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MAY, 1899.)
NOTES AND QUERIES.
139
NOTES AND QUERIES. ROPES OF SAND; ASBES; AND THE DANAIDES. in this picture Polygnotus alluded to the THE following inquiry was published in the
wife of Indolence. I know, too, that when number of the Journal of the Folk-lore Society
the Ionians see a man toiling at a fruitless for December, 1898. I venture to hope that its
task they say he is splicing the cord of publication in these pages may bring to light
Indolence." some Indian evidence.
In the mediæval Arabic story, one of the tasks The occurrence of a single incident in ancient imposed by Pharaoh on Haykar the Sage is to Egyptian custom, on Greek and Roman monu- make two ropes of sand; Haykar says: ments, in an Arabian story, and in English folk. "Do thou prescribe that they bring me a lore, provokes suspicion that some one idea, worth
cord from thy stores, that I twist one finding out, may lie behind the scattered facts.
like it.' So when they had done as he bade, Such an incident is the weaving of a futile
Haykar fared forth arear of the palace and rope; twisted and untwisted in festival custom
dug two round borings equal to the thickin Egypt, in Greek and Roman art, eaten by
ness of the cord : then he collected sand an ass, made of sand in Arabic story and in
from the river bed and placed it therein, 80 English legend.
that when the sun arose and entered into Further, in more than one ancient monument
the cylinder the sand appeared in the the futile rope is associated with those futile
sunlight like unto ropes." water-carriers the Danaides, whose condem- Of Michael Scott a note to the The Lay of the nation it was to carry water in sieves; and in Last Minstrel says: Cornwall the spirit who was set to weave ropes of band had also to empty a lake by the aid of &
"Michael Scott was, once upon a time, much
embarrassed by a spirit, for whom he was shell with a hole in it.
under the necessity of finding constant What do these coincidences mean P
employment." Two tasks were accomplishIn the hope of gaining further facts I quote,
ed in two nights by the spirit. "At but make no attempt to value, the following
length the enchanter conquered this inderope.makors, ase, and water-carriers.
fatigable demon, by employing him in the
hopeless and endless task of making ropes "In the city of Acanthus, towards Libya
out of sea-sand." beyond the Nile, about 120 furlongs from Memphis, there is a perforated pithos,' into
A passage in the Denham Tracts speaks of which they say 360 of the priests carry Michael Scott as famed water every day from the Nile. And the "for having beat the devil and his myrmi. fable of Oenus is represented near at hand. dons by the well-known device of employ. on the occasion of a certain public festival, ing them to spin ropes of sand, denying One man is twisting a long rope, and many them even the aid of chaff to supply some bebind him keep untwisting what he has degree of tenacity .... " plaited."
The wild Cornish spirit Tregeagle brings life In the painting by Polygnotus at Delphi, Pau- into these somewhat tame accounts of futile sanias describes among other dwellers in Hades, industry. The wandering soul of a tyrannical
"a men Beated : an inscription sets forth magistrate, Tregeagle, was bound to fruitless
that the man is Indolence (Oknos). He is labour on coast or moor; his toil prevented and represented plaiting a rope, and beside him his work destroyed by storm and tide. His cries stands a she-ass furtively eating the rope sounded above the rear of winter tempests; as fast as he plaits it. They say that this his moanings were beard in the soughing of Indolence was an industrious man who had the wind; when the sea lay calm his low wailing a spendthrift wife, and as fast as he earned crept along the coast. More than one task was
money she spent it. Hence people hold that laid upon this tormented soul. 1 Pithor & veasel of large size, used for stores, V. 376; Edinburgh Review, April, 1897, p. 458 ; Journal sometimes sunk in the ground as a dollar.
Hellenic Studies, XIV. p. 81. • Diodorus Siculus, I. 97.
• Supplemental Nights, Burton, Lib. Ed. XII. 24. • Pausanias, X, 29. 2. Seo J. G. Fraser, Pausanias, • The Lay of the Last Minstret. Ed. 1869. Note 15.
• Denham Tracta, II, 118,
