"Den mitten im Gesange sprang
Ein rothes Mäuschen ihr aus dem Munde."
—Rochholtz, Deut. Glaube u. Brauch, i. 156, 157.
[105] i. 268.
[106] The mouse that passes over the yarn occurs again in German tradition:—"Gertrudenbuchlein ab: Zwei Mäuschen nagen an einer flachsumwundenen Spindel; eine Spinnerinn sitzt am St Gertrudentag, noch in der Zeit der Zwölften, wo die Geister in Gestalt von Mäusen erscheinen, darf gesponnen werden;" Rochholtz, ut supra, i. 158.
[107] Cfr. Pentamerone, iii. 5.—In the story, iv. 1, the grateful mice assist Mineć Aniello to find the lost ring by gnawing the finger on which the magician wears it.
[108] Alâyyasya paraçur nanâça tam â pavasya (pavasva according to Aufrecht's text, and according to the commentator—cfr. Bollensen, Zur Herstellung des Veda, in the Orient und Occident of Benfey, ii. 484) deva soma; âkhuṁ ćid eva deva soma; Ṛigv. ix. 67, 30.
[109] Cfr. the Antigonê of Sophocles, v. 973, et seq.
[110] This dass no of the Piedmontese means "if not," and is evidently of Germanic origin. The Piedmontese dialect has also taken from the Germanic languages the final negative.—In Germany, children sing to the snails—
"Schneckhûs, peckhûs,
Stäk dîn vêr hörner rût,
Süst schmît ick dî in'n graven
Da frêten dî de raven."
—Cfr. Kuhn und Schwartz, N. d. S. M. u. G., p. 453.
[111] In Rabelais, i. 38, when Gargantua has eaten five pilgrims in his salad, another still remains hidden under a leaf of lettuce. His father says to him—"Je crois que c'est là une corne de limasson, ne le mangez point. Pourquoy? dist Gargantua, ilz sont bons tout se moys."
[112] Simrock, Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie, 2te Aufl., p. 516.