Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

45° The holed vessel elsewhere

the ghost of a dead woman is put under a ban to empty a pool with
the same utensil1. In an English tale a girl is ordered by her step-
mother to fill a sieve at the Well of the World's End, and succeeds
in so doing thanks to the advice of a friendly frog:

'Stop it with moss and daub it with clay,
And then it will carry the water away2.'

The performance of manifest impossibilities3 was throughout the
middle ages held to be a signal proof of divine favour or at least of
superhuman powers. As late as 1209 A.D. the Poles were confident
of victory because a certain sorceress (Pj/tkom'ssa) marched at the
head of Duke Wlodislaus' army bearing water in a sieve4.

In general it may be maintained that the frequent connexion
witches with sieves5 depends on the belief that witches are rain'
makers, and that rain can be made by pouring water through
sieve. It is not, however, easy to cite unequivocal evidence of a sieve

1 E. Sommer Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche aus Sachsen und Thiiringen Halle
Sagen no. 10 quoted by A. Kuhn Sagen, Gebrauche und Marchen aus Westfalen h&P1
1859 i. 204. ,,s

2 J. Jacobs English Fairy Tales" London 1898 p. 215 ff. ('The Well of the Wo"tb(,
End') with note on p. 260 ('The sieve-bucket task is widespread from the Danaids 0 ^
Greeks to the leverets of Uncle Remus, who, curiously enough, use the same rhyme:

it wid moss en dob it wid clay." '). 3 Cp. supra p. 428

of

a

C. G. Hoffmann Scriptores rerum Lusaticarum Antiqui & recentiores

Chro'lica

Montis Sereni Lipsia; & Budissae 1719 iv. 62 Anno mccix Conradus orientalis ^a^tar
Lubus castrum soceri sui Wlodislai Ducis Polonia:, propter multas quas ab eo Patie jos0)

irchi°
patieb

mjunas, obsedit. Wlodislaus vero obsidionem vi solvere volens collecto exercitu c0^nt:js
Marchioni mandavit, se ei altera die congressurum. Vespere autem diei Pr£ecej3atur-
Oderam fluvium cum suis omnibus transgressus, improvisus supervenire hostibus nw ie s

tr___________ _________ • o . • !•_____. 1___________ ■ •• 1 ......___ne tew

pugnae statutum prreveniret, quia hoc factum nullius rectius, quam infidelitatis^ P^ul.
nomine appellari. Quern cum Dux timiditatis argueret, & fidelitatis, qua el (gtef*
commoneret, respondit: ego quidem adpugnam pergo, sedscio me patriam mean* ^

non visurum. Habebat autem (sc. Wlodislaus) Ducem belli Pythonissam quan^^'^.
de flumine cribro haustam nec defluentem, ut ferebatur, ducens aquam, exei e0x\\W>
cedebat, & hoc signo eis victoriam promittebat. Nec latuit Marchionem adventus ^^jt)
sed mature suis armatis & ordinatis occurrens, forti congressu omnes in ^"^j^j ali's
Pythonissa primitus interfecta. Ille etiam Supanus viriliter pugnans cum 11 ^
interfectus est. J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass London

Cp. J. Michelet Origines de droit francais cherchi'es dans les symboles et J ^ en
droit universel Paris 1837 p. 350 'Les Indiens croient qu'une vierge peut sei
pelote, ou la porter dans un tamis.' . zig

5 A. Kuhn—W. Schwartz Norddeutsche Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche ^^t/, a"s

, Marcnen una M-rche>1
Sagen, Gebrauche und' W'

p. 262 f. no. 293 with n. on p. 501, A. Kuhn sagen, ueuTum."* -.....

Westfalen Leipzig 1859 i. 18 no. 22, F. L. W. Schwartz Der Ursprung aer ^ Jj3,
Berlin i860 p. 7 n. 1, E. H. Meyer Germanische Mylhologie Berlin 1891 PP- '

'35. 175. . Ahbott^*'^"

On sieve-superstitions in general see supra p. 336 n. 5 and G. F. AD"

Folklore Cambridge 1903 pp. 96, 101, 219 n. 2.