech of her and told her that she must persuade
True Steel to reveal to [pg 111] her where his strength lay. So when True
Steel came home, the prince's wife said to him, “Tell me, now, where is your
great strength?” He answered, “My wife, my strength is in my sword.” Then
she began to pray and turned to his sword. When True Steel saw that, he
laughed and said, “O foolish woman! my strength is not in my sword, but in
my bow and arrows.” Then she turned towards the bow and arrows and
prayed. But True Steel said, “I see, my wife, you have a clever teacher who
has taught you to find out where my strength lies. I could almost say that
your husband is living, and it is he who teaches you.” But she assured him
that nobody had taught her. When she found he had deceived her again,
she waited for some days and then asked him again about the secret of his
strength. He answered, “Since you think so much of my strength, I will tell
you truly where it is. Far away from here there is a very high mountain; in
the mountain there is a fox; in the fox there is a heart; in the heart there is
a bird, and in this bird is my strength. It is no easy task, however, to catch
the fox, for she can transform herself into a multitude of creatures.” So next
day, when True Steel went forth from the cave, the prince came and learned
from his wife the true secret of the warlock's strength. So away he hied to
the mountain, and there, though the fox, or rather the vixen, turned herself
into various shapes, he managed with the help of certain friendly eagles,
falcons, and dragons, to catch and kill her. Then he took out the fox's heart,
and out of the heart he took the bird and burned it in a great fire. At that
very moment True Steel fell down dead.357

In another Servian story we read how a dragon resided in a water-mill and


ate up two king's sons, one after the other. The third son went out to seek
his brothers, and coming to the water-mill he found nobody in it but an old
f woman. She revealed to him the dreadful character of the being that kept
the mill, and how he had devoured the prince's two elder brothers, and she
f implored him to go away home before the same fate should overtake him.
But he was both [pg 112] brave and cunning, and he said to her, “Listen
well to what I am going to say to you. Ask the dragon whither he goes and
where his strength is; then kiss all that place where he tells you his strength
is, as if from love, till you find it out, and afterwards tell me when I come.”
So when the dragon came in, the old woman began to question him,
“Where in God's name have you been? Whither do you go so far? You will
never tell me whither you go.” The dragon replied, “Well, my dear old
woman, I do go far.” Then the old woman coaxed him, saying, “And why do
you go so far? Tell me where your strength is. If I knew where your strength
is, I don't know what I should do for love; I would kiss all that place.”
Thereupon the dragon smiled and said to her, “Yonder is my strength, in
that fireplace.” Then the old woman began to fondle and kiss the fireplace;
and the dragon on seeing it burst into a laugh. “Silly old woman,” he said,
“my strength is not there. It is in the tree-fungus in front of the house.”
Then the old woman began to fondle and kiss the tree; but the dragon
laughed again and said to her, “Away, old woman! my strength is not there.”
“Then where is it?” asked the old woman. “My strength,” said he, “is a long
way off, and you cannot go thither. Far in another kingdom under the king's
city is a lake; in the lake is a dragon; in the dragon is a boar; in the boar is
a pigeon, and in the pigeon is my strength.” The murder was now out; so
next morning when the dragon went away from the mill to attend to his
usual business of eating people up, the prince came to the old woman and
she let him into the secret of the dragon's strength. The prince accordingly
set off to find the lake in the far country and the other dragon that lived in
it. He found them both at last; the lake was a still and lonely water
surrounded by green meadows, where flocks of sheep nibbled the sweet
lush grass. The hero tucked up his hose and his sleeves, and wading out
into the lake called aloud on the dragon to come forth and fight. Soon the
monster emerged from the water, slimy and dripping, his scaly back
glistening in the morning sun. The two grappled and wrestled from morning
to afternoon of a long summer day. What with the heat of the weather and
the violence of his exertions the dragon [pg 113] was quite exhausted, and
said, “Let me go, prince, that I may moisten my parched head in the lake
and toss you to the sky.” But the prince sternly refused; so the dragon
relaxed his grip and sank under the water, which bubbled and gurgled over
the place where he plunged into the depths. When he had disappeared and
the ripples had subsided on the surface, you would never have suspected
that under that calm water, reflecting the green banks, the white, straying
sheep, the blue sky, and the fleecy gold-flecked clouds of a summer
evening, there lurked so ferocious and dangerous a monster. Next day the
combat was renewed with the very same result. But on the third day the
hero, fortified by a kiss from the fair daughter of the king of the land, tossed
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