Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1880 — A Legend About the Rainbow. [ARTICLE]

A Legend About the Rainbow.

Hie Lithuanians have a quaint legend respecting the rainbow. When their chief god, Pramzimas was looking out of the window and beheld the whole earth full of war and wickedness, he dispatched two giants, named Wandu and Wejas (Water and Wind), to the sinful world, who destroyed everything for twenty days and twenty nights. While engaged in eating heavenly nuts. Pram, zimas gazed on the scene of desolation below, and he threw down a nutshell which fell on the summit of the highest mountain, where a few men and women and some animals had fled for refuge. All got into the nutshell, which floated on the now universal, flood. The god then looked on the earth for the third time. He allayed the tempest and bade the waters subside. The human beings who had been saved all disappeared excepting a few couples who remained in that part, and became the ancestors of Lithuanians in the following manner: As old age crept upon them they sorrowed greatly at their probable extinction; ao in order to comfort them Pramzimas sent the rainbow, and advised them to leap over the bones of the earth. Nine times did they perform thb feat, and thence sprang nine couples, male and females, from whom the nine Lithuanian tribes are descended. Politeness to ladies is. justly considered one of our national attributes but while the native citizen keeps up to the standard of galantry, the imported article is apt to work defectively. A passenger in a crowded the other day, observed the entrance of a man followed by an old woman, and seeing that she looked tired and weak, he consider•rattiy arose and offered her his seat