FABLE AND FOLKLORE 251 



"When one would find a treasure," the peasants told Le- 

 land, "he must take the door of the house in which he 

 dwells and carry it forth into the fields at night until 

 he comes to a tree. Then he must wait till many birds 

 fly over him, and when they come he must throw down 

 the door, making a great noise. Then the birds in fear 

 will speak with a human voice, and tell where the treas- 

 ure is buried." 



Much of this tinctures the mental life of many un- 

 educated persons to this day. They will tell you now 

 at Rauen, in Germany, that a princess is entombed alive 

 in the Markgrafenstein, and that she and her wealth 

 can be released only by one who will go there on a 

 Friday at midnight carrying a white woodpecker — 

 which would seem to make an albino of that species 

 well worth searching for! The woodpecker of old was 

 a "lightning-bird" because, among other reasons, it was 

 supposed to get fire by boring into wood, as did primi- 

 tive savages by means of the fire-drill; and its red cap 

 was not only a badge of its office, but a lightning-symbol 

 in general. 



Let me illuminate this matter still more by quoting 

 the comments of John Fiske 98 on the mythical concep- 

 tions of this character that are so old, and so cherished 

 among the unlearned: 



Among the birds enumerated by Kuhn [author of The 

 Descent of Fire] and others as representing the storm-cloud, 

 are likewise the wren or kinglet (French roitelet) ; the owl, 

 sacred to Athenae; the cuckoo, stork and sparrow; and the 

 red-breasted robin, whose name Robert was originally an 

 epithet of the lightning-god Thor. In certain parts of France 

 it is still believed that the robbing of a wren's nest will render 

 the culprit liable to be struck by lightning. The same belief 

 was formerly entertained in Teutonic countries with respect 

 to the robin. . . . 



