Untitled - Centrostudirpinia.it

CHAFEE. BEE. 695
204 b
) and der liebe froue henje, our lady s lien (Alb.
Deutsche in Piemonfc 297),
Schott s
in contrast to herra-chtieli the
coccinella (Tobler 265 a
), though the name probably
wavers be
tween the two. By the same process which we observed in the
names of plants and stars, Mary seems to have stept into the
place of Freyja, and Marihone was formerly Freyjuhoena, which
we still have word for word In Froue henje, and the like in Fraua-
chiieli. And of Romance tongues, it is only that of France (where
the community of views with Germany was strongest) that has a
bete a dieu, vacJie a dieu ; Span, and Ital. have nothing like it.
At all events our children s song :
Marienlcaferfihen, flieg ausl (fly away)
dein hauschen brennt, (burns)
dein mutterchen flennt, (weeps)
dein vaterchen sitzt auf der schwelle ; (sits on the threshold)
flieg in *n himmel aus der hollel (into heaven out of hell)
must be old, for in England also they sing: Ladybird, ladybird,
fly away home, your house is on fire, and your children will burn
[all but little Bessie that sits in the SMI] With us too the chil
dren put the Marienkafer or sonnenkafer on their finger, and ask
it, like the cuckoo: sunnenkieken :(sun s chicken), ik frage di,
wo lange schal ik leven ? Een jaar, twee jaar/ etc., till the
chafer flies away, its home being in the sun or in heaven. In
Switzerland they hold the goldbeetle on their hand, and say :
cheferli, cheferli, fliig us ! i getter
niilech ond brocka ond e
silberigs loffeli dezue. Here the chafer, like the snake, is offered
milk and crumbs and a silver spoon thereto/ In olden times he
must have been regarded as the god s messenger and confidant
(see Suppl.).
Lastly the bee, the one insect that is tamable and will live
among men, and whose wise ways are such a lesson to them, may
be expected to have old mythic associations. The bee is believed
to have survived from the golden age, from the lost paradise
(Chap. XXX.) ; nowhere is her worth and purity more prettily
expressed than in the Servian lay of the rich Gavan, where God
selects three holy angels to prove mankind, and bids them
descend from heaven to earth, as the bee upon the flower/ kako
pchela po tsvetu (Vuk 1, 128 ed. 2). The clear sweet honey,
VOL. II.
s