The Mermaid Wife
: Folk-lore And Legends ScotlandA story is told of an inhabitant of Unst, who, in walking on the sandy
margin of a voe, saw a number of mermen and mermaids dancing by
moonlight, and several seal-skins strewed beside them on the ground. At
his approach they immediately fled to secure their garbs, and, taking
upon themselves the form of seals, plunged immediately into the sea. But
as the Shetlander perceived that one skin lay close to his feet, he
sn
returning to the shore he met the fairest damsel that was ever gazed upon
by mortal eyes, lamenting the robbery, by which she had become an exile
from her submarine friends, and a tenant of the upper world. Vainly she
implored the restitution of her property; the man had drunk deeply of
love, and was inexorable; but he offered her protection beneath his roof
as his betrothed spouse. The merlady, perceiving that she must become an
inhabitant of the earth, found that she could not do better than accept
of the offer. This strange attachment subsisted for many years, and the
couple had several children. The Shetlander's love for his merwife was
unbounded, but his affection was coldly returned. The lady would often
steal alone to the desert strand, and, on a signal being given, a large
seal would make his appearance, with whom she would hold, in an unknown
tongue, an anxious conference. Years had thus glided away, when it
happened that one of the children, in the course of his play, found
concealed beneath a stack of corn a seal's skin; and, delighted with the
prize, he ran with it to his mother. Her eyes glistened with rapture--she
gazed upon it as her own--as the means by which she could pass through
the ocean that led to her native home. She burst forth into an ecstasy
of joy, which was only moderated when she beheld her children, whom she
was now about to leave; and, after hastily embracing them, she fled with
all speed towards the sea-side. The husband immediately returned,
learned the discovery that had taken place, ran to overtake his wife, but
only arrived in time to see her transformation of shape completed--to see
her, in the form of a seal, bound from the ledge of a rock into the sea.
The large animal of the same kind with whom she had held a secret
converse soon appeared, and evidently congratulated her, in the most
tender manner, on her escape. But before she dived to unknown depths,
she cast a parting glance at the wretched Shetlander, whose despairing
looks excited in her breast a few transient feelings of commiseration.
"Farewell!" said she to him, "and may all good attend you. I loved you
very well when I resided upon earth, but I always loved my first husband
much better."
More
-
The Magician's Daughter
Just on the Finland frontiers there is situated a high mountain, which, on the Swedish side, is covered with beautiful copsewood, and on the other with dark pine-trees, so closely ranked together, and so luxuriant in shade, that one might almost s... The Magician's Glass
This glass, into which a person looked when he wished to solve the future, or to ascertain whom he or she was to marry, was used by Welsh, as well as other magicians. The glass gave back the features of the person sought after, and reflected the ... The Magpie
The magpie was considered a bird of ill-omen. No one liked to see a magpie when starting on a journey, but in certain parts of Montgomeryshire, such as the parish of Llanwnog, if the magpie flew from left to right it foretold good luck; in other pa... The Magpie Teaching A Wood Pigeon How To Make A Nest
The wood pigeon makes an untidy nest, consisting of a few bits of twigs placed one on the other without much care. There is a fable in the Iolo MSS., p. 159, in Welsh, and the translation appears on page 567 in English, as follows:-- The magp... The Maid In The Box
There once lived a woman called Monedo Kway (female spirit or prophetess) on the sand mountains, called The Sleeping Bear of Lake Michigan, who had a daughter as beautiful as she was modest and discreet. Everybody spoke of her beauty, and she was ... The Maiden Who Loved A Fish
There was once among the Marshpees, a small tribe who have their hunting-grounds on the shores of the Great Lake, near the Cape of Storms, a woman whose name was Awashanks. She was rather silly, and very idle. For days together she would sit doing... The Maiden Wiser Than The Tsar
Long ago there lived an old man, who dwelt in a poor cottage. He possessed one thing only in the world, and that was a daughter who was so wise that she could teach even her old father. One day the man went to the tsar to beg, and the tsar, astoni... The Maiden's Trial
Before this gorgeous assembly--before this terrible king--stood, surrounded by guards, a trembling, shrinking girl, wrapping closer and closer her linen veil around her slight form and drooping head. "Tear off her veil!" said the king. The comm... The Man And His Image
A man, who had no rivals in the love Which to himself he bore, Esteem'd his own dear beauty far above What earth had seen before. More than contented in his error, He lived the foe of every mirror. ... The Man And The Wooden God
A pagan kept a god of wood,-- A sort that never hears, Though furnish'd well with ears,-- From which he hoped for wondrous good. The idol cost the board of three; So much enrich'd was he With vows and... The Man In The Moon
There was a blacksmith once, who complained: "I am not well, and my work is too warm. I want to be a stone on the mountain. There it must be cool, for the wind blows and the trees give a shade." A wise man, who had power over all things, replied, ... The Man In The Moon
