German Hungary. Winterkolble. pp. 22, 343.
Lower Austria. Kruzimügeli. pp. 26, 413. In the Land of Marvels. Vernaleken. The Lazy Spinning Girl who became a Queen. Magyar Folktales. Kropf and Jones,p. 46. Panczimanczi. Lad. Arang's Erediti Népmesék. p. 277.
Mongolia. The Use of Magic Language. Sagas from the Far East. R. H. Busk. p. 157.
I shall be very glad to hear of any other variants which have escaped notice in compiling the foregoing list.
JOHN GLAICK, THE BRAVE TAILOR.
THE following tale has been given me by Mr. W. Copland, schoolmaster, Tortorston, near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. He learned it forty-five years ago from his father, who was seventy years of age, and lived in Strichen, a village in the parish of the same name in the north-east of Aberdeenshire. The reader will see that it is not told in the dialect of the district.
John Glaick was a tailor by trade, but like a man of spirit he grew tired of his tailoring, and wished to follow some other path that would lead to honour and fame. This wish showed itself at first rather in dislike to work of all kinds than in any fixed line of action, and for a time he was fonder of basking idly in the sun than in plying the needle and scissors. One warm day as he was enjoying his ease, he was annoyed by the flies alighting on his bare ankles. He brought his hand down on them with force and killed a goodly number of the plague. On counting the victims of his valour, he was overjoyed at his success; his heart rose to the doing of great deeds, and he gave Vent to his feelings in the saying:—
