Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-07-28


From American Notes and Queries
The word Schlemihl or Schlemiel Is German
slang for q thriftlesA easy-gotng fool and among
German Jews, especially, 1t has acquired wide
currency, and is bestowed, as Sidney Luska tells
US upon person who never prospers with whom
everything goes wrong Born under an evil star,
or with leaden spoon in his mouth, he Is consti-
tutfonally unsuccessful The Jewish author Kom-
pert says that while other people seize opportuni
ties by the head, the Schlemiei lays hold OF them
by the foot, and allows them to wriggle and Kick
themselves loose. Put gold into the hands OF your
Schemiel adds Kompert, 1t turns to copper. Let
splgot vinegar gushes out. "Yet, Of ali mortal
men, the schlemiel is usually the best
natured. the nghteSt = hearted. perpet-
ual sunny smile Eliminates his face He seems TO
regard his sorry destiny as an excellent practical
Joke. at which, though 1t be at his own expense,
native element. He Is impervious to It. He minds
IL no more than salamander minds fire, or a duck
water. The Lord snaps the back TO the burden.
That same careless and irresponsible temperament
Whcn Is constantly bringing the Schlemiel TO
grief, enables him to accept 1t with a shrug. Not
choly, even Grabbed and misanthropic Schlemiel;
out ne VIII also be a highly exceptional Schle-
MEL CMr Sonnenschein's Inheritance" by Sid
ney Luska In Lippincofcs for May, 1885,
Neither kompert nor Lu5ka take note OF the fact
That the word Schlemiel is derived from Adalbert
Won Chamisso's fantastic story OF "Peter Schle-
mlhl," the plot OF which runs as follows:
refer Schleinihl. poor tailor, who relates his
own story, parts with his shadow to a mysterious
niue man In gray In exchange for an lnexhausti-
Die purse. At first this sudden acquisition OF
boundiess wealth fills Peters soul with exulta-
ZION. but he soon finds that his shadow had
value ne never dreamed OF. Wherever he goes,
questions as Co what has become OF it assail him,
mingled with dark hints and suspicious. In vain
he showers his gold around in vain he displays an
almost regal pomp and splendor, he is avoided
by every one, his very servants refuse to live
Win MN; The woman he loves and whom he
has contrived for while to keep in ig-
norance or his calamity by visiting her IN the
evening only accidentally observing his loss reso-
rejects Shp had
and poor Schlemihl is driven from all human COM
partnership into the solitude OF a desert where
tnere are none TO mock him. AT length one day
the little man reappears and offers to return the
shadow at the price OF Peters soul. Peter, in his
Wretencdness, Is on the point OF yielding. but
having entered into q similar compact. The devil
Is forced TO show him the corpse OF this other
victim. Peter in horror filings the magic purse
into a chasm, and is finally relieved Of his tor
mentor.
Chamisso's story was published in 1913, be-
came Immediately popular, and was translated
into most modern languages. The English edi-
ton, with illustrations by George CruikShank, Is
very commonly met with in our grandfather's
''The tale of Peter schlemihl." says John Fiske,
belongs 10 family OF legends which show that
sort OF spiritual attendant OF the body, which, I'M
der certain circumstances 1t may permanently
forsake. In strict accordance with this idea, not
only In classic languages, but In various baroaric
tongues, the word meaning shadow expresses
also the S0ai or other SELF"
q
man walks on the river bank a crocodile may see
his shadow and draw him in; the Zulus, who hold
that dead body can cast no shadow, &C. Saw
ages are unwilling to have their Photographs
taken, lest portion OF themselves be carried of.
In Aryan .olk>ore Inc witches shadows attend the
Internal Sabbath, while their bodies lie at home
asleep. Dante, IN tine "InfernO, refers to his liv
Ing contemporaries whose souls he met in hell,
while their todes walked about the earth pos
sessed by devils.
In Spain and Germany there are several legends
OF men who lest their shadows TO the devil, differ
ing only from the Schemihl story In the fact that
1t was lost to Outwit the devil. Thus both In
BropS and Salamanca, the devil Is Said to have
established schools OF magic. on condition that
the last TO leave the school should become his
slave. In both places the last scholar maintained
that his shadow, which fell behind him as he
crossed the threshold, was the last to leave and
the devil was forced TO abide by this reasoning.
In Toledo, also, the devil had school where the
graduating classes were made TO run through
subterranean hall, the venerable president being
entitled TO the hindmOst IL he could ca CHI him.
(Hence the 9rlgin OF our proverb, "the devil
catches the l,indmost.0 Sometimes it happened
that he caught only MS shadow. Those who lost
their shadows made the best magcians because
they had the benefit OF postgraduate course.
In the "Lay OF the Last Minstrel" Scott thus
speaks OF the father OF Lady Buccleugh:
HeE r father q was a clerk Of fame
b iearred the art that none may name
IN fadua, lar beyond the sea
Men said he changed his mortal frame
BY feat Of magic mystery;
ST. Andrews clustered hall,
HIS form no Qarkenlng shadow traced
Upon the sunny wall.
In his notes to this passage Scott gives the story
OF the subterTanean passage, and says in adCi ion
1.-The shadow OF a necromancer is independent OF
the sun. GlycaS informs that SinOn Magus
caused his shadow TO go before him, making peo-
pie believe II was an attendant spirit.
Sorcerers were often tabled to have given their
shadows to the fiend"
so late as the seventeenth century the Scotch
general, Thos. Dalyell popularity known as Tom OF
Blnns, was currently believed TO hold communica-
ton with the devil whose favor rendered him i'm
penetrable to musket-balls. But in one OF his In
terviews he excited the 1endS anger and notWith-
standing the alertness OF his motions, left his
shadow n SatanS clutches.
Chamisso's story was initiated by Hoffman In
his Adventure on 81. Sylvester's Eve, where a
man loses his mirrored reflection In the glass
Anderson has story called ''The Shadow" In
which the shadow detaches itself from the owner
and assumes an identity OF its own, to the event.
ual discontinue OF both.