who in his indignation at such treatment kicks Holofernes off, and so breaks his neck.
For magic horses in other lands cf. the following tales: the Finnish "Oriiksi Muntettu Poika;" "The Little White Horse" in "Ferdinand the Faithful," Grimm, ii. p. 156; Katar, in "The Bay with a Moon and Star," Stokes, p. 131, which becomes changed by twisting his right ear; "Weisnittle," in Stier's Ungarische Volksmärchen, p. 61; Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged horse that used to carry the father of the gods as swift as the wind over land and sea, in Wagner's Asgard and the Gods; and "Bayard, Faithful Bayard!" the good steed in the Carolingian Legends in Wagner's Epics and Romances of the Middle Ages, pp. 367—396; "the shaggy dun filly" in "The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh," in Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands, vol. i. p. 4; and the "steed," in "The Rider of Grianaig," vol iii. p. 14 of the same book.
A magic horse appears in the Lapp story "Jætten og Veslegutten," (The Giant and the Vesle Boy), from Hammerfest; Friis, p. 48. In this case it assists the boy to escape from the giant, and to marry a king's daughter; and finally becomes a prince when its head is cut off. "A winged horse" appears in "Ivan, Kupiskas Søn," a story from Akkala, in Russian Finland; Friis, p. 170. In "Jætten Katten og Gutten" (the Giant, the Cat, and the Boy), from Alten, Friis, p. 63, the boy saves the giant's son from a troll cat, and is told by the lad he saves, that his father will offer him a gold horse and "a miserable one," and he is to be sure and choose the miserable one; and in like manner he was to choose a miserable box, and a miserable flute, in preference to golden ones, which would be offered to him. There is a somewhat similar Finnish story, "Paholaisen antamat Soittoneuwot" (Musical Instruments Given by the Devil), S ja T., vol. i., 181, where the hero, when in the woods, sees the devil[1] running for his life, with
- ↑ Of the word "devil" one cannot do better than quote Mr. Ralston's words: "The demon rabble of 'popular tales' are merely the lubber fiends of heathen mythology, being endowed with supernatural might, but scantily provided with mental power; all of terrific manual clutch, but of weak intellectual grasp." Cf. Castrén, Finsk Mytologi, p. 163.
