THE IDIOT'S LUCK.

We find this form of the story of the despised younger son in the
"Strange Tale of an Ox" (Kreutzwald). A dying father leaves an ox to his
third son, a simpleton, who goes to sell it, and when passing through a
wood he hears a noise in a tree, and thinks it is an offer to buy the
ox; so he ties it to the tree, and takes a log home with him as security
for the money. Not receiving it when he expected, he breaks open the
log, and finds a jar of money inside. He afterwards kills a shepherd who
tries to cheat him out of it; and it is given out that the shepherd has
been carried away by the devil.

THE MAGICIAN'S HEIRS.

(KREUTZWALD.)

The story of the traveller who appropriates the magical properties over
which the sons of a dead magician are quarrelling is widely
distributed, and frequently occurs as a mere incident in a story; as,
for example, in that of Hasan of El Basrah in the _Thousand and One
Nights_. In the Esthonian story of the "Dwarf's[14] Quarrel," the
articles form the leading _motif_, but mixed up with details curiously
resembling some Celtic fairy tales.

A man passing through a wood came upon a small clearing, where he found
three dwarfs beating, pushing, kicking, and biting each other, and
tearing each other's hair so that it was shocking to see them. They
proved to be fighting over an old hat, composed of the parings of
finger-nails[15], the wearer of which could see everything taking place
in the world, whether near or far; a pair of bast shoes, which would
carry the wearer anywhere at a step; and a stick which would demolish
everything before it. Each of the dwarfs wanted to take all these
articles, to go to a great wedding which was just taking place in
Courland. The referee put on the hat, saw the wedding, and told the
dwarfs to stand with their backs to him, when he demolished them with
the stick, only three drops of water being left where they had been
standing. Then he went to the wedding in Courland, where he found a
great number of people assembled, both high and low, for the entertainer
was a very rich householder.

As the wearer of the magic hat could see everything hidden as well as
obvious, he saw when he lifted his eyes to the crossbeams[16] that there
were a vast crowd of little guests both there and on the door-posts, who
seemed to be far more numerous than the invited guests. But no one else
could see the little people. Presently some of them began to