Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/495

Rh Orpheus has run out into strange forms. In some myths, the CHAP, musician who compels all to dance at his will is endowed with the ^ thievish ways of Hermes, although these again are attributed to an amoflrthe honest servant who at the end of three years receives three farthings t^oms. as his recompense. In the German story of the Jew among the Thorns the servant gives these farthings to a dwarf who grants hira three wishes in return. The first two wishes are, of course, for a weapon that shall strike down all it aims at, and a fiddle that shall make every one dance, while by the third he obtains the power of forcing every one to comply with any request that he may make. From this point the story turns more on the Homeric than on the Orphic myth. Strangely enough, Phoibos is here metamorphosed into the Jew, who is robbed not of cows but of a bird, and made to dance until his clothes are all torn to shreds. The appeal to a judge and the trial, with the shifty excuses, the dismissal of the plea, and the sentence, follow in their due order. But just as Hermes delivers himself by waking the sweet music of his lyre when Phoibos on dis- covering the skins of the slaughtered cattle is about to slay him, so the servant at the gallows makes his request to be allowed to play one more tune, when judge, hangman, accuser, and spectators all join in the magic dance. Another modern turn is given to the legend when the Jew is made to confess that he had stolen the money which he gave the honest servant, and is himself hanged in the servant's stead.^

In a less developed form this story is the same as the legend of The story of Arion. Arion, who, though supposed to be the friend of the Cormthian tyrant Periandros, is still represented as a son of Poseidon. In this case the musician's harp fails to win his life at the hands of the men who grudge him his wealth ; but his wish seems to carry with it a power which they are not able to resist, while his playing brings to the side of the ship a dolphin who bears Arion on his back to Corinth. In the trial which follows, the tables are turned on the sailors much as they are on the Jew in the German story, and Arion recovers his harp which was to play an important part in many another Aryan myth.

The German form of the myth has been traced into Iceland, Inchanted where Sigurd's harp in the hands of Bosi makes chairs and tables, homs. kings and courtiers, leap and reel, until all fall down from sheer weariness and Bosi makes off with his bride who was about to be

' This marvellous piper reappears in tune, and of the Valiant Tailor who Grimm's stories of the Wonderful Musi- thus conquers the Bear as Orpheus cian, of Roland who makes the witch masters Kerberos. dance against her will to a bewitched