Imperial Valley press and the Imperial press., 1907-02-23
HIS SsATANICMAJEST
CURIOUS OLD LEGENDS CONCERNING
 THE EVIL SPIRIT.


 the Simplest Expedients.
 There is a curious legend of the devil making his confession in Cologne cathedral He professes to repent his crimes and to be willing to endure a thousand years of penance. My son." says the priest, Call you need is to bow before the image of the Cruclfied and ask him for pardon"
 "What!" cries the devil "He who swept up the chips for Joseph, he who hung on a gallowsT And he turned on his heel, with curse
 Tn popular legend and folklore the devil is outwitted constantly, contracts made with him are broken, and he is again and again deceived by the simplest expedients as substituting a lantern for the sunrise. This, if I remember rightly, occurs in the legend of the Devils Dike at Brighton. As a child terrified by a very different Satan remember the light brought to my Onh Oplllb OJ SOllC SlOly Ol JuC hluu The expedient in this case was cut ting the sole out of the shoe which the devil had to fill with silver. The shoe was never filled, and so he could never claim his part of the bargain. remember feeling a thrill of relief at and elude him after all.
 There Is an Icelandic legend which is possibly the origin of the proverb "The deviil take the hindmost." He had agreed to instruct seven scholars in all the mysteries of magic for no other reward than that when their seven years apprenticeship was over he should have as his thrall the last to leave for the last time by the single narrow door. On that fatal day the last to leave literally escaped him eluded him by slipping out of his cloak, which the devil had grasped. He became most worthy parish priest, venerated all over the island. As the iron door slammed to 1t crush ed his heel.
 The devil is constantly represented in tradition and folk tales as childish, grotesque, spiteful. With his bellows he tries to put out St. Genevieves can dle as she carries 1t alight through rain and wind to church. A very well known legend Is that of St. Dunstan, who, when attacked by him while busy at the forge, brought the conflict to an hn o1x wifi, hn redhot tongs This incident was the most popular pageant provided by the goldsmiths on lord mayors day, when the mayor happened to be elected from their company.
 The lion and the dragon are the ani- mals typical of the devil It Is said that the ancient idea of the animosity between the lion and the cock is the origin of the placing of the weather cock upon the steeple. A mediaeval rhythm says of the cock, 'In nocte dunn concinat leo perturbatur," and the idea was to terrify Satan by the sight of the enemy on the high est point of the sacred building. The dragon was the symbol of the powers of darkness everywhere. In many of the stories of saints delivering coun- tryside from a devouring dragon the dragon obviously represents organism destroyed by the labors of the Chris tian apostle. Up to the French revolu- ton a prisoner was set free at ROuen every year on Ascension day in com memoration of the deliverance of the people from dragon by St. ROmain. Tn Provence St. Martha bound a mon ster called the tarasque with her girdle so that the people could slay him with swords and glaives;" hence the name Tarascon. In Spain a monster snake, called la tarasca, is dragged in the Corpus Christi processions to signify Christ's triumph over death and hell. By the way. the Elizabethan injunc- tions decreed that In the rogation-tide processions there should be neither George nor Margaret, but the old dragon to come on alone and show himself"
 He was believed to have special power over the air. to be continually stirring up thunderstorms and tenn pests of wind and hail; hence the ring ing of the bells during thunderstorms to frighten the evil spirits away. 1t
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