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WISHING-GEAK.
871
now as a ship, now as a hat, both of which could either be folded
up or expanded, for sailing in or for raising a storm ; wishingships
occur in Norske eventyr 1, 18. 142 and Sv. folkv. 1, 142-3.
Not unlike this are our winged sandals and league loots. Gullin-
bursti, too, Frey s boar, carries him through air and water.
From OSin s ring Draupnir dropped other rings as heavy ; the
miraculous power of Fulla s ring (Fullo fingrgull, Sn. 68) is not
specified, perhaps it made one invisible, like that of Aventiure
(p. 911). Draupnir suggests the broodpenny (Deut. sag. no. 86)
or hatching dollar of later times : whoever ate the bird s heart,
would find a gold-piece under his pillow every morning. With
this are connected the wishing-purse, and the wishing-rod, which
unlocks the hoard, but apparently feeds it as well (ch. XXXI) ;
also the wunderblume and the spring wurzel [root which springs
open the door of a treasure] ; a bird s nest makes invisible (Deut.
s. no. 85. Haupt s Zeitschr. 3, 361. Hone s Anz. 8, 539).
Fr63i s wishing-mill Grotti would grind anything the grinder
wished for aloud (Sn. 146), gold, salt, etc. ; this we can match
with the wheel of fortune, an image that may be an importation
to us (p. 866), yet not have been strange- to our remote ancestry;
of manoratha I have spoken before. British legend too had
its own version of fortune s wheel (p. 869). Such a mill, such
a wheel ought above all to grind food for gods. The gods
possess the drink of immortality, which inspires man with song,
and keeps a god young. r$un s apples restore youth, as apples
in Yolsungasaga make pregnant, in Sneewitchen send sleep, and
in Fortunatus give horns and take them away. But the wishing-
cloak becomes a wishing -cloth, which when spread brings up any
dish one may desire : in Danish and Swedish songs
such a cloth
is woven of field wool (ageruld, D. vis. 1, 265. 300. akeridl, Sv.
vis. 2, 199), a sort of grass with a woolly flower (eriophorum
polystachium) ; the same wishing-cloth occurs in Norske ev. 1,
44. 274, it is pulled out of a mare s ear, p. 112. Other wishingcloths
have to be spun in silence, or the hemp for them must be
picked, baked, braked, hatchelled, spun
and woven all in one
whose ear
day. The Servians tell of a miraculous cow, out of
yarn is spun, she is then killed and buried, and miracles are
wrought on her grave. A wishing-cow Kdmaduh or Kdmadhenu
is mentioned in Indian myth (Pott 2, 421. Somadeva 1, 198) ;
VOL. II. F P