i'Oi MiscellflitcoKs. 



after it is questioned, so many years has he who asks the question 

 to live. In other places the saying is as follows : — 



Kukiik, heckenknecht, 



Sag mir recht, 



Wie viel jahr ich leben soil ? 



Cuckoo, baker-boy, 



Tell me true. 



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, find resembles that of the wood- 

 pecker, may at an earlier period have been otherwise told ; and con- 

 nected with it may be the notion that the cry of the cuckoo, if heard 

 after St. John's day, bettikens scarcity. 



In Sweden he prophesies to unmarried lasses how many years they 

 shall remain single. 



Gok, Gok, sitt pa quist, &c. 

 Cuckoo, cuckoo, that sits on a bough, &c. 

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

 bough, and give no heed to his prophecies. l\'Iuch depends upon 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 ' Fruhlingsorakel ' 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 thirteenth century 

 do not mention the cuckoo as proi)hesying : the thing was doubtless 

 commonly known, for we find in Renner, 11340, 



Daz weiz der gouch, der im fiir war 

 Hat gegutzet hundert jar. 



And we have a story related by the abbot Theobald of a certain no- 

 vice, who, assuring himself of living twenty-two years longer, from 

 having heard the cuckoo repeat its cry just so many times, concluded 

 tliat it was needless for him to pass so long a period in mortification, 

 and resolved to return and lead a jolly life for twenty yeai-s, think- 

 ing the remaining two quite enough for penitence*. 



From the regularity of the time of his appearancef, the cuckoo is 



* " Navravit nobis anno pra^terito (?1221) Theobaldus abbas Eberba- 

 censis, quod quidam coiiversus, cum nescio quo teiuleret, et avem quae cucu- 

 lits dicitur, a voce nonien habens, crebrius cantanteni audiret, vices interrup- 

 tioiiis numeravit, et viginti duas inveniens, easque quasi pro oinine accipiens 

 pro nnnis totidem vices easdem sibi computavit : ' Kja,' iiiquit, 'certe viginti 

 duobus annis adhuc vivam ; ut quid tanto tempoi-e mortifieem me in ordine 1 

 Redibo ad seculum, et seculo deditus viginti annis fruar deliciis ejus; duo- 

 bus annis qui supersunt poenitebo.'" — C^sarius Heisterbac. 5. 17. 



■\ [So Logati, in bis beaiuiful Hnes on the Cuckoo : 

 Hast th'iu a star to guide thy path, 

 Or mark the rolling year'] 



