[257] Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 398, seq.
[258] See above, pp. [19], [169]; below, [Ireland]; and Grimm, ut sup. p. 1216. The swan-dresses also occur in the Arabian tales of Jahânshâh and Hassan of Bassora in Trebutien's Arabian Nights.
[259] Poésies de Marie de France, i. 177, seq.
[260] Another term is Wicht and its dim. Wichtlein, answering to the Scandinavian Vættr and the Anglo-Saxon wiht, English wight, all of which signify a being, a person, and also a thing in general. Thus our words aught and naught were anwiht and nawiht.
[261] See Grimm's Deutsche Sagen, vol. i. p. 38. As this work is our chief authority for the Fairy Mythology of Germany, our materials are to be considered as taken from it, unless when otherwise expressed.
[262] In Lusatia (Lausatz) if not in the rest of Germany, the same idea of the Dwarfs being fallen angels, prevails as in other countries: see the tale of the Fairies'-sabbath in the work quoted above, p. 179.
[263] This tale is given by MM. Grimm, from the Brixener Volksbuch. 1782.
[264] Related by Hammelmann in the Oldenburg Chronicle, by Prætorius, Bräuner, and others.
Frühmorgens eh die Sonn aufgeht
Schon alles vor dem Berge steht.