Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/174

166 action of swinging an ignited piece of tinder in the air to made it burn up. For instance, in the Kalevala, R. 47-79, Ulvko, the thunder god, gives the Air-maiden the spark he has struck to swing to and fro till it becomes a new moon and sun, though the same words are constantly used when there is no question of actual fire.

In a story told to account for cats liking to crouch under the table, the conclusion is worth noting, "Then she (the bride) transformed the table-cloth into a cat and it began to catch the mice. It is because the cat came from a table-cloth that it likes to sit under the table."

The present form of some of these stories cannot be older than the twelfth or thirteenth century, however primitive the line of thought that gave rise to them may be. The origins, for instance, of the pintail duck, the crane, the sand piper, and the seal, are founded on a Bible narrative. When Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea they turned into pintail ducks, "hence the pintail duck turns into blood when shot, and sinks to the bottom. Therefore it is not shot; it is reckoned to belong to the human species." The captain of the host was transformed into a crane, and the cook to Pharaoh's army became a sandpiper. The latter had waited for the army to come and eat; but, as no one came, he began crying out, Mi vīvütti, mi vīvütti, mi vīvütti ("I've had to wait, I've had to wait"), and was turned into a sandpiper, and continues repeating the same words all his life. The dogs of the host were turned into seals, so now they cry, Varavō, varavō, varavō. So too, after the murder of Abel, Adam and Eve did not know how to dispose of the dead body. But it happened there was a tall tree close by with a crow's nest in it. One of the young birds fell out and was killed. The mother crow then proceeded to scratch a hole in the ground and to bury the dead bird. Adam and Eve learned from that how they ought to act, "and from that came the first human grave."

In conclusion it is hardly necessary to say that this volume is by far the most complete collection of animal stories of any one country that has yet been published, and that it is furnished with all the necessary details relating to the places of collection, the collectors and narrators' names, that scientific study demands. In addition to the narrator's name there is frequently a note appended giving information