“The son of a rich merchant of Jerusalem sets off after his father’s death to see the world.  At Stamboul he finds hanging in chains the body of a Jew, which the Sultan has commanded to be left there till his co-religionists shall have repaid the sum that the man is suspected of having stolen from his royal master.  The hero pays this sum, and has the corpse buried.  Later, during a storm at sea he is saved by a stone, on which he is brought to land, whence he is carried by an eagle back to Jerusalem.  There a white-clad man appears to him, explaining that he is the ghost of the dead, and that he has already appeared as stone and eagle.  The spirit further promises the hero a reward for his good deed in the present and in the future life.”

This is one of the simplest forms in which the story appears.  It is generally found compounded with some other similar tale; but the main facts are that a man buries a corpse found on the sea-shore from philanthropic motives.  “Later he is met by the ghost of the dead man, who in many cases promises him help on condition of receiving, in return, half of whatever he gets.  The hero obtains a wife (or some other reward), and, when called upon, is ready to fulfil his bargain as to sharing his possessions,"[89] not excepting the wife.  Some of the characteristics of the tale are to be found in the story of Pelops and Cillas, related above, which Mr. Gerould does not mention.

Pausanias[90] has a story of one of Ulysses’ crew.  Ulysses’ ship was driven about by the winds from one city to another in Sicily and Italy, and in the course of these wanderings it touched at Tecmessa.  Here one of the sailors got drunk and ravished a maiden, and was stoned to death in consequence by the indignant people of the town.  Ulysses did not trouble about what had occurred, and sailed away.  Soon, however, the ghost of the murdered man became a source of serious annoyance to the people of the place, killing the inhabitants of the town, regardless of age and sex.  Finally, matters came to such a pass that the town was abandoned.  But the Pythian priestess bade the people return to Tecmessa and appease the hero by building him a temple and precinct of his own, and giving him every year the fairest maiden of the town to wife.  They took this advice, and there was no more trouble from the ghost.  It chanced, however, that Euthymus came to Tecmessa just when the people were paying the dead sailor the annual honours.  Learning how matters stood, he asked to be allowed to go into the temple and see the maiden.  At their meeting he was first touched with pity, and then immediately fell desperately in love with her.  The girl swore to be his, if he would save her.  Euthymus put on his armour and awaited the attack of the monster.  He had the best of the fight, and the ghost, driven from its home, plunged into the sea.  The wedding was, of course, celebrated with great splendour, and nothing more was heard of the spirit of the drunken sailor.  The story is obviously to be classed with that of Ariadne.