fc LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. ENGLISH VERSION SONVESTRE'S "FOYER BRETON," FROM A GERMAN TRANSLATION BY HEINRICH BODE. BY A LADY. BOSTON: CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY, 111 WASHINGTON STREET. 1854. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. PREFACE BT THE GERMAN TRANSLATOR.* GOODY MAHRCHEN! is a dear, familiar guest, much beloved by old and young, because she tells things in a very pretty way, and she knows about things that mortals have never dreamed of. She makes long journeys, and roams all about the world, to bring home something * The Mahrchen or legends of which I have here made a collec- tion are taken from Sonvestre's " Foyer Breton " (Fireside Tales of Brittany). As I consider it of no small importance that stories of this kind, which have a very wide circle of readers among the young folks, should be so framed as to be free from every thing positively outlandish, in trying to narrate them after our own country fashion, I have found it necessary to make several, and some quite considerable alterations, for which I hardly feel author- ized to make Sonvestre answerable, though the original plan of each story has been adhered to as closely as its adaptation to oar readers would allow, and we can assure those readers, that in these alterations the stories themselves have lost nothing of their distinc- tive national character. NOTE BY THE GERMAN TBANSLATOE t Mahrchen is a German word, signifying tale or legend. i IV PREFACE. all my dearly loved nephews and nieces, with the hope that it may have as much power to arriuse and entertain them, as it has had to be- guile many a weary hour of feeble health, while accompanying the German translator through enchanted forests, wizard caves, and magic circles. PREFACE BY THE ENGLISH TRANSLATOR. " DEAR aunt, do read us another story out of the little German book ! " is a petition delivered in a most coaxing way, that often meets my ear, and one that is not easily resisted. But it is a little laborious to read a foreign language into one's mother-tongue, unless one is gifted with more fluency than myself, and therefore, though I have always found my little hungry auditors extremely willing to overlook all defects in these improvised translations, I have sometimes put them off by promising to write out these favorite tales of theirs into plain English, and get them printed, so that they may have the satisfaction of reading them themselves. . And now, accord- ing to my promise, I dedicate this my transla- tion, imperfect and ill executed as it may be, to V PREFACE. new, which she knows how to dish up after her own fashion; and then, when the grandmother says, " Mahrchen has come again, and has brought some very pretty stories," the children all jump for joy, and crowd round to hear what she has to say. Mahrchen has now come again, and this time she has come a long, long way, she has come from Brittany, where many clever, honest people live, and it is so far off, that you have to go all through France to get to it.* Well, she has brought home some stories, stories that I as- sure you are well worth listening to, and that nobody is ever tired of hearing. I have written them down for you, so that you may read them yourselves, or coax grandmother to read them to you ; but once for all, I charge you, give good heed, for Mahrchen often teaches many a wise lesson, and if you pay attention to what she says, you will not have to learn the same things out of other books, which would be much harder to read, and would not give you half so much pleasure. Now then, read, and pay strict attention. * It will be remembered that this is addressed to German children. CONTENTS. PACK JOHNNY REDBREAST, 1 ORIGIN OF THE BAT, 14 ST. VALENTINE'S RING, 30 THE THREE ALMS, 44 THE LITTLE MAN OF THE RUSHES, 58 THE STROLLING BEGGAR, .... 72 THE WALKING STONES, 89 THE WATER-WITCH, 104 THE BAGPIPER, 117 THE WASHERWOMEN ON THE HEATH 124 THE GIFTS OF THE DWARFS, 134 THE ENCHANTED CITY, 148 SILLY PETER, , 158 JOHNNY REDBREAST. ONCE on a time, before the stones of which the oldest churches are built were yet quar- ried, there lived in a certain village a poor widow, named Lisbeth. Her father was a rich and respectable man, who, when he died, left a house and a good deal of landed property, a mill and a bakery, twelve horses and twice as many oxen, twelve cows and six times as many sheep, to say nothing of the corn and the flax. But Lisbeth's brothers wronged her out of her share of the inheritance. The oldest took the house, the lands, and the cows ; the second took the mill and the horses; and the third seized upon the oxen, the bakery, and the sheep. So then there was nothing left for Lisbeth but 1 2 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. a miserable hut, in a moor, just out of the vil- lage, which had been used for sick cattle. While she was removing the few things she possessed into this wretched place, her youngest brother said to her : " Now, Lisbeth, you shall see that I have a true, brotherly heart. I have a