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A Jewish version of the story has the vine watered successively with the blood of a lamb, a lion, a pig, and a monkey [Ginzberg]. There is a similar story about Dionysos, the Greek god of wine. The young Dionysos found a grape plant which, to transport, he planted in the bone of a bird. As it grew, he put it into the bones of a lion and then a donkey. Thus, when people drink of its fruit, they sing like birds; as they drink more, they become strong like lions, and drinking yet more, they get stupid like donkeys [Swan and Hooper].

Noah noticed a goat frolicking joyfully and, investigating its behavior, saw it eating the fruits of the vine, which did not exist before flood. He gathered some of the grapes himself and, growing thirsty on his way home, ate them. He began feeling merry and frolicking himself, and he noticed, when he got to his house, that most of his clothes had fallen off along the way. He fell asleep outside his house, where his sons found him and put him to bed, thinking him very ill. But he woke hale and hearty the next morning and determined to plant the vine in his garden.

The devil offered to help with the planting, and Noah agreed. Noah watered the plant with the blood of the goat, in remembrance of its finding the vine. Then the devil brought a lion, and later a swine, and the blood of these was also poured on the roots. For this reason, when a man drinks a little wine, he jumps and plays like a young kid. When he drinks more, he becomes hot and roars like a lion. And when he drinks yet more he wallows in the mire like a pig.

M.G., Rumanian Bird and Beast Stories, 91-93.

Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 167-168.

Charles Swan and Wynnard Hooper, Gesta Romanorum (1876; reprint, Toronto: Dover, 1959), 305 (tale CLIX).}