he is said to turn round once. Others say that he stole willow bows, which he must bear for ever.
In Silt, the story goes that he was a sheep-stealer, who enticed sheep to him with a bundle of cabbages, until, as an everlasting warning to others, he was placed in the moon, where he constantly holds in his hand a bundle of these vegetables.
The people of Rantum say that he is a giant, who at the time of the flow stands in a stooping posture, because he is then taking up water, which he pours out on the earth, and thereby causes high tide; but at the time of the ebb he stands erect, and rests from his labour, when the water can subside again[1].
The Dutch household myth is, that the unhappy man was caught stealing vegetables. Dante calls him Cain:—
“… Now cloth Cain with fork of thorns confine,
On either hemisphere, touching the wave
Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight
The moon was round.”—Hell, cant. xx.
- ↑ Thorpe’s “Mythology and Popular Traditions,” vol. iii. p. 57.
