Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/345

 Rh mother so much that they determine to get rid of him; and for that purpose, having constructed a little canoe, they place him therein during the night, and thrust it out to sea. The nightingale flies out of its cage, and perches on the boy's shoulder. The boy is picked up by a passing vessel. The nightingale predicts a tempest; the captain disbelieves, but the storm falls, breaking the masts and rending the sails. The bird having afterwards predicted pirates, the captain deems it wise to heed the warning, and succeeds in avoiding them. The vessel arrives at Chvalinsk, where the king is troubled by three ravens. The question they desire to put to him is even more difficult than in The Seven Sages, namely, to which of his parents the young bird belongs—to the cock or the hen? The king decides in favour of the cock, but, like a wise judge, reserves his reasons. The boy is adopted by the king, and in due time espouses his daughter. His father and mother are found keeping an inn.

In a Basque tale a sea-captain's son is sent to school, but the sclioolmaster reports that he cannot drive anything into his head, and the boy himself admits that he has learnt nothing but the songs of the birds. His father takes him to sea. A bird comes and settles on the end of the ship, singing; and the father asks him what it is singing. The boy replies, "He says I am now under your orders, but you shall also be under mine." The father encloses him in a barrel, and throws the barrel into the sea. A storm casts it ashore, where a king is walking. He has the barrel opened, and takes home the boy, who eventually marries the king's daughter. There is no mention of the three ravens, nor of the hero's accession to the crown, which is, however, implied. His father is one day caught in a storm, and flung upon the same shore. He takes service with the king, who is his own son, and thus fulfils the prophecy.

A Portuguese variant represents the hero as accustomed from an early age to go to the top of a mountain to see the moon, for which his father asks his reason. He replies that the moon had many times told him that his father would one day offer to fetch him water, and he would refuse it. The father, interpreting this that he