St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-10-30
bestowed their benediction, recited
their story and instantly expired.

This story has been adapted by the
nations from Bengal to Africa, and is
found in the Syrian, Scandinavian,
Abyssinian and Russian calendars. The
Persian legend states that the sun
altered its course twice day for the
whole period, SO as to shine into the
cavern, and faithful dog stood watch
at the mouth of the cave for the whole
two centuries.
From the above story and that of
Eplmenides 1t will be seen that the tales
of persons who, having fallen into a
Slumber and remained so tor long
course of time, and finding on awaken
ing everything with which they had
been familiar altered. is as ''old as the
hills" and it we wish to seek further to
the source from which Irving drew his
Rip Van Wrinkle we would only need to
look at Grimm's story of Karl KlatZ,
which itself was freely translated from
the 'Ziegenhirt," of Ottman's Volk'S
Sagen or HartZ legends handed down by
the minesingers, the first Of the German
minstrelS.
But wonder at he vitality Of the
sleeper legend is greater when we find
it in China and Japan. In the Japan
csc account. young man fishing in his
boat OH the ocean Is invited by the god
dess of the sea to her home beneath the
waves. After three days he desires to
see his old mother and father.
On parting she gives him
golden casket and key, but begs
him never to open 1t. At his home
he finds all changed and his parents
graves hundred years old. Thinking
that three days could not have made
such change, and that he was under
spell, he opens the casket. A white
vapOr rises, and under its influence his
HAIR turns gray, his form loses its youth
and in few moments he dies of old
age.
The Chinese legend relates how two
friends wandering among the ravines of
their native mountains come to fairy
bridge, where they are invited by two
beautiful maidens to the land on the
other side. The youths become enam-
Ored of the maidenS and pass what to
them seems short, blissful period of
existence with the fairy folk. On their
return to earth they find that seven
generations have lived and died during
their apparent short absence, they
themselves having become cente-
narians.
At Killarney, in Lord Kenmere's
park, SpilIane, the fugleman will point
OQG GllO olOuC CotllCo
impressed with the knees of a priest
who slept in that spot from the time the
monastery at lnnisfallen was in Its
zenith to the day Elizabeth suppressed
the place, some one hundred years and
over.
& The Welsh Rip Van Wrinkle is :Taffy
APP Sion, who is alleged to have heard
bird singing, and sat beneath tree
until it had finished. Upon arising he
observed that the tree had become dead
and withered. In the doorway of his
home, which also had grown suddenly
older. he asked of a strange old man for
his parents. Upon learning his name
the old man said: "Alas, Taffy, have
often heard my grandfather, you father,
speak of you, and it was said your were
under the spell of fairies, not to be re-
leased until the last sap of that syca-
more had dried up"
Within the deepest dungeon of Dron-
berg's fortress, in Denmark, Ogier the
Dane is sleeping. Once, it is said, a
number or young men went in search
of him. and found him seated with his
head upon his hand, his beard grown
through the rocky tablet. Ogier half
awoke and asked: ''Is there manhood
NCt lClb III D6lllndl n. OuG VI luO
party, afraid to answer. thrust into his
hand an iron bar, which broke in Ogier's
clasp. Thinking it to be the youths
hand, Ogier went to sleep satisfied.
A similar story is told of Frederick
Barbarossa and his six knights, who
were supposed to sleep in the great
Kyffhauserberg in 1huringia. A shep-
herd, once penetrating into the heart of
the mountain by cave, awoke the en-
peror from his slumber, and he asked:
do the ravens still fly over the mount
ains?" "Sire, they do" Then we
must sleep another hundred years."
said the emperor.
In Scandinavian mythology Siegfried
thus rested, and at Gutenberg, in Hess,
Charlemagne was said to sleep seated in
his throne with his crown Oh his head
and his sword at his side. In Switzer-
land the three Tells, near VierWaldstat-
ter see, were supposed to lie III SUM
Der. A shepherd crept into the cave
and the third Tell arose and asked the
time. "Noon," replied the shepherd
lad. 1.-The time is not yet come" said
Tell and Law down apain