Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/249

Rh are regarded as being so intimately associated with the master or mistress that the lives of both come to an end simultaneously. The snake and the toad are very generally termed " Hausvater," &c., and the death of the animal involves the death of the human being. He who kills a swallow kills his parents (Tirol), mother (Ruthenia), child (Niederlausitz). The dog is believed in Lancashire to die at the same moment as its owner; so, too, the cat and cock in Switzerland, the black hen in Thuringia, and the black ox or cow elsewhere.

In Brittany two crows are said to come and perch on the roof when the head of the family is dying; another account says that two crows are assigned to each farm and foretell the events in the family. They seem to be analogous to the house-snake of Germany.

(d) The Animal as Genius.

(i.) Connected with this belief is the Icelandic idea of the settar-fylgia ; this is a guardian spirit in animal form belonging to each family, and as such attached to the dwelling of the family.

(ii.) This leads us to the fylgia or personal guardian spirit, also conceived as an animal, which accompanies or precedes its owner on a journey in the form of a dog, raven, fly, &c. In Norway the fylgia is believed to take the form