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WIGHTS AND ELVES.
They abstract well-shaped children from the cradle, and sub
stitute their own ugly ones, or even themselves. These sup
posititious creatures are called changelings, cambiones (App.,
Superst. B.) ; OHGr. wihselinga (N. Ps. 17, 46. Cant. Deuteron.
5), our wecliselbalge ; Swed. bytingar, Dan. bittinger ; also our
TtielUropfe, diMopfe from their thick necks and heads. (Stories
about them in Thiele I, 47. 3, 1. Faye p. 20. Ir. Elfenm.
xli.-xlv. cv. Deut. sag. nos. 81-2, 87-90.) 1 So early as in the
poem * Zeno (Bruns p. 27 seq.)
it is the devil that fills the
place of a stolen child. The motive of the exchange seems to be,
that elves are anxious to improve their breed by means of the
human child, which they design to keep among them, and for
which they give up one of their own. A safeguard against such
substitution is, to place a key, or one of the father s clothes, or
dwarfs came and carried her off. When they got to their cave, one dwarf fell in
love with her, and she was to marry him but ti rst the dwarfs were ;
going to bid the
other dwarfs to the wedding, in the meantime the girl was to make the house clean
and prepare it for the wedding. But the girl, she did not want to marry the dwarf,
so she would run away ; but that they might not notice it at once, she pulled her
dress off and put it round a bundle of straw then she saw a tub full of ; honey and
crept into it, and then she saw a tub full of feathers and crept into that also, and
when she came out again, she was all over feathers then she ran ;
away, and climbed
up a high tree. Then the dwarfs came past under it, and when they saw her, they
thought she was a bird, and called to her and said : Whither and whence, thou
feathered bird ? I come out of the dwarf s hole What does the
pretty
pretty young bride ? She stands with a besom and sweeps the house.
said to the
Hurra ! then we ll go there too. And when they got there, they
bride good morning, and said other things too but as she never ; answered, they
boxed her ears, and down she fell.
Assuredly the dwarfs in this story are genuine and of old date. Besides, it can
be supplemented from Kinderm. 3, 75, where the returning dwarfs are preceded by
foxes and bears, who also go past and question the Pitcher s fowl. There tbe
tub of honey in the dwarf s house is a cask of blood, but both together agree wonder
fully with the vessels which the dwarfs Fialar and Galar keep rilled with Kvasi s
precious blood and with honey. Sn. 83. 84.
1 Dresd. saml. no. 15, of the mullers sun. A foolish miller begs a girl to teach
him the sweetness of love. She makes him lick honey all night, he empties a big
jar, gets a stomach-ache, and fancies himself about to become a parent. She sends
for a number of old women to assist him : da fragt er, war sein kind wer komen
(what s come of the baby) ? sie : sprachen hastu nit vernommen ? ez was ain rehter
wislonbalk (regular changeling), und tett als ein guoter schalk : da er erst von
deinem leib kam (as soon as born), da fuer ez paid hin und entran hin Tiff zuo dem
furst empor. Der muller sprach : paid hin uff daz ! spor vachent ez !
(catch him)
pringent ez mir herab ! They bring him a swallow in a covered pot. Again a
Hessian folk-tale : A
woman was cutting corn on the Dosenberg, and her infant lay
beside her. A ivichtel-wife crept up, took the human child, and put her own in its
place. When the woman looked for her darling babe, there was a frightful thick
head staring in her face. She screamed, and raised such a hue and cry, that at last
the thief came back with the child ; but she would not give it up till the woman
had put the wichtelbalg to her breast, and nourished it for once with the generous
milk of human kind.