THE DEVIL'S PLANTS 117 



He was no sooner under than the archangel 

 made the sign of the cross, and the water was 

 frozen over: then off he flew to heaven with the 

 impaled sun. The magpie screamed. The devil 

 could not get out till he had sunk again in search 

 of a stone to break the ice. He managed to over- 

 take the archangel just as he had got one foot 

 in heaven, and he caught hold of the other 

 foot, and tore off a large piece of the flesh. The 

 archangel complained to the Almighty, who de- 

 creed, in order to pacify him, that every man 

 should henceforth have a hollow on the sole of 

 his foot. 



The final irrelevant legend concerns the story of 

 Peacock^ s Feathers and III Luck : 



When God created the peacock, the seven deadly 

 sins gazed with envy at the splendid plumage of 

 the bird, and complained of the injustice of the 

 Creator. " You are quite right, I have been 

 unjust," said the Almighty, " for I have already 

 bestowed too much on you; the deadly sins ought 

 to be black as night, who covers them with her 

 veil." 



And taking the yellow eye of envy, the red eye of 

 murder, the green eye of jealousy, and so on with 

 the rest. He placed them all on the feathers of the 

 peacock, and gave the bird its liberty. 



Away went the bird, and the sins, thus despoiled, 

 followed close on his track, trying in vain to recover 

 their lost eyes. This is the reason why, when a 

 man decks himself with a peacock's feathers the 

 sins incarnate dog his footsteps and assail him, 

 each in its turn. 



Finally, let us end this chapter of the devil with 



