The Flying Dutchman and Other Folktales from the Netherlands

Copyright © 2008 by Theo Meder

                    A blind man saw a millstone floating

                    up the stream – it's not a jest.

                    A lame man jumped into the water,

                    and laid it on a bank to rest.

                    A naked man put the millstone in

                    the pocket of his Sunday best.

This short rhyme of lies is a version of ATU 1965, The Disabled comrades. It was sent to collector G. J. Boekenoogen at the end of the nineteenth century by Mrs. G. Niemeyer, who lived in Hilversum (North Holland). Without the title it can be used as a riddle as well, by asking What is that? Answer, "A lie." The translation is based on T. Meder and C. Hendriks, Vertelcultuur in Nederland (Amsterdam, 2005), pp. 226-227.