[8] A division of South Sweden washed by the Skaggerack and Kattegat.
[9] Cf. "Haastelewat Kuuset" (The Talking Pines), S. ja T. ii. p. 73, where the man is about to reveal to his wife, who has been plaguing him to tell her, why he laughed when he heard some birds twittering, and, as this means death, he puts on all his clothes and lays himself out on a bench. Just then the hens are let loose, and as they run about the floor of the chamber where the man is the cock struts about and says, "Cock, cocko, cock, cocko! See, I have fifty wives and govern them all; the master has only one and can't manage her, therefore the fool is going to die." The man heard that, got up and kept his secret. Animals' language must not be revealed. Cf. Benfey, Ein Märchen von der Thiersprachen in Orient und Occident. Naake's Slavonic Tales, Servian story of the Language of Animals, 71-99; and "[Woman's Curiosity]," p. [301], in the present volume.
[10] Old Deccan Days, "Rama and Luxman," p. 66.—Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories, "Svend's Exploits," p. 343.—Grimm, "Faithful John," vol. i. p. 33, and Notes, p. 348.—"[Secret-Keeping Little Boy]," p. [233], in this volume.
[11] Near the bath-house (vide supra, p. [308]) is the kiln to dry corn, a most important building in the Finnish farmstead. It is built of wood like the bath-house. On one side of the doorway is a stove (built of stones, see Land of the Midnight Sun, vol. ii. p. 274, where there are illustrations of somewhat similar stoves or ovens), that gives out a great heat and smoke, which fills the inside of the building, especially the upper part. This "ria" or kiln is used to dry the corn in. All Finnish rye is dried in this way. Retzius, p. 120.
[12] Ruobba, scurfy skull, or Gudnavirus, i.e. Ashiepattle.
[13] Cf. Dasent: "Boots and His Brothers," p. 382, where Boots finds an axe hewing away at a fir tree, and a spade digging and delving by itself, and by their means he got the princess and half the kingdom.
[14] Wagner's Asgard, p. 208. Roman intruders are called "the Roman dragon, the bane of Asgard." Wagner's Epics and Romances, "the Nibelung," p. 3; "the Dragonstone," p. 243. Henderson's Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties, p. 283.
[15] Professor Ebers says: "Red was the colour of Seth and Typhon. The Evil One is named the Red, as, for instance, in the papyrus of Ebers red-haired men were typhonic." See "Uarda," note on p. [58]. Red-haired people are still in some parts looked on as unlucky to meet when going to sea, or as "first foot." See also Black's Folk-Medicine, pp. 111-113. According to a Magyar jingle:
"A red dog; a red nag; a red man; none is good!"
[16] A finger song, common, with slight variations, in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, and Swedish speaking people in Finland. Cf. Yorkshire—