The fellow who had played the
trick at first refused, but as the mermaids, or snake-maids, promised
that they should all be drowned unless this was done, the locks were
restored. And the next day they were heard singing and were seen, and
on her who had lost her hair it was all growing as long as ever.
We may very easily detect the hand of Lox, the Mischief Maker, in this
last incident. It was the same trick which Loki played on Sif, the wife
of Odin. That both Lox and Loki were compelled to replace the hair and
make it grow again--the one on the snake-maid, the other on the
goddess--is, if a coincidence, at least a very remarkable one. It is a
rule with little exception that where we have to deal with myths which
have passed into romances or tales, that which was originally one
character becomes many, just as the king who has but one name and one
appearance at court assumes a score when he descends to disguise of low
degree and goes among the people. But when, in addition to
characteristic traits, we have even a single anecdote or attribute in
common, the identification is very far advanced. When not one, but
many, of these coincidences occur, we are in all probability at the
truth. Thus we find in the mythology of the Wabanaki, as in the Edda,
the chief evil being indulging in mere wanton, comic mischief, to an
extent not to be found in the devil of any other race whatever.
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