Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/341

 it out, and the earth becomes hillocks, in swampy ground. In a Mordwin version of the same story, the man is Shaitan. The Algonquins believed that, in the beginning, there was only water and a raft, on which were all sorts of animals, under the chieftainship of the Great Hare. A musk-rat fished up from the bottom of the sea a grain of sand, which the Great Hare lets fall on the raft, and which grew till it became a great mountain. 23. S. or L. S. ''originates from B. No parents mentioned. Descriptive points in the narrative, especially those relating to the birthplace, account for the nature, character, habits, or habitat of'' (L.) S. Thus sorcerers were born in Lapland in the Far North on a bed of pine-branches (2), merely stating in fact the country where the best were supposed to come from or were to be found. The bear (3a, b) was born near the sun, moon, and stars, and was then let down to the earth to be cradled by a Forest- maiden under a fir. His supposed heavenly origin is no doubt the result of the respect in which he was held, though, perhaps, it is of late date, like the baptism which he subsequently underwent at the hands of the King of Heaven. Fire, too (42b), was born in the sky near the seven stars, where it was rocked to sleep by a Fire-maiden in a 'golden' thicket on the top of a 'golden' knoll. But the spark falls to the earth and kills a child. There is a great resemblance between some of the Fire and Bear origins, and in this particular one a 'golden' thicket and knoll — that is to say, one abounding in game — is appropriate only to the bear's origin. Ague (29) was rocked by wind, put to sleep by cold wind, and brought to sufferers by means of wind and water in whirlwind. Other examples are the Oak (22b), Trees (23e, g), Whitlow (38), Salves (48c). The Basutos believe that the first man issued either from