Indians station a huge and furious dog at the other end of the above-mentioned snake bridge.[1]
In European folk tales, and especially in those of Scandinavia, we often meet with an old woman who bears rule over animals. She likes to be called 'Mother,' is fond of being scratched or washed, and is glad to get hold of a pair of shoes, a piece of tobacco, or the like. If the Ash-Lad meets her and does her any such service, she requites him with a 'motherly turn,' making her animals help him or giving him gifts. But besides this common theme which reappears in a majority of our folk-tales, we can also point to a particular story which is founded on similar conceptions. The Ash-Lad comes to the ogress with a whole company of animals, the stoat, the tree-bear (the squirrel), the hare, the fox, the wolf and the bear, to try to rescue his sister whom she has carried off. While he is eating, the ogress cries 'Scratch me! scratch me!' 'You must wait till I've finished,' says the boy; but his sister warns him that if he does not do it at once the ogress will tear him to pieces. Then he makes the animals scratch her, one after the other; but none of them content her until it comes to the turn of the bear, who claws her till her itch departs. In several
- ↑ Tylor, op. cit. p. 50. Compare Knortz, Aus dem Wigwam, p. 142.
