THE SOLDIER AND THE DEVIL.
(JANNSEN.)
THE Devil encountered a soldier outside the town, and said to him, “Good friend, please help me to get through the town. I can’t go alone, though I should be very glad to do so, for the two-eyed dogsNext
Footnotes
1 Odd stories are told in many countries about the relations between various animals and the Devil. In Esthonia the wolf and the dog are peculiarly hostile to the Devil. In the East it is the ass, concerning which Lane quotes the following amusing explanation in a note to the story of the “Peacock and Peahen,” &c. (Thousand and One Nights, notes to Chap. ix. of Lane’s translation):—“The last animal that entered with Noah into the ark was the ass, and Iblees (whom God curse!) clung to his tail. The ass had just entered the ark, and began to be agitated, and could not enter further into the ark, whereupon Noah said to him, ‘Enter, woe to thee!’ But the ass was still agitated, and was unable to advance. So Noah said, ‘Enter, though the Devil be with thee!’ And the ass entered, and Iblees (whom God curse!) entered with him. And Noah said, ‘O enemy of God, who introduced thee into the ark?’ He answered, ‘Thou; thou saidst unto the ass, “Enter, though the Devil be with thee.”’ So it is said that this is the reason why the ass when he seeth the Devil brayeth.”
1 Jannsen remarks that the third strap would form a cross, and that the three straps might be an allusion to the Trinity.