Every one knows that the moon is inhabited by a man with a bundle of sticks on his back, who has been exiled thither for many centuries, and who is so far off that he is beyond the reach of death. He has once visited this earth, if the nurser... The Man Who Avenged The Widows
This was in the old days, in those times when men were yet skilful rowers in kayaks. You know that there once came a great sickness which carried off all the older men, and the young men who were left alive did not know how to build kayaks, and th... The Man Who Became A Star
There was once an old man who stood out on the ice waiting for the seal to come up to their breathing holes to breathe. But on the shore, just opposite where he was, a crowd of children were playing in a ravine, and time after time they frightened... The Man Who Entertained Bears
There was once a man who had lost all of his family in a terrible sickness that came upon the people of his village. He was all alone in the world and very sorrowful. He did not know what to do. First he thought he would get into his canoe and paddl... The Man Who Lost His Wife
A man had lost his wife, and was searching for her everywhere, over hill and dale, forest and sea-shore. At last he came to a wide plain, on which stood an oak-tree. Going up to it he found it to be not so much an oak-tree as a house, in which dwelt... The Man Who Married The Bear-goddess
There was a very populous village. It was a village having both plenty of fish and plenty of venison. It was a place lacking no kind of food. Nevertheless, once upon a time, a famine set in. There was no food, no venison, no fish, nothing to eat at ... The Man Who Married The Thunder's Sister
A certain young man went to a dance one evening and met there two strange young women, both of whom had the longest and handsomest hair he had ever seen. He looked at them a great deal from a distance and finally spoke to them, and before the dance ... The Man Who Never Knew Fear
TRANSLATED FROM THE GAELIC BY DOUGLAS HYDE There was once a lady, and she had two sons whose names were Louras (Lawrence) and Carrol. From the day that Lawrence was born nothing ever made him afraid, but Carrol would never go outside the door fr... The Man Who Stabbed His Wife In The Leg
There was once a man whose name was Neruvkaq, and his wife was named Navarana, and she was of the tunerssuit, the inland-dwellers. She had many brothers, and was herself their only sister. And they lived at Natsivilik, the place where there is a g... The Man Who Took A Vixen To Wife
There was once a man who wished to have a wife unlike all other wives, and so he caught a little fox, a vixen, and took it home to his tent. One day when he had been out hunting, he was surprised to find on his return that his little fox-wife ha... The Man Who Was Changed Into A Fox
A certain man's conduct was as follows: he went to every place, making it his business to do nothing but tell lies and extort things from people. Then, after a time, when wanting to extort again, he went on to another place. While walking along he u... The Man Who Went Out To Search For His Son
Once in the days of our forefathers, a man went out along the coasts, making search for his son. For that son had gone out in his kayak and had not returned. One day he saw a giant beside a great glacier, and rowed up to him then. When he had e... The Man-fish
A very great while ago the ancestors of the Shawanos nation lived on the other side of the Great Lake, half-way between the rising sun and the evening star. It was a land of deep snows and much frost, of winds which whistled in the clear, cold nig... The Man-tiger
There was once a young man who when a boy had learnt witchcraft from some girl friends; he was married but his wife knew nothing about this. They lived happily together and were in the habit of paying frequent visits to the wife's parents. One day t... The Marriage Of Mount Katahdin
An Indian girl gathering berries on the side of Mount Katahdin looked up at its peak, rosy in the afternoon light, and sighed, I wish that I had a husband. If Katahdin were a man he might marry me. Her companions laughed at this quaint conceit, and,... The Matanzas Obeah Woman
On a hillock near Matanzas, with a ragged wood behind it, stood for many years an unkempt cottage. In our land we should hardly dignify it by such a name. We would call it, rather, a hovel. Some rotting timbers of it may still be left, for the bla... The Materials Of The Icelandic Troy Saga
We trust the facts presented above have convinced the reader that the saga concerning the immigration of Odin and the Asas to Europe is throughout a product of the convent learning of the middle ages. That it was born and developed independently o... The May-pole Of Merrymount
The people of Merrymount--unsanctified in the eyes of their Puritan neighbors, for were they not Episcopals, who had pancakes at Shrovetide and wassail at Christmas?--were dancing about their May-pole one summer evening, for they tried to make it Ma... The Mayamah
The blacks had all left their camp and gone away to attend a borah. Nothing was left in the camp but one very old dog, too old to travel. After the blacks had been gone about three days, one night came their enemies, the Gooeeays, intending to sur... The Meal Of Frothi
Gold is called by the poets the meal of Frothi, and the origin of the term is found in this story. Odin had a son named Skioldr who settled and reigned in the land which is now called Denmark, but was then called Gotland. Skioldr had a son name... The Meester Stoorworm - A Story From Scotland
