Collectanea, 321
she wound her belt round an axe. When the time came and she was delivered, the axe danced about, but she was quite free from pain.*'
6. In the old times it was the custom, when anyone was very ill and death was awaited in vain, for a man to go up on the roof, take the cover of the smoke hole off, and call down, — "Come out! come out ! " for they believed that the Evil Spirit withheld death from the sufferer. It is related how a sick man, who did not consider that the time had come for him to die, answered, " I will not come out."
7. If anyone had strained their hand at work, it was called rcEna, and the way to cure it was to fetch a strong man, who would chop the door sill with an axe, whilst the other asked what he did; whereupon he would answer, — "I chop the rcena."'^
8. When anyone was going hunting or fishing, it was unfortunate to be seen by a woman, for then they had no luck. One also must not wish them good luck, for that always proved unfortunate. The best thing to do was to throw a mop at the hunter or fisherman when he set out, or to kick at him.
9. Once Thor Nesja went to hunt reindeer on the mountains, and just above the farm he shot seven reindeer in one shot as they stood and drank at a lake. " Ah, that is an unlucky shot," said he, which soon proved true, for when he had gone so far down the mountain that he could see into the valley he beheld the houses of his farm all ablaze, and he lost all his possessions in the fire.
10. When two men were salmon fishing with lines, and one was
- The possibility of transferring pain to another person or object is quite
generally believed in Sweden and Denmark. For example, Fru Eva Wigstrom writes in Folkediktning [\%%q), p. 103, — "Folk believed that many midwives understood the art of driving an axe firmly into the chopping-block so that the husband should share his wife's sufferings. Yet no woman ought to do it, for pain was laid upon women at the Fall of man. If she did it, however, the child which she brought forth would be a werwolf or nightmare." Hylten- Cavallius informs us, Wcirend, I. p. 437, that severe internal pain was often believed to be childbirth pain which had been laid upon the sufferer by witchcraft. (F. )
' Rc2na is really the sudden cramp which would come upon a strained hand, and the slight creaking sound which came if it were moved or rubbed perhaps gave rise to the idea that some spell was at work.
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