Northern mythology

DANISH TRADITIONS. 175
perished, if the mother had not come every night to suckle
it. Being greatly troubled and perplexed on account of
this changeling, the woman at length hit on the following
plan for getting rid of it. Having instructed her servant
maid what she should ask and say, she heated the oven
very hot, whereupon the girl, in a voice loud enough to
be heard by the Troll-folk, said, " Why do you heat the
oven so hot, Mistress V To which the woman answered,
"I am going to burn my child.^^ When the girl had
asked this question three times, and received the same
answer, she took the changeling and laid it on the peel,
as if about to thrust it into the oven. At this moment
the subterranean woman rushed in, took her child from
the peel, and returned the woman her own, with these
words :
" There is your child ! I have done by it better
than you have by mine.^^ And, in fact, the child was, as
she said, both thriving and strong.
HOW TO DISTINGUISH A CHANGELING.
When a child is born, the lights in the lying-in chamber
must not be extinguished; for otherwise the infant may
easily be exchanged by the underground folk. At a place
in North Jutland, it happened many years ago in a lyingin
room that the mother could get no sleep while the
lights were burning. So the husband resolved to take
the child in his arm, in order to keep strict watch over it
as long as it was dark in the room. But unfortunately
he fell asleep without having noticed in which arm he
held his child, and on being waked by a shake of the arm,
he saw a tall woman standing by the bed, and found that
he had an infant in each arm. The woman instantly
vanished, but there he lay, without knowing which of the
two children was his own. In this difficulty he went to
the priest, who advised him to get a wild stallion colt,
which would enable him to discover the right one. They