Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/230

 1 94 Collectanea.

and other treasures, and begins reading. Boy wants to look at the things ; but she sings :

" Come ! little whirlwind ! Take the boy's cap and whirl it about ! " Boy's cap is instantly caught by the wind, and he pursues it until heroine, having closed box, sings :

"Well done, little whirlwind! Bring back the boy's cap ! " Wind drops, and boy recovers cap. Returning home same things happen ; boy must run round by bridge, heroine is ferried over by geese. (6) King asks boy how he likes companion. " Not at all," he says, and, after looking angry for some days, eventually reveals all. King hides, hears and sees everything ; recognises letters and box, his own gift to daughter ; compels the truth from wicked foster-sister, whom he has always disliked. She is made goose-girl, and heroine takes her rightful place in king's castle.

A?itiquarisk Tidsskriff, 1849-51. Copenhagen, 1852. P. 322. (From the Faroe Islands.)

" Gentan, sum fekk mat og klaedi I HEYGiNUM " (The Girl who got meat and clothes in the Mound).

(i) Man and wife have a daughter. When she is one year old mother dies. (2) Father marries again ; has another daughter. Stepmother prefers own daughter, ill-treats heroine, and gives her menial work. In winter heroine cleans stables, grinds corn, teazes wool, and so forth ; in summer she goes far into the hills to milk cows, starting hungry every morning. Fair is she as the fairest sun of summer, red and white as blood on snow ; stepsister is ugly and loathsome to all. More and more beautiful grows heroine for all her hard and dirty work ; stepsister looks pale and sickly from indoor-life. Stepmother would starve heroine to spoil her beauty. Deprived of supper and breakfast, heroine is weak with hunger, and heavy-hearted as she sets forth with milk pail on her back, and with- out hope of getting food. She weeps as she goes. All at once, on looking up, she sees an open mound, and a table laid with meat and drink ; enters mound, and partakes after prayer and thanksgiving ; grows strong and healthy. Stepmother would know by what means. At last stepsister induces heroine to tell. (3) Stepsister goes next day to milk cows ; mound opens, she eats and drinks, and fills her pockets, but neither prays for guidance nor returns thanks. Following day she will eat nothing at home ; arriving at the mound finds it closed ; has far to climb hill seeking cattle ; returns home very angry, and will never go milking again. (4) Mound always opens for heroine, who goes shoeless, and in rags ; and one day she finds pretty clothes hanging there, which a voice says are hers.