The tooth fairy

　　Primitive peoples believe that hair， nail clippings， and lost teeth remain magically linked to the owner even after they have been disconnected from his body. As any voodoo artist will tell you， if you want to grind someone into powder， you don't need to touch him at all. It's quite enough to stamp on a missing molar and let "contagious magic" do the rest. This is why peoples all over the world traditionally hide lost body parts， lest they fall into the wrong hands.

　　American children's ritual of hiding lost teeth under their pillows probably derives distantly from this practice. But there is an obvious difference， for when Suzie conceals her baby milk-tooth， she fully expects it to be found， and by a good magician， not an evil one. Moreover， she expects to be paid for having surrendered it， and at the going rate. Nothing mare clearly suggests the blithe commercial gusto of our culture than this transformation of a fearful superstition into a cheery business transaction.

　　Because American children expect fair exchange for their lost teeth， it is likely that the tooth fairy ritual derives more immediately from the European， and particularly German， tradition of placing a lost tooth in a mouse or a rat hole.The folk belief governing this practice is that when a new tooth grows in， it will possess the dental qualities， not of the original， lost tooth， but of whatever creature finds it， so the creatures of choice would be those world-class champers， the rodents.

　　Thus the optimistic， "fair exchange" principle most likely started in Germany and was brought here by German immigrants. It was only left to America to replace the beneficent “tooth rat” with the more agreeable fairy and to replace the traditional hope of hard molars with our more characteristic hope of hard cash.

　　【譯文】

　　牙齒仙女

　　遠古時期的人們認為毛發(fā)、剪下的指甲和脫落的牙齒即使離開了人的身體，仍與其主人保持著神秘的聯(lián)系。正如任何一個伏都教大師都會告訴你的，假如你想置某人于死地，根本用不著去碰他，只需用腳踩碎那人脫落的一顆臼齒就夠了，剩下的事就交給“無邊的法力”去辦。這就是為什么全世界各個民族都習慣于把身體上脫落的東西藏起來，以免落入惡人之手。

　　美國兒童把脫落的牙齒藏到枕頭下的習慣做法很可能與這個習俗稍有聯(lián)系。但兩者又有明顯的差別，因為當小蘇珊把她的乳牙藏起來時，她其實滿心希望有個善良的，而不是邪惡的巫師能發(fā)現(xiàn)她的牙齒。而且由于交出了牙齒，她還希望按現(xiàn)行價格得到報償。我們把可怕的迷信變成了愉快的商業(yè)交易，沒有什么比這更明白地表明我們文化中的令人愉快的商業(yè)熱情。

　　因為美國孩子希望用他們脫落的牙齒作公平交易，所以牙齒仙女的習俗可能更直接淵源于歐洲風俗，尤其是德國風俗中把脫落的牙齒放在老鼠洞里的傳統(tǒng)做法。這種習俗依據(jù)的民間觀念認為，新牙長出來時不具有原先脫落的牙齒的特質(zhì)，哪種動物發(fā)現(xiàn)了掉下來的牙，新牙就具有那種動物的牙的特質(zhì)。因此，要選那些世界一流的擅長啃咬的動物，那些嚙齒目動物。

　　因此，這種樂觀的“公平交易”原則很可能發(fā)源于德國，并由德國移民帶到了這里。美國人只是把好心的“牙齒老鼠”換成了更可親的仙女，而傳統(tǒng)上人們希望長出堅固的牙齒，到我們這兒卻變成了希望拿到現(xiàn)金，這就更具有我們的特色。