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CUCKOO. 677
which incessantly repeats that cry (conf. Praetorius s Weltbeschr.
I, 656. 2, 491). No doubt the story, which seems very ancient,
and resembles that of the woodpecker (p. 673), was once told
very differently;
conf. Chap. XXII., Pleiades. That dear
season may have to do with the belief that when the cuckoo s
call continues to be heard after Midsummer, it betokens dearth
(Sup. I, 228).
In Sweden he tells maidens how many years they will remain
unmarried :
gokj gok, sitt pa quist (on bough),
sag mig vist (tell me true),
hur manga ar (how many years)
jag o-gift gar (I shall un-given go) ?
If he calls more than ten times, they declare he has got pa galen
quist (on the silly bough, i.e. bewitched), and give no heed to
his prophecies. And then a good deal depends on the quarter
whence you hear your cuckoo first. You must pay strict atten
tion in spring ; if you hear him from the north (the unlucky
quarter), yon will see sorrow that year, from east or west his
call betokens luck, and from the south he is the proclaimer of
butter : ostergok ar trostegok, vestergok ar bastagok, norrgok or
sorggok, sorgolc ar smorgok. 1
In Goethe s Oracle of Spring the prophetic bird informs a
loving pair of their approaching marriage and the number of
their children.
It is rather surprising that our song- writers of the 13th cen
tury never bring in the cuckoo as a soothsayer; no doubt the
fact or fancy was familiar to all, for even in the Renner 11340 we
read :
daz weiz der gouch, der im fiir war
hat gegutzet Imndert jar.
Caesarius heisterbac. 5, 1 7 : Narravit nobis anno praeterito
(? 1221) Theobaldus abbas eberbacensis, quod quidam conversus,
cam nescio quo tenderet, et avem, quae cuculus dicitur a voce
nomen habens, crebrius cantantem audiret, vices interruptions
numeravit, et viginti duas inveniens, easque quasi pro omine
1 Arndt s Keise durch Schw. 4, 5 7. The snipe is in Swed. horspjok, ON.
hrossayaukr (horse-cuckoo), and she too has the gift of divination, p. 184.