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.

　　【译文】

　　《牙齿仙女》

　　远古时期的人们认为毛发、剪下的指甲和脱落的牙齿即使离开了人的身体，仍与其主人保持着神秘的联系。正如任何一个伏都教大师都会告诉你的，假如你想置某人于死地，根本用不着去碰他，只需用脚踩碎那人脱落的一颗臼齿就够了，剩下的事就交给“无边的法力”去办。这就是为什么全世界各个民族都习惯于把身体上脱落的东西藏起来，以免落入恶人之手。

　　美国儿童把脱落的牙齿藏到枕头下的习惯做法很可能与这个习俗稍有联系。但两者又有明显的差别，因为当小苏珊把她的乳牙藏起来时，她其实满心希望有个善良的，而不是邪恶的巫师能发现她的牙齿。而且由于交出了牙齿，她还希望按现行价格得到报偿。我们把可怕的迷信变成了愉快的商业交易，没有什么比这更明白地表明我们文化中的令人愉快的商业热情。

　　因为美国孩子希望用他们脱落的牙齿作公平交易，所以牙齿仙女的习俗可能更直接渊源于欧洲风俗，尤其是德国风俗中把脱落的牙齿放在老鼠洞里的传统做法。这种习俗依据的民间观念认为，新牙长出来时不具有原先脱落的牙齿的特质，哪种动物发现了掉下来的牙，新牙就具有那种动物的牙的特质。因此，要选那些世界一流的擅长啃咬的动物，那些啮齿目动物。

　　因此，这种乐观的“公平交易”原则很可能发源于德国，并由德国移民带到了这里。美国人只是把好心的“牙齿老鼠”换成了更可亲的仙女，而传统上人们希望长出坚固的牙齿，到我们这儿却变成了希望拿到现金，这就更具有我们的特色。