[69] Ruobba, or Gudnavirũs, i. e. scurfy skull, is the Lapp for Ashiepattle. See "Jætten og Veslegutten," Friis.
[70] See note, vol. i. p. 407.
[71] The Death of Dermid, by Ferguson, may also be compared. Where the hero is slain by the envenomed bristle piercing his foot. For this part of the poem, vide Dublin Magazine, 1868, p. 594.
[73] The witch's daughter in the "Two Orphans" is lame of one foot. See p. [221].
[74] There is a curious tale of a relation of my own who was popularly said to be able to cure people of ague by going to a thorn and shaking while she said: "Shake, good tree, shake for So-and-so," and then the disease fled. I have heard that the good old dame was herself always very ill after this operation. The hanging of a lock of hair on a tree, I presume, was understood to be the same as taking the afflicted person to the tree.
[75] See also another Lapp tale, "Haccis Ædne." Notes and Queries, 7th s. ii. Aug. 7, 1886.
[76] I have often had this tale told to me by my nurse when a child, and heard the following version a short time ago in Holderness, and was informed it had been told thus for ages: "There was a stepmother who was very unkind to her stepdaughter and very kind to her own daughter; and used to send her stepdaughter to do all the dirty work. One day she sent her to the pump for some water when a little frog came up through the sink and asked her not to pour dirty water down, as his drawing-room was there. So she did not, and as a reward he said pearls and diamonds should drop from her mouth when she spoke. When she returned home it happened as he said; and the step-mother, learning how it had come about, sent her own daughter to the pump. When she got there the little frog spoke to her and asked her not to throw dirty water down, and she replied "Oh! you nasty, dirty little thing, I won't do as you ask me." Then the frog said "Whenever you speak frogs, and toads, and snakes shall drop from your mouth." She went home and it happened as the frog had said. At night when they were sitting at the table a little voice was heard singing outside—
"Come bring me my supper,[A]
My own sweet, sweet one."