Myth and folktales

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dec), meaning “ten”; as a feminine noun it corresponds to the Slovene word desetina 
(tithe). The explanation of the daechma, daechmadh as wandering around the world, 
in fact being in exile, seems to be the final phase in the development of this noun’s 
meaning. Dušan Ludvik strongly emphasizes the moment of offering the tithe, 
stressing the fact that a long time ago the tithe consisted of humans. This is further 
corroborated by the fact that Leinster, a county in Ireland, gave one third of its chil-
dren to St. Patrick; there is even a hill named Daechmadhe, which is explained by 
Ludvik as “the tithe hill”. He interprets the connection between the Irish and the 
Slovene traditions about the tithe as the influence of Irish missionaries in the territory 
of present-day Slovenia. In Irish folk tradition, the human tithe was linked with St. 
Patrick and the Leinster County. This county was the home of Columban, an Irish 
missionary who towards the end of the 6
th
 century preached the Christian doctrine 
in Burgundy, and after 610 among the Alemanni living around Lake Constance in 
present-day Germany. Gal (Gallus), one of his disciples, who stayed on among the 
Alemanns after Columban’s departure, was likewise Irish.
Erich Seemann drew attention to ballads from the Kočevje region which sang 
about the tenth daughter. He tried to place these songs within a given historic and 
cultural context, concluding that the phenomenon of the tenth child could have a 
counterpart in European tradition about the seventh child of the same sex who, 
according to folk beliefs, was a demonic creature, an incubus, a werewolf, a soothsayer 
or a healer (Seeman 1960).
Comparing folk songs about the tenth daughter (Deseta hči, SLP I: 298) and St. 
Matija (Matthew) (Rojenice in svetnik, SLP I: 288, 289), both of whom go into the world 
because of the destiny which had been foretold, Vlado Nartnik (1990/1991) empha-
sizes the connection between the tenth daughter and the epic tradition on hunters. 
He concludes that St. Matthew’s destiny was predicted by the three Fates which were 
successors of the tenth daughter and the White Lady. Nartnik also compares a ballad 
about the tenth brother, based on a folktale from Dobrepolje in Dolenjsko, written 
by Anton Hribar,
53
 with a folk song about St. Bartholomew. Both heroes roam the 
world and at the end punish inhospitality by fire (Nartnik 1996). 
Irish researchers, who saw the etymological development of the name of the deity 
to which the tenth brother was fated in the word fate, had a similar explanation. As 
early as 1890 Jeremiah Curtin writes: Diachbha, “divinity”, or the working of a power 
outside of us in shaping the careers of men, fate.
54
 
Later, they emphasized the etymological origin of the word in the expression of 
“tithe”. William Larminie, for instance, writes in his note to the story The King who 
had Twelve Sons the following:
53 
Anton Hribar, Slovenske balade in romance, Celovec 1912: 92.
54 
J. Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, Boston 1890: 243.

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92
Djachwi –, I am not sure that this word is anything more than daechmhadh, 
a tithe, which has been turned into a person, the meaning being forgotten. 
After the briefly told Andromeda episode, the story takes a quite novel turn. 
Its resemblance in structure as is the case with some of the other stories, to 
many a modern novel is very apparent (Larminie 1893: 196–201).
Sean O’ Súilleábhain (1942) summarizes the contents of these stories: 
A king, seeing a duck drive away the twelfth of her young ones, banishes his 
twelfth son for the “deachú”. The youth sets off in quest of a girl about whom 
he has heard or dreamed, is aided by his three uncles whom he visits in turn, 
and finally reaches her dwelling only to find that she has mysteriously disap-
peared. After many adventures he finally marries her, having proved superior 
in a contest (Mac Rían Daechaoin). 
With regard to this name Angela Bourke of University College in Dublin made 
the following comment: “Storytellers are often unable to explain the meaning of 
Deachaoin, other than to say it is something to which sacrifice must be made. It 
seems, however, to be a form of the word ‘daechú’, tithe.”
55
According to Irish sources, the tenth, the twelfth or the thirteenth child of the 
same sex belonged to the deity named Deachaoin, perhaps the deity of birth and 
death, the goddess of fate. This corresponds to the fact that in Gorenjska  the tenth 
brother was called rojenjak and the tenth daughter rojenica (the Fate) and stresses 
this connection as well.
It is widespread in the European tradition that the seventh child of the same sex 
could heal certain sicknesses especially during certain periods, for instance during 
Ember Days, on Good Friday and on Thursdays. In France, such miraculous healers 
were called marcou (after St. Marcolf who was able to cure scrofula), and were said to 
wear a sign of the lily on one part of their bodies. In Sweden such a person was called 
tordagsdoktor, escpecially if born on a Thursday. Danes believed that the seventh 
brother, if born on July 7 at seven o’clock, was wiser than Solomon.
56
The question which arises in connection with the above is this: Did the tradi-
tion about the tenth child succeed the myth? And does it represent an allegorically 
described offering of a child who is destined to be ordained – a human sacrifice, a 
refugee which a society has banished into exile, which usually denoted Death?
According to the material mentioned above, people believed that the ninth, 
tenth, twelfth, thirteenth, but also the seventh child of the same sex was a deity, 
55 
In a letter dated April 9, 1999. I would like to thank Dr. A. Bourke for the material in Irish tradition.
56 
See also: Seemann 1960; Leopold Kretzenbacher 1941: 99-101.

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