192 The Poets Beasts. 



claims to favour, and its nimble industry, so often noted by 

 the poets, suggests one of the most curious legends of which 

 this delightful little animal is the subject. On the top of 

 the dreadful ash-tree Ygdrasil sits the Death-Eagle, and 

 down among its roots lies coiled Fate, the dragon Nidhoge, 

 and the squirrel is for ever running up and down from one 

 to the other, trying to make them quarrel. 



Red men have many superstitions about their squirrels, 

 one species of which closely resembles our own ruddy 

 favourite. As every one knows, it was Hiawatha's bene- 

 factor and honoured companion in that perilous voyage on 

 the black pitch-water — 



" On the bows with tail erected 

 Sate the squirrel Ajidauno ; 

 In his fur the breeze of morning 

 Played as in the prairie grasses." 



They cough to this day because once they were men, and 

 Manobozho, the mischief-maker, gave them meat which 

 turned to ashes in their mouths, and then, for coughing out 

 his victuals, he turned them all into squirrels. They are one 

 of the Indians' most familiar forms of enchantment, and in 

 many of their tales the hero is turned by beneficent fairies 

 into this animal's form in order to enable him to accomplish 

 his labours. Thus " the wearer of the Ball " becomes a 

 squirrel when he has to chase the flying hut which is built 

 in the top of a pine-tree that keeps on growing up higher 

 the higher the hero climbs. 



Moles have in some countries a diabolical, in others only 

 a mysterious reputation. Now and again it has a medicinal 

 aspect, as among the Russians, who say that if you kill a mole 

 by squeezing it in your hand, you can touch for the king's 

 evil, while in England, not so very long ago, a mole was a 

 sure cure for ague — if eaten crisp. But these are excep- 

 tional views to take of the "little gentleman in the velvet 



