," we
shall see that it is considered a wrong action, involving Karmic
punishment, even to steal a talisman from a demon who is trying to
entrap your soul. In most folk-tales, the basest cruelty and treachery
is looked upon as quite laudable when your own interests require it,
even against your best friend or most generous benefactor, and much more
so against a Jew or a demon. But there are other Esthonian tales
("Slyboots," for instance), in which the morality is not much superior
to that of average folk-tales.]

[Footnote 109: Here we find the Devil compared to a Tartar, just as in
the 10th canto of the _Kalevipoeg_ a water-demon is compared to a Lett.]

[Footnote 110: Boiled peas and salt are provided on such occasions, as
mentioned in other stories.]

[Footnote 111: The Kalevide was directed to stamp with his right foot to
open the gates of Porgu.]

[Footnote 112: In Esthonian legends, the wolf is the great enemy of the
devil. See vol. ii. Beast-stories.]

[Footnote 113: We meet with similar miraculously swift animals in other
Esthonian tales.]

[Footnote 114: The outhouses in Sarvik's palace (_Kalevipoeg_, Canto 14)
contained mere ordinary stores.]

[Footnote 115: A not very unusual incident in folk-tales, though it
often takes the form of offering an iron bar instead of your own hand to
a giant who wishes to shake hands with you.]

[Footnote 116: A visit to any description of non-human intelligent
beings in Esthonian tales almost always extends to years, though it may
have apparently lasted for only a day or two.]

[Footnote 117: In most stories of this class, the hero forgets his
companion on reaching home, either by a charm or by breaking a taboo.]

[Footnote 118: Another instance of a child being asked for by an
ambiguous request is to be found in the story of the Clever Countrywoman
(Jannsen), which must not be confounded with one in Kreutzwald's
collection with a nearly similar title, and of which we append an
abstract. The story ends, rather unusually, in a subterfuge. A herd-boy
returned one evening, and reported to his mistress that a cow was
missing. The woman went herself, but everything round her was changed by
magic, and she could not find her way home. However, as the mist rose
from the moor, a little white man appeared, whom she recognised as one
of the moor-dwellers. He took her home, and returned her cow, on her
promising him what she would carry night and day under her heart. From
the