He fled across the enclosure, bellowing, "Oh, oh, what a calamity! Many
a time have I been terrified at the arrows of old father Pikne,[17] but
they are nothing to this cudgel!"

When the host had convinced himself, by the aid of the magic hat, that
the room was cleared of the dwarfs, he invited the guests to re-enter.
During the feast the omniscient man read the secret thoughts of the
wedding-guests, and learned much which the others did not suspect. The
bridegroom thought more of the wealth of his father-in-law than of his
young wife; and she, who was not altogether faultless, hoped that her
husband and her matron's cap would protect her from scandal. It's a
great pity that such a hat is no longer to be met with in our times.

[Footnote 14: The Esthonian term is peculiar. "Ox-knee people"--_i.e._,
people as tall as an ox's knee.]

[Footnote 15: Compare the _Kalevipoeg_, Cantos 13 and 14.]

[Footnote 16: Compare Croker's Irish story of "Master and Man."]

[Footnote 17: The Thunder-God.]

THE MAN IN THE MOON.

Stories of the Man in the Moon are generally common. In Esthonia it is
generally the Woman in the Moon, as may be seen in the two beautiful
legends of Videvik, and of the Maiden at the Vaskjalla Bridge. The short
legend which follows these resembles that in the Prose Edda relative to
two children carrying a bucket (Jack and Jill?) who were taken to
himself by the Moon. The story of the Moon-Painter might have been
inserted here; but it seemed to come in more appropriately in another
place.

We meet with sons and daughters of the Sun and Moon among the Finns and
Lapps, as well as among the Esthonians.

VIDEVIK, KOIT, AND AeMARIK[18]

(_Twilight, Dawn, and Evening Twilight_).

The Creator had three diligent servants--two fair and lovely maidens,
Videvik and Aemarik, and the slender youth Koit. They fulfilled his
orders and looked after his affairs. One evening at sunset, Videvik, the
eldest, came back from ploughing with her oxen, and led them to the
river to drink. But maidens are always accustomed to think first of
their own bright faces, and so was it with the charming Videvik. She
thought no more of the oxen, but stepped to the water's edge and looked
down. And behold, her brown eyes and red cheeks looked back upon her
from the surface of the stream, and her heart beat with pleasure. But
the Moon, whom the Creator had ordered to take the place of the setting
sun to enlighten the worl