saw the deed; no human eye, but the sun, the heavenly eye (that is God) saw it. There are other sagas of the sun, and how he hides himself, and will not look on when a murder is about to be committed; compare Odyssey, 20, 356, and the Solarlied, of the Edda, 23. In Boner (Beispiele, 61) this same saga appears with a change of incident. The King promises a Jew who is carrying a great deal of money about with him, an escort through a dangerous forest. The innkeeper is deputed to do this, but he himself is incited to murder by greed of wealth. When the Jew perceives his design, he says, "The birds, which are flying about here, will reveal the murder." The innkeeper laughs at this, and when he has drawn his sword, and a partridge comes up, he says mockingly, "Behold, Jew; the partridge will reveal it." Then he murders him, takes the gold, and goes home. Before long a partridge is taken to the King, and the innkeeper thinks of the Jew's words, and laughs. The King asks the reason of this, the innkeeper reveals his deed, and comes to the gallows. Compare Liedersaal, 2. 601, 602. Altd. Blätter, 1. 117-119. Hulderich Wolgemut relates the fable in his Erneuerter Aesopus (Frankfurt, 1623), 2. 465, 66, very much as Boner does, though not exactly like him. The same idea is again to be found in the cranes of Ibycus. That a dying man's words have power, has been already mentioned in Fafnismàl, as an ancient belief. The proverb,
"Howsoever fine it is spun,
It will one day come to the sun,"
which is to be found even in Boner, 49, 55, and in Otaker, 663, should be remarked.
116.—The Blue Light.
From the province of Mecklenburg. The pipe which the soldier smokes, must have had its origin in the flute, which the elves are elsewhere accustomed to obey, as in No. 91. The blue light is a will-o'-the-wisp, Danish vättelys (spirit-light), and Lygtemand, the Lord of the little dwarf. Schärtlin's exclamation was "Blue fire!" which words too are several times to be found in Hans Sachs. The saga of Albertus Magnus who used to bring the King of France's daughter into his bed at night, is similar. Her father had the whole of Paris whitewashed, and the princess had to dip her hands in some red dye, and mark the house to which she was taken with it. Thus the culprit was discovered, and was to have been executed, but he escaped by means of a ball of yarn which possessed magic properties; see Görres' Meisterlieder, pp. 195, 208. See Nos. 11 and 67, in Pröhle's Kindermärchen. In Danish, see the Tinder-box, in Andersen, vol. i. In Hungarian, The Tobacco-Pipe, in Gaal, No. 1.
