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ELVES, DWAEFS. 451
p. 280, and the swan-maidens, p. 429. One is also reminded
of the blateviieze, Rother 1871. Ernst 3828; conf. Haupt s
Zeitschr. 7, 289.
The Mid. Nethl. poem of Brandaen, but no other version of the
same legend, contains a very remarkable feature. 1 Brandan met
a man on the sea, who was a thumb long, and floated on a leaf,
in his left :
holding a little bowl in his right hand and a pointer
the pointer he kept dipping into the sea and letting water drip
from it into the bowl ; when the bowl was full, he emptied it out,
and began filling again : it was his doom to be measuring the
sea until the Judgment-day (see Suppl.).
This liliputian floating
on the leaf reminds us of ancient, especially Indian myths. 2
The alfar are a people, as the Edda expressly says (Sn. 21), and
gerle gleit, und das het alles ewag puzt. do springts wider ufe wage, und het zum
pur gseit, er soil sseil nume wider uine ge. Mangisch, wenn rachtschafne lilt dura
tag gheuet oder bunde hand und se sind nit fertig worde bis zobe, und shet 6ppe welle cho ragne, so sind die hdrdmdndle cho, und hand geschaffet und gewarnet
druf ine, bis alles im scharme gsi isch. oder wenns durt dnacht isch cho wattere,
hand se sheu und schorn, wo dusse glage isch, de lute zum tenn zue trait, und am
morge het halt alles gross auge gmacht, und se hand nid gwiisst, wers tho het. den
hand erst no die mdndle kei dank begehrt, numenau dass me se gern hat. Amenim
winter, wenn alles stei und bei gfrore gsi isch, sind die mdndle is oberst hus cho
zArlispach : se hand shalt gar guet chonnen mit dene lute, wo dert gwohnt hand,
und sind ame durt dnacht ufem ofe glage, und am morge vortag hand se se wieder
drus gmacht. was aber gar gspassig gsi isch, si hand ehre filessle nie viire glo, hand
es charlachroths mdntele trait, vom hals bis ufe bode nabe. jetzt hets im dorf so
gwunderige meitle und buebe gha, die sind einisch znacht vor das hus go gen asche
streue, dass se gsache, was die hdrdmdndle fur fuessle hebe. und was handse
gfunde ? sisch frile wunderle : ante und geissfuess sind in der asche abdriickt gsi.
Aber vo salber stund a isch keis mandle meh cho, und se sind au niimme uf der
Kamsflue bliebe, i dkrachehand se se verschln/e, tief id geissflue hindere, und hand
keis zeiche me von ene ge, und chomme niimme, so lang dliit eso boshaft sind
of the above. Earth-mannikins on the Kamsflue :
(see Suppl.)- [Substance
lived in a cave with a narrow entrance ; cooked nothing, ate roots and berries ;
bathed in a brook like doves, set one to watch, and if he whistled, were up the hills
faster than hares, and slipt into their cave. Never hurt men, often : helped the
farmer at Hard was alone loading, a dwarf came down, helped to finish, got on the
waggon, did not properly run the rope over the bind-pole, it slipped off, the pole
flew up and hurt him badly. Farmer : I wish it had happened to me. Dwarf :
Not so self ; do, self have. Got down, picked a herb, and cured the wound in
stantly. Often, when honest folk cut hay or tied corn, dwarfs helped them to
finish and get it under shelter or in the ; night, if rain came on, they brought in
what was lying cut, and didn t the people stare in the ! morning One severe winter
they came every night to a house at Arlisbach, slept on the oven, departed before
dawn; ivore scarlet cloaks reaching to the ground, so that their feet were never seen;
but some prying people sprinkled ashes before the house, on which were seen the
next morning marks of duck s and goose s feet. They never showed themselves
again, and never will, while men are so spiteful.]
1 Blommaert s Oudvlaemsche gedichten 1, 118 b . 2, 26 a .
2 Brahma, sitting on a lotus, floats musing across the abysses of the sea. Vishnu,
when after Brahma s death the waters have covered all the worlds, sits in the shape
of a tiny infant on a leaf of the pipala (fig-tree), and floats on the sea_of milk,
sucking the toe of his right foot. (Asiat. Kes. 1, 345.)