There was once a lad, and what his real name was nobody remembered, unless it was the mother who bore him; but what every one called him was Ashipattle. They called him that because he sat among the ashes to warm his toes. He had six older brot... The Meeting Of The Star-lovers
One of the greatest days in the calendar of old Japan was the seventh of July; or, as the Japanese people put it, "the seventh day of the seventh month." It was a vermilion day in the almanacs, to which every child looked forward with eyes sparkli... The Men Of The Early Times
Zuni (New Mexico) Eight years was but four days and four nights when the world was new. It was while such days and nights continued that men were led out, in the night-shine of the World of Seeing. For even when they saw the great star, they though... The Men Who Changed Wives
There were once two men, Talilarssuaq and Navssarssuaq, and they changed wives. Talilarssuaq was a mischievous fellow, who was given to frightening people. One evening, sitting in the house with the other's wife, whom he had borrowed, he thrust... The Merchant's Son And The Raja's Daughter
Once a merchant's wife and a Raja's wife were both with child and one day as they bathed together they fell into conversation, and they agreed that if they both bore daughters then the girls should be "flower friends" while if one had a son and one ... The Mermaid Wife
A story is told of an inhabitant of Unst, who, in walking on the sandy margin of a voe, saw a number of mermen and mermaids dancing by moonlight, and several seal-skins strewed beside them on the ground. At his approach they immediately fled to s... The Mermaids
In dime museums and county fairs one may still find among the "attractions" a mermaid, dried and stuffed, consisting of the upper half of a monkey artlessly joined to the lower half or two-thirds of a codfish, the monkey's head usually adorned wit... The Messengers Of Death
There was once a Brahman who had four sons born to him, but they all died young; a fifth son however was born to him, who grew up to boyhood. But it was fated that he too should die before reaching manhood. One day while his father was away from hom... The Mice And The Owl
A pine was by a woodman fell'd, Which ancient, huge, and hollow tree An owl had for his palace held-- A bird the Fates had kept in fee, Interpreter to such as we. Within the caverns of the pine, ... The Midnight Burial
The scene which he had witnessed had left the mind of Lycidas in an excited and feverish state. The cooling breeze which whispered amongst the leaves of the olives, and the solitude of the secluded place where Pollux had left him, were refreshing t... The Migration Of The Water People
Walpi (Arizona) In the long ago, the Snake, Horn, and Eagle people lived here (in Tusayan) but their corn grew only a span high and when they sang for rain, the Cloud god sent only a thin mist. My people lived then in the distant Pa-lat Kwa-bi in t... The Minister And The Fairy
Not long since, a pious clergyman was returning home, after administering spiritual consolation to a dying member of his flock. It was late of the night, and he had to pass through a good deal of uncanny land. He was, however, a good and a consc... The Misdoing Of Kamapua
When a child was born to Olopana, a lord of Oahu, in the twelfth century, he conceived a dislike to it, and freely alleged that his brother was its father. Such as dared to speak ill of dignitaries, and there were gossips in those days, as in all ... The Miser And The Monkey
A Man amass'd. The thing, we know, Doth often to a frenzy grow. No thought had he but of his minted gold-- Stuff void of worth when unemploy'd, I hold. Now, that this treasure might the safer be, Our miser's d... The Miser's Servant
Once there was a rich man who was a miser. Although he kept farm servants they would never stay out the year with him; but ran away in the middle. When the villagers asked why they ran away and so lost their year's wages the servants answered. "You ... The Misfortunes Of Paw Yan
Upon a day, Paw Yan[22] said to his wife, "Today I shall build a watch-tower in the rice fields." "You will need four posts about the size of our children here," replied the wife. Taking the four children with him to the rice fields, Paw Yan du... The Missing Soldier Of Valley Forge
During the dreadful winter of the American encampment at Valley Forge six or eight soldiers went out to forage for provisions. Knowing that little was to be hoped for near the camp of their starving comrades, they set off in the direction of French ... The Moaning Sisters
Above Georgetown, on the Potomac River, are three rocks, known as the Three Sisters, not merely because of their resemblance to each other--for they are parts of a submerged reef--but because of a tradition that, more than a hundred years ago, a boa... The Mongoose Boy
Once upon a time there was a Raja who had two wives. By his first wife he had six sons, but the second wife bore only one son and he was born as a mongoose. When the six sons of the elder wife grew up, they used to jeer at their mongoose brother and... The Monkey And The Cat
Sly Bertrand and Ratto in company sat, (The one was a monkey, the other a cat,) Co-servants and lodgers: More mischievous codgers Ne'er mess'd from a platter, since platters were flat. Was anything wrong in th... The Monkey And The Girl
