Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/199

Rh they tried to carry on their wretched trade in heaven, they fared badly.

Hatsjaedne had a neighbour named Njavitsaedne, who was kind and good-natured, but poor. One sheep was all she had in the world. Hatsjaedne wanted to take this away from her, but she dare not do so in the daytime. One day she said to her daughter, "My dear daughter, I am so longing for some fresh meat! Let us take Njavitsaedne's sheep as soon as it is dark!" Unfortunately the moon was shining that night, and although they waited a long time, hoping that it would disappear behind a cloud, it did not. Hatsjaedne became very impatient, and said to her daughter, "Daughter dear, take a bucket of tar and a brush, and turn yourself into a bird, and fly up into the moon, and smear it all over, so that it shall not hinder our business." The girl did as her mother bade her, took tar bucket and brush, changed herself into a big bird, and flew up to the moon. It was her last journey; for the moon held her tight, so that she could not get away. There she had to stay; and there she may still be seen, when the sky is clear, with her bucket and her brush. Her mother was changed into a sexton beetle, which always crawls along the ground, except in still and sultry weather, when it flies for a few minutes in the sun, but soon settles on the ground again.

In Enara Hatsjaedne was believed to have had a sister, from whom some of the mountain Lapps were descended, who were all strong and healthy men, but rough and reckless. They never used medicine, nor consulted doctors, and, if they cut themselves, the wound healed quite well and easily. An old Lapp named Vuolle, who lived for some winters by the Lake of Samekjavre, came of this stock. It was said of him that, when he put on new boots, it did not matter to him whether they fitted or not; if they would not go on, he simply cut off a bit of his foot. There was also an old woman at Pasvikelven, who was