black cow that brings me in nothing, and gives hardly a saucer- full of milk ; take her with you, I give her to you. Weissdornchen can lead her by a rope." Weissdornchen was the widow's daughter, a little girl of eleven years of age. Her face was as fair as the thorn-blossoms, and on this account she was called Weissdornchen (Little White Thorn). Weissdornchen took the meagre' black cow by an old rope, and thus Lisbeth and her daughter jogged along to the cow-house. All day long, Weissdornchen tended the black cow, which, browsing among the stones with which the moor was covered, could hardly find enough to satisfy her hunger ; the little girl, in the mean time, amusing herself by plucking flowers, and tying them into little nosegays, and then planting them in the earth. JOHNNY REDBREAST. 6 One day, as "Weissdb'rnchen was binding nose- gays of pretty daisies, there came a little bird, which perched on one of the little flower-bunches she had stuck in the ground, and began to twit- ter, and move his little head about, as if he wanted to talk to the little girl. "Weissdornchen wondered greatly at this. She stepped softly up to the bird, and held her ear close down to listen. But she could understand nothing. The bird tried to chirp louder, and still louder, it beat its wings, and hopped round be- fore her, but Weissdornchen could not under- stand all this in the least. But it gave her so much pleasure to see and listen to the little bird, that she did not see it was evening. At last the bird flew away. As she looked after him to see whither he flew, she saw the stars in the sky. Swiftly she hastened to seek the black cow, but she was not to be found upon the moor. "Weissdornchen shouted with all her might, she ran about over the whole moor, and she even climbed up into the hollows among the rocks, where the rain-water had formed little ponds ; but in vain, the cow had vanished. At last, she heard the voice of her mother call- 4 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. ing her, who was fearful that something had be- fallen her. Sadly Weissdornchen ran in the di- rection of the voice, and as she went along the path which led to the hut, she found her mother, and near her the beloved black cow, torn in pieces by wolves. Nothing remained but the horns and the bones. When Weissdornchen saw this, she was hor- ror-struck, for she had grown very fond of the cow while tending her on the moor. She threw herself on the ground and gathered up the bones. The widow took her child by the hand, and tried to console her. " You do wrong to lament for the cow as if she were a human being. For even though wicked people and wolves be against us, yet Heaven is for us. Help me up with my bundle of heath, and come with me to the hut." Weissdornchen obeyed, but at each step a sigh escaped her, and big tears roHed, one after an- other, down her cheeks. " Poor Blackey ! " thought she, " poor Black- ey ! You were so gentle to lead, so easily satis- fied with any kind of fodder, and you had al- ready grown so nice and plump ! " She could eat nothing at supper-time, and she JOHNNY REDBREAST. O waked many times in the night, thinking she heard the black cow lowing at the door. The next morning she rose up before day, and, undressed and barefooted, ran out into the moor. When she got out of doors, she found there the same little bird, perched just as he had been the day before on one of the nosegays she had planted in the ground, and he sang anew, and seemed to be calling her. Alas ! she could understand him now as little as yesterday, and feeling quite vexed, she was just going to run away, when she saw some- thing shining on the ground, that looked like a gold piece. She turned it over with her foot, it was nothing but a blossom of the yellow groundsel. But no sooner had she touched it, than she understood at once the language of the little bird,* which cried out to her, " Weissdorn- chen, I am disposed to befriend you ; listen to me." * It is an old and very prevalent superstition, that if one who has never committed a crime will go out, en chemise and barefoot, and break off a flower of the groundsel, he will be able to under- stand the speech of all animals. O POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. " Who are you ? " asked Weissdornchen, much astonished that she could understand other than human language. " I am Johnny Redbreast," answered the bird. " I have it in my power, every year, to make one good poor child happy, and this time it is to be you." " Is that true, Johnny Redbreast ? " cried Weissdornchen, delighted. " Shall I have a Ijttle silver cross to wear round my neckband not have to go barefoot any more, but have wooden shoes to walk in ? " " You shall have a golden chain, and wear silken shoes like a grand lady," replied Johnny Redbreast. " And how is that to be brought about, my dear little bird?" " Follow me whither I lead you." Weissdornchen was all ready to follow Johnny wherever he might lead her. Away they went, over the moor, across stony fields, and through wastes overgrown with thistles, till they came to the sea, where lay the Seven Islands. Here Johnny Redbreast stayed his flight, and said to the little girl : JOHNNY REDBREAST. 