Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/331

 examples are the Bear (3c), Seal (9), Pike (17), Birch (20), Trees (23c,f), Copper (24b), Iron (25f), Toothworm (37c,f), Cowhouse Snake (41c, e,f), Chaff in the Eye (45), Salves (48h, d). In a Swabian legend the red colour of shoots of rye when they first appear above the surface is attributed to Cain having killed Abel on a rye field, which thus became reddened with innocent blood. According to an old Norse belief, the dew in the valleys is the foam that drops from the mouth of Hrimfaxi, the horse that draws the night from the east over the Blessed Powers. In a Chinese legend rain is the tears of a disconsolate goddess that had been sent to earth with a message, but had fallen in love with and married a cowherd. In course of time she was summoned to return to her home in the sky. Hence the tears. The Maori of New Zealand relate that though Raki (heaven) and Papa (earth) had been separated — formerly they had been united — yet they still loved each other. Mist and dew are the tears of Papa for Raki, are the messengers in the form of clouds to carry the damp air and steam to Raki. When the west wind blows it is Raki tickling the ears of Papa. In another version it is said that the vast heaven, as he mourns his separation from his beloved, drops, frequent tears upon her bosom, and men term these dewdrops. The Ainos of Japan assert that hares originated from the snowballs with which the children in the sky pelted each other. To stop the hares from quarelling Okikurumi beat each with a firebrand. Hence the body of a hare is white because made of snow, while its ears are black from being burnt with the firebrand.

A sub-group of this, with the difference that L. S.