Zoological Mythology Volume Ii Part 5

"Kuckuck, kuckuck Gerderut Stak dine ver Horns herut."[112]

FOOTNOTES:

[72] V?iddhasya cid vardhato dyam inakshata? stavano vamro vi ?aghana sa?diha?; _?igv._ i. 51, 9.

[73] Vamribhi? putram agruvo adana? nivecanad dhariva a ?abhartha; _?igv._ iv. 19, 9.--Another variation is the hedgehog, which, as we have seen in Chapter V., forces the viper out of its den.

[74] The dwarf-hermits, who transport a leaf upon a car, and are about to be drowned in the water contained in the foot-print of a cow, and who curse Indras, who pa.s.ses smiling without a.s.sisting them, in the legend of the _Mahabharatam_, are a variety of these same ants.--Cfr.

the chapters on the Elephant and on the Fishes, where we have Indras who fears to be submerged.

[75] Fa c.u.n.to ca no le mancava lo latto de la formica; _Pentamerone_, i. 8.

[76] _Biblion Istorikon_, xii. 404.--In the _Epist. Presb. Johannis_, we find also:--"In quadam provincia nostra sunt formicae in magnitudine catulorum, habentes vii. pedes et alas iv. Istae formicae ab occasu solis ad ortum morantur sub terra et fodiunt purissimum aurum tota nocte--quaerunt victum suum tota die. In nocte autem veniunt homines de cunctis civitatibus ad colligendum ipsum aurum et imponunt elephantibus. Quando formicae sunt supra terram, nullus ibi audet accedere propter crudelitatem et ferocitatem ipsarum."--Cfr. _infra._

[77] Of this expression a historical origin is given, referring it to a Bolognese doctor of the twelfth century, named Grillo.--Cfr.

Fanfani, _Vocabolario dell 'uso Toscano, s. v._ "grillo."

[78] Here are the words of the song of this curious wedding, which I heard sung at Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, near Florence:--

"Grillo, mio grillo, Se tu vuoi moglie, dillo; Se tu n' la vuoi, Abbada a' fatti tuoi.

Tinfillulilalera Linfillulilala.

"Povero grillo, 'n un campo di lino, La formicuccia gne ne chiese un filo.

D'un filo solo, cosa ne vuoi tu fare?

Grembi e camicie; mi vuo' maritare.

Disse lo grillo:--Ti piglier io.

La formicuccia:--Son contenta anch' io.

Tinfillul., &c.

"Povero grillo, 'n un campo di ceci; La formicuccia gne ne chiese dieci Di dieci soli, cosa ne vuoi tu fare?

Quattro di stufa, e sei li vuo' girare.

Tinfillul., &c.

"Povero grillo facea l'ortolano L'andava a spa.s.so col ravanello in mano; Povero grillo, andava a Pontedera, Con le vilancie pesava la miseria.

Tinfillul., &c.

"Povero grillo, l'andiede a Monteboni, Dalla miseria l'impegn i calzoni; Povero grillo facea l'oste a Colle, L'and fallito e baston la moglie.

Tinfillul., &c.

"La formicuccia and alla festa a il Porto, Ebbe la nova che il suo grillo era morto La formicuccia, quando seppe la nova La casc in terra, stette svenuta un 'ora.

La formicuccia si b.u.t.t su il letto, Con le calcagna si batteva il petto.

Tinfillul.," &c.

[79] Cfr. Zacher, _Pseudo-Callisthenes_, Halle, 1867.

[80] Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ xi. 31.

[81] Iyattika cakuntika saka ?aghasa te visham; _?igv._ i. 191, 11.

[82] iv. 1.

[83] _De Quad. Dig. Viv._ ii.

[84] i. 49.

[85] ii. 22.

