Then the gentleman went on his travels again: and he came to a village, and outside the village there was a pond, and round the pond was a crowd of people. And they had got rakes, and brooms, and pickels [= pitchforks] reaching into the pond, and the gentleman asked what was the matter. "Why," they says, "matter enough! moon's tumbled into the pond, and we can't get her out anyhow!" So the gentleman burst out a-laughing, and told them to look up into the sky, and that it was only the shadow in the water. But they wouldn't listen to him, and abused him shamefully, and he got away as quick as he could.
So there was a whole lot of sillies bigger than them all, and the gentleman turned back home again and married the farmer's daughter.[1]
TURCOMAN FOLK-LORE.
Charms.
WITHIN the roof [of the ev= wicker hut], and near its top, hung a couple of lamb or goat-skins, turned inside out, and smoke-dried. The neck-aperture is kept widely open by four crossed sticks. These skins swing to and fro in the air current produced by the fire, and are termed toonik. I have repeatedly questioned the Turcomans as to the meaning of this. They evidently attached some mysterious importance to it, but were loth to explain. Near the doorway, against the felt wall-lining, is sewn a piece of linen or calico, four or five inches square, forming a pocket for the reception of the bounties of wandering spirits. This they call the tarum. A horse-shoe, too, is occasionally to be found
- ↑ References to parallel stories in Folk-Lore Record, vol. iii. p. 156. See also the "Three Goodies," in Popular Tales from the Norse, and another parallel in Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands, vol. ii. No. xlviii. Cf. No. xx.
