-god
himself stood by the fisherman, and thanked him for his aid, saying, "In
future, whenever my instrument is heard in the clouds, your nets will be
well filled with fish." Then he hastened home again.

On the way his son met him, and fell on his knees, confessing his fault,
and humbly asking pardon. Then said Father Kou, "The frivolity of man
often wars against the wisdom of heaven, but you may thank your stars,
my son, that I have recovered the power to annihilate the traces of the
suffering which your folly has brought on the people." As he spoke, he
sat down on a stone, and blew into the thunder-instrument till the
rain-gates were opened, and the thirsty earth could drink her fill. Old
Kou took his son into his service, and they live together still.

* * * * *

In our next story we shall see the Devil and his companions
overreaching themselves in a manner worthy of the _Ingoldsby Legends_,
while in the Polyphemus story already referred to under Cosmopolitan
Tales we find the Devil blinded and perishing miserably.

[Footnote 51: There is a variant of this story (Pikne's Trumpet:
Kreutzwald) in which Tuehi himself steals the trumpet while Pikne is
asleep. Pikne is afraid to apply for aid to the Old Father, for fear of
being punished for losing it, but recovers it by an artifice similar to
that employed in the present story. This is interesting as showing Pikne
to be only a subordinate deity. Loewe considers the Thunderer's musical
instrument to be a bagpipe.]

[Footnote 52: He does not call his father Vanaisa, which would identify
him with the Supreme God, but uses another term, _Vana taat_.]

[Footnote 53: As Louhi, in the _Kalevala_, secures the magic mill, the
Sampo.]

[Footnote 54: This story is probably connected with the Finnish and
Esthonian legends of the theft of the sun and moon by sorcerers.]

THE MOON-PAINTER.

(JANNSEN.)

When the Lord God had created the whole world, the work did not turn out
so complete as it ought to have done, for there was an insufficiency of
light. In the daytime the sun pursued his course through the firmament,
but when he sank at evening, when the evening glow faded into twilight,
and all grew dark, thick darkness covered heaven and earth, until the
morning redness took the dawn from the hand of the evening glow and
heralded a new day. There was neither moonlight nor starlight, but
darkness from sunset to sunrise.

The Creator