[86] The forgetfulness of the lynx, as well as of the cat, is proverbial. St Jerome, in the Ep. ad Chrisog.--"Verum tu quod natura lynces insitum habent, ne post tergum respicientes meminerint priorum, et mens perdat quod oculi videre desierint, ita nostrae es necessitudinis penitus oblitus." Thus of the lynx it is said by aelianos that it covers its urine with sand (like the cat), so that men may not find it, for in seven days the precious stone lyncurion is formed of this urine. The cat that sees by night, the lynx that sees through opaque bodies, the fable of Lynkeus, who, according to Pliny, saw in one day the first and the last moon in the sign of Aries, and the lynx that, according to Apollonios, saw through the earth what was going on in h.e.l.l, recall to us the moon, the wise and all-seeing fairy of the sky, and the infernal moon.

[87] Quoted by Benfey in the Einleitung to the _Pancatantram_.

[88] v. 5421-5448.

[89] "Let no man, apprised of this law, present even water to a priest who acts like a cat;" iv. 192, version of Jones and Graves' _Chamney Haughton_, edited by Percival, Madras, 1863.--In a Russian story quoted by Afana.s.sieff in his observations to the first volume of his stories, the cat Eustachio feigns itself penitent or monk in order to eat the mouse when it pa.s.ses. It being observed that the cat is too fat for a penitent, it answers that it eats from the duty of preserving its health.

[90] iii. 147, Stuttgart, Cotta, 1857.

[91] Translation by Ch. Potvin, Paris and Brussels, 1861.

[92] From the peasant-woman Uliva Selvi, who told it to me at Antignano, near Leghorn.

[93] Cfr. _Afana.s.sieff_, v. 32, where a cat is bought by a virtuous workman for the price of a kapeika (a small coin), the only price that he had consented to take as a reward for his work; the same cat is bought by the king for three vessels. With another kapeika, earned by other work, the workman delivers the king's daughter from the devil, and subsequently marries her.

[94] Cfr. a.n.a.logous subjects in Chapter I., _e.g._, Emilius the lazy and stupid youth, and the blind woman who recovers her sight.

[95]

Huc quoque terrigenam venisse Typha narrat, Et se ment.i.tis superos cela.s.se figuris; Duxque gregis, dixit, fit Jupiter; unde recurvis Nunc quoque formatus Lybis est c.u.m cornibus Ammon Delius in corvo, proles Semeleia capro Fele soror Phbi, nivea Saturnia vacca, Pisce Venus latuit, Cyllenius ibidis alis.

--v. 325-332.

[96] In the eighteenth story of the third book of _Afana.s.sieff_ it is in company with the lamb (in the nineteenth, with the he-goat) that the cat terrifies the wolf and the bear.

[97]

"Idiot kot na nagah, V krasnih sapagah; Nessiot sabliu na plessie; A palocku pri bedrie, Hociet lissu parubit, Ieia dushu zagubit."

Puss-in-boots (le chat botte), helps the third brother in the tale of Perrault.

[98] In Tuscany the previously mentioned story-teller, Uliva Selvi, at Antignano, near Leghorn, narrated it to me as follows:--A mother has a number of children and no money; a fairy tells her to go to the summit of the mountain, where she will find many enchanted cats in a beautiful palace, who give alms. The woman goes, and a kitten lets her in; she sweeps the rooms, lights the fire, washes the dishes, draws water, makes the beds, and bakes bread for the cats; at last she comes before the king of the cats, who is seated with a crown on his head, and asks for alms. The great cat rings the golden bell with a golden chain, and calls the cats. He learns that the woman has treated them well, and orders them to fill her ap.r.o.n with gold coins (rusponi). The wicked sister of the poor woman also goes to visit the cats, but she maltreats them, and returns home all scratched, and more dead than alive from pain and terror.

[99] Cfr. Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauche_, i. 161.

[100] _Ib._--I find the same belief referred to in the twenty-first Esthonian story of Kreutzwald.

[101] It is almost universally believed that when the cat cleans itself behind its ears with its wet paw, it presages rain. And yet the Latin proverb says--

"Catus amat pisces, sed aquas intrare recusat;"