"Wind and Rain" and "Two Sisters": Similar Story Lines in Different Cultures

These are the lyrics to a traditional song I encountered within my own culture in Appalachia. The song is called "Wind and Rain".

There were two sisters of county Clair,
Oh, the wind and rain
One was dark and the other was fair,
Oh, the dreadful wind and rain
And they both had a love of the miller's son,
Oh, the wind and rain
But he was fond of the fairer one,
Oh, the dreadful wind and rain
So she pushed her into the river to drown
oh, the wind and rain
and watched her as she floated down
oh, the dreadful wind and rain
and she floated till she came to the millers pond
oh, the wind and the rain
dead on the water like a golden swan
oh, the dreadful wind and rain
as she came to rest on the riverside
oh, the wind and the rain
and her bones were washed by the rolling tide
oh, the dreadful wind and rain
and along the road came a fiddler fair
oh, the wind and rain
and found her bones just a lying there, cried
oh, the dreadful wind and rain
so he made a fiddle peg of her long finger bone
oh, the wind and the rain
he a made a fiddle peg of her long finger bone, crying
oh, the dreadful wind and rain
and he strung his fiddle bow with her long yeller hair
oh, the wind and the rain
he strung his fiddle bow with her long yeller hair, cried
oh, the dreadful wind and rain
and he made a fiddle fiddle of her breast bone
oh, the wind and rain
he made a fiddle fiddle of her breast bone, cried
oh, the dreadful wind and rain
but the only tune that the fiddle could play was
oh, the wind and rain
the only tune that the fiddle would play was
oh, the dreadful wind and rain

The story represented here is more or less common in traditional music. It contains the elements of tragedy, treachery, and bone-chilling sorrow that seem to be the fare of such songs. This one, however, takes it a step further. Enter in the almost shocking element of making an instrument from human remains and this becomes a song that is especially disconcerting and memorable. Therefore, when I came across A.K. Ramanujan's retelling of a story from the Santali language of India that he titled "Two Sisters" (Folktales from India: A Selection of Oral Tales from Twenty-Two Languages (Pantheon Books, 1991), I was struck immediately by the similarity it contains to "Wind and Rain".

In it two sisters are led by a crow into a dense jungle for the fruit of a miraculous tree, which they find there and eat. One of the sisters then becomes thirsty. The younger sister sets off to find water for her sister. While she is gone, the elder sister is attacked by a tiger and sings a mournful dirge to her sister before she dies. The younger sister eventually marries a man from a nearby village. Someone finds the elder sister's bones in the forest and makes a flute and a kendra from his find, but every time he plays these instruments the only tune that will come out is that of the dirge she sang before she died. Unlike the song "Wind and Rain", this story continues. Reflecting the religious beliefs of some Indians, the elder sister eventually returns, marries a man in the same village as the younger sister, and everyone lives happily after. The ending does not soften the over-all effect, however, and the end result is a similar taste in the mouth as is left by the song.

This opens up the possibility of several questions. Does this reflect the mixed heritage of many Appalachians? Since the song is located in county Clare, Ireland, is this an evidence of interaction between the people of India and the people of Ireland through the centuries? Or is it simply a reminder of the Indo-European origin of the Celtic people? Are there similar tales perpetuated in other cultures and what are the unique twists that their cultures might place on it? Could there possibly have been someone who made musical instruments from a dead girl's bones in the ancient past that eventually spun this legend? And just how old are some of these stories? Is this one that could predate the Noachian Flood of Bible fame?

All are things a scholar might consider in the future. One thing is certain, surprising similarities in oral histories such as these point strongly to a shared origin. At the least, they are intersting to connect and think about.