tradition, remarks that, "this herb may be the moon itself, which opens
the hiding-place of the night, or the thunderbolt, which opens the
hiding-places of the cloud." According to the Swiss version of the story
it is the hoopoe that brings the spring-wort, a bird also endowed with
mystic virtues,[12] while in Iceland, Normandy, and ancient Greece it is
an eagle, a swallow, or an ostrich. Analogous to the talismanic
properties of the springwort are those of the famous luck or key-flower
of German folk-lore, by the discovery of which the fortunate possessor
effects an entrance into otherwise inaccessible fairy haunts, where
unlimited treasures are offered for his acceptance. There then, again,
the luck-flower is no doubt intended to denote the lightning, which
reveals strange treasures, giving water to the parched and thirsty land,
and, as Mr. Fiske remarks, "making plain what is doing under cover of
darkness."[13] The lightning-flash, too, which now and then, as a lesson
of warning, instantly strikes dead those who either rashly or
presumptuously essay to enter its awe-inspiring portals, is exemplified
in another version of the same legend. A shepherd, while leading his
flock over the Ilsentein, pauses to rest, but immediately the mountain
opens by reason of the springwort or luck-flower in the staff on which
he leans. Within the cavern a white lady appears, who invites him to
accept as much of her wealth as he choses. Thereupon he fills his
pockets, and hastening to quit her mysterious domains, he heeds not her
enigmatical warning, "Forget not the best," the result being that as he
passes through the door he is severed in twain amidst the crashing of
thunder. Stories of this kind, however, are the exception, legendary
lore generally regarding the lightning as a benefactor rather than a
destroyer. "The lightning-flash," to quote Mr. Baring-Gould's words,
"reaches the barren, dead, and thirsty land; forth gush the waters of
heaven, and the parched vegetation bursts once more into the vigour of
life restored after suspended animation."