54 NOTES ON THE CUCKOO. 



stated in these poems that he predicts to man. The Anglo-Saxon Codex 

 Exoniensis, 146, 27, lately published by Mr, Thorpe, ascribes likewise to 

 this bird the announcing of the year: — 



'Goacos gear budon, cuculi annum nuntiavere.' 



The popular belief still exists that whoever hears the cry of the Cuckoo 



for the first time in the year may ask him how many more years he has 



to live. In Switzerland the children cry 'Gugger, wie lang lebi no?' In 



Lower Saxony — 



'Kukuk vam haven, 

 Wo lange sail it leven?' 



and then they listen and count as many times as the bird cries after it is 

 questioned 5 so many years has he who asks the question to live; in other 

 places the saying is as follows: — 



'Kukiik, becken V-necht, | 'Cuckoo, baker boy, 



Sag mir recht > Tell me true 



Wie viel, jahr ich leben soil.' ) How many years shall I live.' 



The bird is said to be a bewitched baker or miller boy, and thus has 

 pale or meal-coloured feathers. In a dear season he robbed poor folks of 

 their dough, and when God blessed the dough in the oven, drew it out, 

 plucked some off, and every time cried out as he did so ^Gukuk,' (Look, 

 look!) God therefore punished him, and turned him into a thievish bird, 

 who continually repeats this cry. This legend, which is of great antiquity, 

 and resembles that of the Woodpecker, may at an early period have been 

 otherwise told, and connected with it may have been the notion that the 

 cry of the Cuckoo, if heard after St, John's Day, betokens scarcity. In 

 Sweden he prophecies to unmarried lasses how many years they will have 



to remain single. 



Gok, Gik, sitt pa quist, etc. 



Cuckoo, Cuckoo, that sits on a bough, etc. 



If he cries oftener than ten times they say that he sits on a silly bough, 

 and give no heed to his prophecies. Much depends on the direction in 

 which the Cuckoo is first heard; if from the north (that is the unlucky 

 side) you will have mourning during the year; from the east or west his 

 cry portends good fortune. In Goethe's ^Fruhling sorakel,' the prophetic 

 bird announces to a pair of lovers their approaching marriage and the 

 number of children. It is remarkable enough that our poets of the 13th. 

 century do not mention the Cuckoo as prophecying; the thing was doubt- 

 less commonly known, for we find in Renner, ii. 340 — 



'Doz weiz der gouch, dcr im fur ntlr 

 Hat gegatzct hundert jar.' 



And we have a story related by the Abbot Theobald of a certain novice. 



