leaves drop from the trees," (Stalder's Idiotikon, 2. 159). A primeval foundation can be traced in every part of this fable.
149.—The Beam.
Related by Fr. Kind (Becker's Taschenbuch for 1812), in a poem; but we also know it as an oral tradition from the neighbourhood of Paderborn, in which however the magician's revenge is wanting. According to it, he had tied a straw to the cock's leg, and to men's eyes it appeared to be a large piece of wood. But a girl who had a load of clover on her head, saw that it was nothing but a straw, for a double leaf was among the clover, which kept her free from the power of all enchantment. The whole resembles the mockeries of Rübezahl. Compare a Swabian story in Mone's Anzeiger, 1835, p. 408. The highest beam in the roofing is called the cock-beam, because the cock is in the habit of sitting on it. ("hanboum," Parzival, 194, 7). For swimming through flax-blossom, see Deutsche Sagen, 2, 33.
150.—The Old Beggarwoman.
A fragment and confused. It is told in Stilling's Jünglings jahren, but appears to be an old popular tale, in the telling of which the mother or nurse perhaps shewed the listening children how the crooked, bent old woman walked with the stick in her trembling hand. The end is wanting; probably the beggarwoman revenges herself by wishing an "ill wish," as there are several stories of wandering female beggars who enter houses, and who are not offended without punishing the offenders. See The Beggarwoman of Locarno, in Heinrich Kleist's Erzählungen. It is noteworthy that Odin, under the name of Grimnir, goes disguised in the garb of a beggar, into the King's hall, and his clothes begin to burn at the fire. One of the young men brings him a horn to drink; the other has left him in the flames. The latter discovers the pilgrim's divinity too late, and wants to pull him out of the fire, but falls on his own sword.
151.—The Three Sluggards.
From Pauli's Schimpf und Ernst, chap. 243. It is told in the same way in Eyering's Sprichwörter, 2. 615. The Gesta Romanorum (German edition, chap. 3, Latin, chap. 91) changes the order, so that the one who would rather be burnt comes first, the one who would rather let himself be hanged comes second, but the third says, "If I were lying in my bed, and drops of water from the ceiling were falling into both my eyes, I would rather let the drops beat my eyes out than turn on my side."
