night. The Finnish sorcerer endeavoured
to dissuade him from his purpose; but as he persisted, he told him that
on the evening of St. Mark's Day, which was not far off, the king of the
serpents would hold his court at a place which he indicated, as was the
custom every seven years. There would be a dish of heavenly goat's-milk
before the king, and if the young man could dip a bit of bread in it,
and put it in his mouth before taking to flight, he would gain the
secret knowledge which he desired.

At the appointed time, the young man went at dusk to a wide moor, where
he could see nothing but a number of hillocks. At midnight a bright
light shone from one of the hillocks; it was the king's signal, and all
the other snakes, which had been lying like motionless hillocks,
uncoiled themselves, and began to move in that direction[67]. At last
they gathered themselves into a great heap as large as a haycock. The
youth at first feared to approach, but at last crept up on tiptoe, when
he saw thousands of snakes clustered round a huge serpent with a gold
crown on his head. The youth's blood froze in his veins and his hair
stood on end, but he sprang over the heap of hissing serpents, who
opened their jaws as he passed, but could not disengage themselves
quickly enough to strike him. He secured his prize and fled, pursued by
the hissing serpents, till he fell senseless; but at the first rays of
the sun he woke up, having left the moor four or five miles behind him,
and all danger was now over. He slept through the day, to recover
himself from the fatigue and fright, and went into the woods in the
following night, where he saw golden bathing benches arranged, with
silver bath whisks[68] and silver basins. Presently the loveliest naked
maidens assembled from all quarters, and began to wash themselves in the
bright moonlight, while the youth stood behind a bush looking on. They
were the wood-nymphs, and the daughters of the Meadow-Queen.[69] Towards
morning they disappeared suddenly from his sight, and though he visited
the woods again night after night, he never again saw either the bathing
utensils or the maidens, and pined away in hopeless longing.

* * * * *

The next story is extremely interesting, and it contains a more
elaborate description of the Seal of Solomon (which we should hardly
expect to be known in the legends of a country like Esthonia) than any
other which I have seen, except that g