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PLEIADES. 729
stars, bestowed upon her in her wanderings. The third dress
tradition at last converted into the cluckie herself. Treasure-
hunters dig for the costly cluckie with her chicks; conf. the
f
XXXII. A hen and twelve hiinkeln was
sunken hoard, Chap.
also an earthly fine, Weisth. 1, 465. 499. I am not sure that we
are entitled to connect the nut with Iduns huot ; but what is
sun, moon and cluckie with us, is with the Finns far more
plainly (
paiwa, kuu, otawa, i.e. sun, moon, bear. The Span, name
is Mas siete cabrillas seven kids. 1
Pol. baby old wives, Russ.
baba old wife [and nasedka sitting hen], Linde 1, 38 a
;
Serv.
vlashitsi (Vuk 78), vlashnitsi, (Bosn. Bible 3, 154, 223), Sloven.
vlastovtse swallows? but Jarnik 229 b
explains it ramstabe/ which
I do not understand. The 0. Boh. name too is obscure, sczyetnycze
pleiades (Hanka s Glossen 58b)=.stetnice,
bristly ones, from
stetina seta? Sloven, gostosevisi, gostozMrtsi the thick-sown?
The last name agrees with the Lith. and Finn, view, viz. the con
stellation is a sieve having a great many holes, or sifting out a
heap of flour : Lith. setas Lett, setinsli, Esth. sool or soggel, Finn.
seula, seulaineri. Why does Suchenwirt 4, 326 say, daz her daz
tailt sich in daz lant gleich recht als ain sibenstirn ? because the
army is so thickly spread over the land ? (see SuppL).
The origin of the Pleiades is thus related : Christ was passing
a baker s shop, when He smelt the new bread, and sent his dis
ciples to ask for a loaf. The baker refused, but the baker s wife
and her six daughters were standing apart, and secretly gave it.
For this they were set in the sky as the Seven-stars, while the
baker became the cuckoo (p. 676 baker s man), and so long as
he sings in spring, from St. Tiburtius s day to St. John s, the
Seven-stars are visible in heaven. Compare with this the Nor
wegian tale of Gertrude s bird (p. 673).
There may be a few more stars for which popular names still
exist. 2 In Lith. the Kids are artojis su jdiiczeis plougher with
oxen, and Capella neszeja walgio food-bearer (f.).. Hanka s 0.
Boh. gl. 58 b
for Arcturus.
gives hrusa for Aldebaran, przyczek
We might also expect to find names for the Hyades and Cas-
1 Don Quixote 2, 41 (Idel. 4, 83 conf. ; G, 242).
2
Cymric and Gaelic Bibles (Job 9, 9), retain the Latin names from the Vulgate;
from which it does not follow that these languages lack native names for stars.
Armstrong cites Gael, crannarain, baker s peel, for the Pleiades, and dragblod, firetail,
for the Lesser Bear.