[5] See Sitten Bräuche u. Meinungen des Tiroler Volks, p. 81.

[6] Its origin may be traced further back than this, perhaps. The cat was held to be the sacred animal of Freia (Schrader, Germ. Myth.), and the word freien, to woo, to court, is derived from her name. (Nork.)

[7] The merry mocking laugh was a distinguishing characteristic of Robin Goodfellow. ‘Mr. Launcelot Mirehouse, Rector of Pestwood, Wilts, did aver to me, super verbum sacerdotis, that he did once heare such a lowd laugh on the other side of a hedge, and was sure that no human lungs could afford such a laugh.’—John Aubrey, in Thoms’ Anecdotes and Traditions, Camb. Camden Society, 1839.

[8]

O woe! the plough like fire glows,

And no one how to help me knows.

[9]

Released am I now, God be praised,

And the bound-stone again rightly placed.

[10] The haunting cobbler—a popular name for ‘the wandering Jew’; in Switzerland they call him ‘Der Umgehende Jud.’