 Hartland published an analysis of the myths of the Perseus cycle in the last decade of the 19th century with the stated aim to determine " whether it be possible to ascertain what was its primitive form , where it originated , and how it became diffused over the Eastern continent . " He highlighted similarities between Assipattle 's defeat of the stoor worm and Herakle 's rescue of Hesione . When researching the Dartmoor legend of Childe 's Tomb folklorist Theo Brown also drew comparisons between the slaying of the stoor worm and Jonah 's three @-@ day confinement inside a whale . Hartland concluded that tales of this genre were confined to countries beginning to move away from primitive beliefs and possibly evolved " out of the suppression of human sacrifices to divinities in bestial form . " 
