(No. 182), in Pröhle's Märchen für die Jugend, will in our next edition be substituted for it. This breathes the spirit of primeval times, and might occur in the Finnish epic Kalevala (Rune 47). Lousi, who also concealed sampo in the Kupferberg, captures the sun and moon, and in a story from the neighbourhood of Archangel (Rudbek, 2. 1, 28, Schiefner, 605), the sun, moon, and dawn have for three years been in the power of three dragons. They only shine while those who have stolen them come on shore to receive a king's daughter. The three dragons are killed one after the other by three brave youths, assisted by wolves, and thus the dawn, moon, and sun are given back to the world.
176.—The Duration of Life.
This story was told at Kassel auf dem Feld, by a peasant from Zwehrn, in the year 1838. Strangely enough it also occurs with some variations in Babrius (No. 74), Furia, 278, Coray, 149. The ass, dog, and ape do not appear there, but the horse, the bullock, and the dog. Trembling with the frost, they come to the man's house. He opens his door, and lets them warm themselves by his fire. He gives barley to the horse, pulse to the bullock, and food from his own table to the dog. Grateful for the kindness which has been shown to them, they make a present to the man, by giving up to him a portion of the time allotted to themselves to live. The horse does it at once, and this is why man is so extremely gay in his youth; then the bullock, and that is why in the middle of his life man labours so hard to accumulate wealth. The dog gives the last years, and for that reason old people are always cross, only pleased with those who give them their food, and have little regard for hospitality. Our story is more significant, and has more internal consistence than the Greek story; there is a better reason fur the transfer of the years, for in the Greek story we do not know how the man, whose age we do not gather, but who does not seem to lack vigour and cheerfulness, is to make use of the horse's gift. Gödeke zu Gengenbach, p. 588, points out a Hebrew story in a poem of Jehuda Levy Krakau Ben Sef (in the Zeitschrift Hamassef, Königsberg, 1788, 2. 388), in which an ass, dog, and ape likewise appear, and surrender a portion of the amount of life which has been assigned to them, to satisfy the still not satisfied man.
177.—Death's Messengers.
From Kirchhof's Wendunmut, 2, No. 123; Colshom, No. 68, from the same source. See also Pauli's Schimpf und Ernst, chap. 151. Hulderich Wolgemut's Æsopus, fable 198, and a Master song in the Colmar MS. (von der Hagen's Sammlung für altdeutsche
