t ground on
till the ship sank, and it now lies at the bottom of the sea, grinding
salt for ever.[32]

The next story, which belongs to the same class as Grimm's "Devil with
the Three Golden Hairs," introduces us to the personified Frost, who is
here a much less malevolent being than in the _Kalevala_, Runo xxx. It
also combines two familiar classes of tales: those in which a man
receives gifts which are stolen from him, and which he afterwards
recovers by means of another, often a magic cudgel; and those in which a
man visiting the house of a giant or devil in his absence is concealed
by the old mother in order to listen to the secrets revealed by her son
when he comes home.

[Footnote 32: It will be remembered that the Sampo, the magic mill in
the _Kalevala_, ground salt as well as corn and money, and was
ultimately broken to pieces and sunk in the sea. The Grotta-Soengr in the
Edda of Saemund is better known; and many other variants might be cited.
The story in the text much resembles that of "Silly Nicholas," which I
remember reading in one of Chambers's publications many years ago.]

THE TWO BROTHERS AND THE FROST.

(JANNSEN.)

Once upon a time there were two brothers, one of whom was rich and the
other poor. The rich brother had much cornland and many cattle, but the
poor one had only a little corner of a field, in which he sowed rye.
Then came the Frost and destroyed even this poor crop. Nothing was left
to the poor brother, so he set out in search of the Frost. When he had
gone some distance, he arrived at a small house and went in. He found an
old woman sitting there, who asked what he wanted. The man answered, "I
had tilled a small field, and the Frost came and took away even the
little that I had. So I set out in search of him, to ask why he has done
me this mischief." The old woman answered, "The Frosts are my sons, and
they destroy everything; but just now they are not at home. If they came
home and found you here, they would destroy you likewise. Get up on the
stove, and wait there." The man crept up, and just then the Frost came
in. "Son," said the old woman, "why did you spoil the field of a poor
man who was sufficiently pinched without this?" "Oh," said the Frost, "I
was only trying whether my cold would bite." Then said the poor man on
the stove, "Only give me so much back that I can just scrape through, or
I must soon die of hunger, for I have nothing to break and bite." The
Frost said,