puellarum, naturali facultate ad audiendum fabellas promtissimarum, imbuere omni genere superstitionis et commentorum. narrant multo verborum apparatu historiolas of The Blocksberg; The Black Witch; The Rascal who puts Children in his Sack; Dummling; King Bluebeard; Cuckoo's-soup; The Pentagram; Old Eten Inne; The Princess in the Blue Tower, et infinitas fabulas.
In Schmidt's Fastelabendsgebräuchen (Rostock, 1752), p. 22, the following are with some variation named as old wives' tales. 1. The Story of the Black Witch; 2. The Rascal who puts Children in his Sack; 3. Dummling; 4. King Bluebeard; 5. Cuckoo's-soup; 6. The Pentagram; 7. The Haunted Castle; 8. The Princess in the Blue Tower; 9. Old Arden Inn; 10. Horny Sigfried. See Büsching's Wöchentliche Nachrichten, 1. 143, 144.
25. Der Leipziger Avanturier, 1756), 1. 14.
"Stories and histories are related to him in his youth."
26. Rabener mentions the word Märchen several times, and seems to be perfectly familiar with it. We find in a letter, written January 7th, 1758, in Weisse's edition, "The story of the old hermit who was seen in two places at one and the same time." "I see that I am growing just as restless and uneasy as a child on a long winter's night when people are sitting in a dark room and telling the story of Mum Mum." (Letter of the 26th May, 1759, p. 18.) "My dear nurse, I still think with pleasure of the long evenings when I was a little boy and sat on your knee, and threw my trembling arms round your neck in terror when you told us the awful story of the Sea Dog, or the sad one of the Enchanted Prince who had no Head, or the pious tale of The Lame Ass . . . the story of The Ape which could Speak . . . or the merry tale of The Enchanted Castle in the Air" (an appropriate story for the 1st of April).
27. Goethe mentions in Werther, p. 60, the story of The Lodestone Mountain, and The Princess who was served by hands.
28. From Der Hausstand (an 18th century romance).
"When a day comes when everything goes wrong, and in the evening my spirit is as dull as this autumn day, then I tell my boy some stories, and while I am looking at his happy face, a new firmament full of encouragement reveals itself to me. O what magic lies in the happy face of a child!"
29. Allgem. deutsche Bibliothek, vol. 63 (Berlin, 1785), p. 129, review of the third vol. of Musäus. "The critic has always compared our genuine popular stories with the mythology of the Greeks."
30. Johannes Müller, Histor. Critik, 1. 245, says,
Everyone ought to search out and give currency to the wisdom of the people among whom he lives, in whatsoever form it is expressed, not forgetting even their songs,
