[12] The Vegetation
Spirit appears in the song as an Old Man, while his female
counterpart, an Old Woman, is described as 'filling the hand-mill.'
Prof. von Schroeder points out that in some parts of Russia the
'Baba-jaga' as the Corn Mother is called, is an Old Woman, who flies
through the air in a hand-mill. The Doctor, to whom we have referred
above, is mentioned twice in the four verses composing the song; he
was evidently regarded as an important figure; while the whole is put
into the mouth of a 'Singer' evidently the Spokesman of the party, who
proclaims their object, "Verschiednes konnend suchen wir Gute Dinge,"
i.e., gifts in money and kind, as such folk processions do to-day.
The whole study is of extraordinary interest for Folk-lore students,
and so far as our especial investigation is concerned it seems to me
to supply the necessary proof of the identity, and persistence, of
Aryan folk-custom and tradition.
A very important modification of the root idea, and one which appears
to have a direct bearing on the sources of the Grail tradition, was that
by which, among certain peoples, the role of the god, his
responsibility for providing the requisite rain upon which the
fertility of the land, and the life of the folk, depended, was
combined with that of the King.
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