s themselves. On one occasion

"They caroused, they feasted.
That a month had flown
They knew not;
That a year had gone by
They knew not.
As a year went by
It seemed like a day;
As two years went by
It seemed like two days;
As three years went by
It seemed like three days."

Again, when a hero was married the time very naturally passed rapidly.
"One day he thought he had lived here--he had lived a month; two days he
believed he had lived--he had lived two months; three days he believed
he had lived--he had lived three months." And he was much surprised to
learn from his bride how long it really was, though time seems always to
have gone wrong with him. For after he was born it is recorded that in
one day he became a year old, in two days two years, and in seven days
seven years old; after which he performed some heroic feats, ate
fourteen sheep and three cows, and then lying down slept for seven days
and seven nights--in other words, until he was fourteen years old. In a
Breton tale a girl who goes down underground, to become godmother to a
fairy child, thinks, when she returns, that she has been away but two
days, though in the meantime her god-child has grown big: she has been
in fact ten years. In a Hessian legend the time of absence is seven
years.[129]

Turning away from this type, in which pleasure, and especially the
pleasure of music and dancing, is the motive, let us look at what seem
to be some specially German and Slavonic types of the tale. In the
latter it is rather an act of service (sometimes under compulsion),
curiosity or greed, which leads the mortal into the mysterious regions
where time has so little power. At Eldena, in Pomerania, are the ruins
of a monastery and church, formerly very wealthy, under which are said
to be some remarkable chambers. Two Capuchin monks came from Rome many
years ago, and inquired of the head of the police after a hidden door
which led under the ruins. He lent them his servant-boy, who, under
their direction, removed the rubbish and found the door. It opened at
the touch of the monks, and they entered with the servant. Passing
through several rooms they reached one in which many persons were
sitting and writing. Here they were courteously received; and after a
good deal of secret conference between the monks and their hosts, they
were dismissed. When the servant came back to the upper air, he found he
had been absent thr