Once upon a time the boys and girls of a village used to watch the crops of but growing by a river, and there was a Hanuman monkey who wished to eat the but, but they drove him away. So he made a plan: he used to make a garland of flowers and go wit... The Monkey And The Leopard
A monkey and a leopard were The rivals at a country fair. Each advertised his own attractions. Said one, "Good sirs, the highest place My merit knows; for, of his grace, The king hath seen me face to... The Monkey Boy
There was once a man who had six sons and two daughters and he died leaving his wife pregnant of a ninth child. And when the child was born it proved to be a monkey. The villagers and relations advised the mother to make away with it, but she r... The Monkey Husband
One very hot day some children were bathing in a pool, when a Hanuman monkey snatched up the cloth which one of the girls had left on the bank and ran up a tree with it. When the children came out of the water and went to take up their clothes, they... The Monkey Nursemaid
Once upon a time there were seven brothers who were all married and each had one child and the brothers arranged to engage a boy to carry the children about; so they sent for a boy and to see if he was strong enough, they made a loaf as big as a doo... The Monkey's Fiddle
Hunger and want forced Monkey one day to forsake his land and to seek elsewhere among strangers for much-needed work. Bulbs, earth beans, scorpions, insects, and such things were completely exhausted in his own land. But fortunately he received, f... The Monkeys And The Crabs
All the monkeys which live in the forests near the great sea in the south, watch the tide running out, hoping to catch the sea-crabs which are left in the soft earth. If they can find a crab above the ground, they immediately catch and eat it. So... The Monks At The Ferry
From time immemorial a ferry has existed from Andernach to the opposite side of the Rhine. Formerly it was more in use than at present, there being then a greater intercourse between the two shores of the river, much of which might be traced to th... The Monster Mosquitoe
They have some pretty big mosquitoes in New Jersey and on Long Island, but, if report of their ancestry is true, they have degenerated in size and voracity; for the grandfather of all mosquitoes used to live in the neighborhood of Fort Onondaga, New... The Moose Of Mount Kineo
Eastern traditions concerning Hiawatha differ in many respects from those of the West. In the East he is known as Glooskap, god of the Passamaquoddies, and his marks are left in many places in the maritime provinces and Maine. It was he who gave nam... The Mountain Of Venus
Ragged, bald, and desolate, as though a curse rested upon it, rises the HA¶rselberg out of the rich and populous land between Eisenach and Gotha, looking, from a distance, like a huge stone sarcophagus--a sarcophagus in which rests in magical s... The Mountain Spirits And The Stone Mortars
The spirits, who lived in the mountains near a large city, upon a time wanted money for some purpose, and they brought down to the people of the city a number of large and heavy stone mortars which they commanded them to buy at an exorbitant price. ... The Mourner's Home
I shall pass lightly over the events of several succeeding months. The summer passed away, with its intense heat and its fierce simooms. Then came heavier dews by night, and temperature gradually decreased by day. The harvest was ended, but few of... The Mouse Tower
To the traveller who has traversed the delightful environs of the Rhine, from the city of Mentz as far as Coblentz, or from the clear waves of this old Germanic stream gazed upon the grand creations of Nature, all upon so magnificent a scale, the ... The Myddvai Legend
A widow, who had an only son, was obliged, in consequence of the large flocks she possessed, to send, under the care of her son, a portion of her cattle to graze on the Black Mountain near a small lake called Llyn-y-Van-Bach. One day the son pe... The Mysterious Islands
Somewhere--anywhere--in the Atlantic, islands drifted like those tissues of root and sedge that break from the edges of northern lakes and are sent to and fro by the gales: floating islands. The little rafts bearing that name are thick enough to n... The Nain Rouge
Among all the impish offspring of the Stone God, wizards and witches, that made Detroit feared by the early settlers, none were more dreaded than the Nain Rouge (Red Dwarf), or Demon of the Strait, for it appeared only when there was to be trouble. ... The Nanhwynan Version
Once on a time, when a midwife from Nanhwynan had newly got to the Hafodydd Brithion to pursue her calling, a gentleman came to the door on a fine grey steed and bade her come with him at once. Such was the authority with which he spoke, that the p... The Naughty Grandchildren
An old woman had set her pot on the fire with the soup for dinner, and as her two grandchildren were playing near, she cautioned them not to upset the pot. The boy and girl were in a frolicsome mood, chasing one another with shouts of laughter; and ... The New Haven Storm Ship
In 1647 the New Haven colonists, who even at that early day exhibited the enterprise that has been a distinguishing feature of the Yankee, sent a ship to Ireland to try to develop a commerce, their trading posts on the Delaware having been broken up... The Next World
This is what the Santals say about the next world. After death men have a very hard time of it in the next world. Chando bonga makes them work terribly hard; the woman have to pound the fruit of the castor oil plant with a pestle; and from the seeds...