Northern mythology

APPENDIX. 235
habitation in them ^, and raises the whii'lwind^. According
to a universal tradition, compacts are frequently made
with the devil, by which he is bound to complete a building,
as a church, a house, a barn, a causeway, a bridge or the
like within a certain short period ; but by some artifice,
through which the soul of the person, for whom he is
doing the work, is saved, the completion of the undertaking
is prevented. The cock, for instance, is made to
crow; because, like the giants and dwarfs, who shun the
light of the sun, the devil also loses his power at the break
of day ^.
In being thus deceived and outwitted, he bears
a striking resemblance to the giants, who, though possessing
prodigious strength, yet know not how to profit by it,
and therefore in their conflicts with gods and heroes always
prove the inferior '^,
While in the giant-traditions and tales of Germany a
great degree of unifonnity appears, the belief in dwarfs
displays considerable vivacity and variety ; though no other
branch of German popular story exhibits
such a mixture
with the ideas of the neighbouring Kelts and Slaves.
This
intermingling of German and foreign elements appears
particularly striking on comparing the German and Keltic
elf-stories, between which will be found a strong simihtude,
1 Grimm, D. S. No. 202; Harrys, i. No. 11.
2 Stbpke, or Stepke, is in Los^•er Saxony an appellation of the devil and
of the whirlwind, from which proceed the fogs that pass over the land.
The devil sits in the w^hirlwind and rushes howling and raging through
the air. Mark. Sagen, p. 377. The whirlwind is also ascribed to witches.
If a knife be cast into it, the witch will
be wounded and become visible.
Schreibers Taschenbuch, 1839, p. 323. Comp. Grimm, Abergl. 522, 554 ;
Mones Anzeiger, 8, 278. See also vol. iii. p. 23. The spuits that raise
storms and hail may be appeased by shaking out a flour-sack and saying :
" Siehe da, Wind, koch ein Mus fiir dein Kind " (See ! there, Wind, boil a
pap for thy child !) ; or by throwing a tablecloth out of the window.
Grimm, Abergl. 282. Like the Wild Huntsman, the devil on Ash Wednesday
hunts the ivood-tvives. lb. 469, 914. See vol. iii. p. 60, note 2.
3 See p. 8, note 3. 4 Miiller, p. 317.