The Three Suitors

スリランカ(Sri Lanka) ／本文の言語英語／原話の言語 si ／出典の刊年 1910 ／ 361 語

出典と権利

出典の本	Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume 1
提供	Project Gutenberg ／ https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56614
採集・編者	Henry Parker
翻訳	Henry Parker
刊年の根拠	扉に『LONDON LUZAC & CO … 1910』
権利状態	Public Domain (United States)(US)／確認日 2026-09-14
地図上の位置	緯度 7.9 / 経度 80.7(精度 `culture_region`)。話の舞台でも採集地でもなく、この本が扱う文化圏のおおよその中心である。

本文

Project Gutenberg の本文から、PG のヘッダ・フッタ・商標文言を除いたもの。段落は原文のままである。

In a certain country dwelt a man and a woman, it is said. These two had a son and a daughter.

When a man came one day and asked for the daughter [in marriage] at the hand of the father, the father said, "It is good. Come on Wednesday." The man having said "Ha," went away.

Afterwards another man came and asked for the girl at the hand of the mother. The mother said, "It is good. Come on Wednesday." The man having said "Ha," went away.

After that, yet a man came and asked for her at the hand of the girl's younger brother. The younger brother said, "It is good. Come on Wednesday." The man having said "Ha," went away.

Well then, the company of three persons having come on Wednesday and eaten rice and betel, caused the girl to come out [of the house], inviting her to go. Then the three persons endeavoured to call her to go in three [different] directions. Because the girl was unable to settle the dispute she ate a kind of poison, and lying down died there and then. Afterwards they buried her.

After that, the man who came first went to a sooth-sayer. The man who came next watched alone at the place where they buried her. The man who came last having said, "It doesn't matter to me," went to his village.

The man who went to ask for sooth having inquired about it, came to the place where they buried the girl. Having come and made incantations in the manner prescribed by the sooth-sayer, he made her arise, and got her [back to life]. After she had recovered she went to the village. The man also went there.

Now then, after the three men had come together there, the man who brought her back to life asked, "To whom do you belong?"

The girl said, "The man who watched alone at the grave is my mother. The man who went to inquire of the sooth-sayer is my father. The man who went to his village is my man."

Having said this, the girl went with the man to his village.

本に付いていた註

Kinnari. North-western Province.



This is a story of Vikrama and the Vampire, one of the puzzling
questions set to the King being a decision as to whom the girl
belonged.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 237, the girl threw
herself down from the house-top. One of the suitors sprang on the
funeral pile, and was burnt with her. The second watched over the
grave. The third became a Fakir, and learnt how to revive the dead. He
revived both the girl and the burnt suitor. The merchant whose opinion
was required decided that the two who were burnt together were brother
and sister, the Fakir who gave them renewed life was their father,
and the man who merely sat by the grave must become her husband.

In the Jataka story No. 150 (vol. i, p. 321), there is an account of
a person who had learnt the spell for reviving the dead. In this case
it was a tiger, who killed him.

In Tota Kahani (Small), p. 139, out of three suitors for the hand of
a girl who was carried off by a fairy, one learnt the manner of her
disappearance and the place where she was, the second made a magical
flying wooden horse, on which the third rode to rescue her, killed
the fairy, and brought her back. The Parrot's decision was that the
last one had the best right to her, as he had risked his life for her.

緊張のうつりかわり

本文を 12 等分し、張りつめた語(死・血・恐れ・剣…)から和らいだ語(祝い・眠り・婚礼…)を引いて、話の中で 0〜1 に均したもの。自前の辞書である。翻訳を経た本文を測っているので、これは原話ではなくこの訳の性質である。

縦は緊張度(この話の中での相対値。話をまたいで比べられる量ではない)、横は本文の進行。上端の小さな字は、その区画で不釣り合いに多く出た出来事語である。

出来事の並び(数え上げ)

区画ごとに、コーパス全体の出現率に対して不釣り合いに多く出た引き金語を採っている。生の回数で採ると、`father`/`mother` を持つ Family がほぼ全区画で勝つ(実測)。

Departure→Departure→Family→Departure→Death→Family→Family

似ている民話

多言語 Embedding のコサイン近傍。類似度は歴史的な起源や伝播を証明する値ではない。同じ本の話は文体を共有するぶん必ず似るので、そう分かるよう印を付けてある。

#	題名	文化圏	類似度	出典
1	The Enchanted Bird, Music, and Stream	ヒマラヤ山麓	0.931	別の本
2	The Boy with the Moon on his Forehead	ベンガル	0.930	別の本
3	Nagul-munna	スリランカ	0.928	同じ本
4	The White Turtle	スリランカ	0.927	同じ本
5	The Glass Princess	スリランカ	0.925	同じ本
6	The Prince who Did Not Go to School	スリランカ	0.925	同じ本
7	The Three Sillies	イングランド	0.924	別の本
8	The Nikini Story [100]	スリランカ	0.924	同じ本
9	Strike but Hear	ベンガル	0.923	別の本
10	The Turtle Dove	スリランカ	0.923	同じ本
11	The Story of Prince Sobur	ベンガル	0.922	別の本
12	The Millet Trader	スリランカ	0.921	同じ本

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