Some people working in a field ask him who
did it. Quoth the fiend, "Myself did it" (_Issi teggi_).
Cf. the _Odyssey_, Book ix., where Ulysses informs the Cyclops that
his name is No-man, and when the monster, after having had his eye put
out in his sleep, awakes in agony, he roars to his comrades for help:
"Friends, No-man kills me, No-man, in the hour
Of sleep, oppresses me with fraudful power!"
"If no man hurt thee, but the hand divine
Inflict disease, it fits thee to resign;--
To Jove, or to thy father, Neptune, pray,"
The brethren cried, and instant strode away.
[3] Ralston's _Russian Folk-Tales_.
[4] Crane's _Italian Popular Tales_, pp. 279--282.
[5] A game played with peach-pits, which are thrown into holes made in
the ground, and to which certain numbers are attached.
[6] Crane's _Italian Popular Tales_, pp. 282-3.
[7] The same story is told in Brittany, with no important variations.
[8] Quite as literally did the rustic understand the priest's assurance,
that whatsoever one gave in charity, for the love of God, should be
repaid him twofold: next day he takes his cow to the priest, who accepts
it as sent by Heaven--and the poor man did _not_ get two cows in
return. The story is known in various forms all over Europe; it was a
special favourite in mediaeval times. See Le Grand's _Fabliaux_,
tome iii.
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