ABSTRACT
The migratory legend may migrate over wide expanses of land. One of the best examples of a migratory legend, one of the few, it may be added, of which folklorists definitely know the origin and history, is the tale of the Victim’s Last Words. The story is a typical migratory legend; folklorists have not only very ancient Indian variants but even the Near Eastern links which explain its history. In a good number of the migratory legends considered thus far one can distinguish the class of people active in the work of propagation. If a distinction has been drawn between local and migratory legend, it must not be supposed that for this reason the latter is incapable of becoming localized, attached as it were to definite places and even to definite personages. The attachment of a migratory legend to a definite name is often the result of mere word play.
