ating, and the dove continued until the service was ended. In the old woodcuts of the Golden Legend, the Popes are uniformly distinguished by a Dove whispering in their ears." Anglia Sacra ii. 631.—Tr.]
34.—Clever Alice.
From Zwehrn. Another story called, Hansen's Trine, also from Hesse, likewise begins with lazy Trine asking, "What shall I do; shall I eat, or sleep, or work?" Hans finds her asleep in the room and cuts off her gown as far as her knees, and when she awakes, she is confused about her identity.[1] On this last point a passage in Joh. Pomarius; Sächs Chronik. (1588), p. 14, should be observed, which says, "Whatsoever maid or wife shall be taken in adultery, her clothes shall be cut off beneath her girdle, and she shall be scourged and driven away from amongst the people." As a whole, the story of Clever Alice is allied to that of Catherlieschen, No. 59, and in one part is identical.
35.—The Tailor in Heaven.
From a story in Frei's Gartengesellschaft, No. 61, and in Kirchhof's Wendunmut, 1. No. 230. A story varying a little in trifling points, is to be found in Wickram's Rollwagen (Frankfurt, 1590), pp. 98b. 99b. Fischart alludes to the story in Flohhatz (Dornavius, 390); only, according to him, it was told of St. Peter.
"wie man von Sanct Peter saget,[2]
der, als er Herr Gott war ein Tag
und Garn sah stehlen eine Magd,
wurf er ihr gleich ein Stuhl zum Schopf,
erwies also sein Peterskopf;
häts solcher Gestalt er lange getrieben,
es wär kein Stuhl im Himmel blieben."
- ↑ See the well-known nursery rhyme about the little old woman who fell asleep by the King's highway, and whose petticoats were cut off by the pedlar. In Verstegan, Camb. Brit., vol. iii., p. 260, we read, "If either wife or maid were found in dishonesty, her clothes were cut off round about her beneath the girdle-stead, and she was whipped and turned out to be derided of the people." See also Probert's Ancient Laws of Cambria.—Tr.
- ↑
As of St. Peter it is told,
In God's place how he sat one day,
And saw a maid steal yarn away.
Into her lap a chair he threw,
And showed his saintly visage too,
If to this pastime more time he had given,
Not a single chair had been left in heaven.
