af of bread, in which a knife was
stuck. With ready wit she divined, or recollected, the purpose of the
bread; and cutting a good slice she threw it to the dog. While he was
busy devouring it she filled her apron from the treasure contained in
the chest. But meantime the door closed, and there was nothing for it
but to lie down and sleep. She awoke to find the door wide open, and at
once made the best of her way home. But she was not a little astounded
to learn that she had been gone for a whole year.[132]

A Lapp tale presents this mysterious lapse of time as the sequel of an
adventure similar to that of Ulysses with Polyphemus. An old Lapp,
having lost his way while hunting, came to a cottage. The door was open;
and he entered to remain there the night, and began to cook in a pot he
carried with him the game he had caught that day. Suddenly a witch
entered, and asked him: "What is your name?" "Myself," answered the
Lapp; and taking a spoonful of the boiling liquid he flung it in her
face. She cried out: "Myself has burnt me! Myself has burnt me!" "If you
have burnt yourself you ought to suffer," answered her companion from
the neighbouring mountain. The hunter was thus delivered for the moment
from the witch, who, however, as she went away, exclaimed: "Self has
burnt me; Self shall sleep till the new year!" When the Lapp had
finished his repast he lay down to repose. On awaking he rummaged in his
provision-sack: he found its contents mouldy and putrid. Nor could he
understand this before he got home and learned that he had been missing
for six months.[133]

This story is unlike the previous ones, inasmuch as it represents the
six months' disappearance as in no way due to any enticements, either of
supernatural beings or of the hero's own passions. Neither music, nor
dancing, neither greed nor curiosity, led him astray. The aboriginal
inhabitants of Japan in like manner tell of a certain man who went out
in his boat to fish and was carried off by a storm to an unknown land.
The chief, an old man of divine aspect, begged him to stay there for the
night, promising to send him home to his own country on the morrow. The
promise was fulfilled by his being sent with some of the old chief's
subjects who were going thither; but the man was enjoined to lie down in
the boat and cover up his head. When he reached his native place the
sailors threw him into the water; and ere he came to himself sailors and
boat had disappeared. H