Chapter XXXIII: Canto 14: ) contained mere ordinary stores

[115]
A not very unusual incident in folk-tales, though it
often takes the form of offering an iron bar instead
of your own hand to a giant who wishes to shake hands
with you.

[116]
A visit to any description of non-human intelligent
beings in Esthonian tales almost always extends to
years, though it may have apparently lasted for only a
day or two.

[117]
In most stories of this class, the hero forgets his
companion on reaching home, either by a charm or by
breaking a taboo.

[118]
Another instance of a child being asked for by an
ambiguous request is to be found in the story of the
Clever Countrywoman (Jannsen), which must not be
confounded with one in Kreutzwald's collection with a
nearly similar title, and of which we append an
abstract. The story ends, rather unusually, in a
subterfuge. A herd-boy returned one evening, and
reported to his mistress that a cow was missing. The
woman went herself, but everything round her was
changed by magic, and she could not find her way home.
However, as the mist rose from the moor, a little
white man appeared, whom she recognised as one of the
moor-dwellers. He took her home, and returned her cow,
on her promising him what she would carry night and
day under her heart. From thenceforth she took care
always to wear her apron. A year afterwards, she
became the mother of a fine boy, and when he was nine
weeks old, the window was opened one night, and the
intruder cried out, "Give me what you have carried
night and day under your heart, as you promised." The
woman flung him her apron, crying out, "In the name of
the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, receive
what I promised you;" and he instantly vanished with
the apron.

[119]
These great public periodical feasts are Eastern
rather than Western. Compare the story of Ali Shar and
Zumurrud ( _Thousand and One Nights_ ).

[120]
A similar feat is performed by Sarvik in the
_Kalevipoeg_,