11 The widow was full of joy when she learned what had happened. The next day she took out the horse to carry some corn to market. But think of her astonishment, when, the more she laid upon the horse, the broader grew his back, and this one horse could carry more than all the horses in the place ! This was soon noised about, and now came the other brother and begged his sister to sell him the horse. , This she refused to do until he offered for it his horses, his mill, and all the swine that he was fattening. Then the widow consented to part with the horse, and took possession of the mill. But at evening, things went on just as before. Little Sea-horse was again in his stall ; Weiss- dornchen brought three milkwort flowers, gave them to the horse, and when she had called Johnny Redbreast for the third time, the horse changed into a sheep, which she named " Little Sea-sheep." The sheep had wool as long as hemp, white as linen, and fine as silk. The widow came to witness the new wonder, and when she had looked at the sheep, she said to Weissdornchen, " Go and get thereat sheep- 12 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. shears, for this sheep has more wool than it can carry." But as she sheared the sheep, the wool imme- diately grew again, just as long as it was before she cut it, and Lisbeth perceived that Little Sea- sheep was worth more than all the sheep in the whole country. The third brother came that way acciden- tally, saw how things were, and immediately exchanged his bakery, sheep, and oxen for Little Sea-sheep. But as he was driving it away, he passed by the sea-shore, near the Seven Islands ; there, Lit- tle Sea-sheep rushed into the water, swam across to the first island, and vanished in the rock cov- ered with sea-green rushes, which opened and immediately closed behind him. At evening Weissdornchen waited in vain for Little Sea-sheep: night came, and the next morning, but no Little Sea-sheep. Sadly roamed Weissdornchen over the moor. There she found Johnny Redbreast sitting, who said to her, " I have -been waiting for you, my dear Weissdornchen. Little Sea-sheep is gone, and will never come again. Your uncles are JOHNNY REDBREAST. 13 justly punished for their avarice and dishonesty, and you are now rich enough to wear a golden chain and silken shoes. I have nothing more to do here. Always remember that you have been poor, and remain as good as you are pretty." With these words, Johnny Redbreast flew away, and never showed himself again. Weissdornchen grew up tall and handsome. She did remain good and tender-hearted, always sympathizing with the needy and suffering, and taking a particular interest in all poor children ; and all who knew her loved her. ORIGIN OF THE BAT. IT is a sad thing to make a promise without thinking beforehand whether we can fulfil it or not. In such a case, it is not every one who gets off so well as Tina, the heroine of our tale ; for even if there are now-a-days no evil sprites to haunt and torment the faithless one, there are always plenty of other people to look sour at him, and at any rate his good name and" his conscience must suffer from his delinquency. Tina was a pretty girl ; she was called the greatest beauty of the six neighboring villages, and all the village lads were striving for her .favor. But Tina was a trifle haughty, and prided herself rather too much upon her beauty ; one was not handsome enough for her, and an- other was not rich enough ; one was too young, ORIGIN OF THE BAT. 15 and another too old ; in short, she had some ob- jection to them all. At length a nobleman, from a fashionable city near by, made his appearance. He saw Tina, and was dazzled by her beauty. Of what use was it for him to say to himself, " I am a noble- man, and she only a peasant-girl ! " Of what use was it for him to go away, and travel the wide world over, to drive away all thoughts of Tina ! Love mounts like the waters of the sea, and submerges its victim, head and ears. Coun- sel was of no avail, he must see Tina again. Tina received him as if he had been his Rever- ence, the parish priest. She set before him the finest wheat-bread, and the most delicious wine, and the nobleman asked her if she would be his bride. Tina gladly said, " Yes " ; she longed to be a great lady, and wear silken dresses, as she had seen them do at the Castle. Alan, that was the nobleman's name, gave her a ring, and Tina promised to love him always. So every Sunday they went together to church, and when the services were over, they used to walk to- gether, both in the evenings and at other times ; when, one day, a man appeared with two splen- 16 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. did horses, and announced to Alan, that, if he would once more see his brother living, he must hasten to him immediately. Alan promised con- stancy to his bride, and Tina swore by all that was dear, that, should she ever think of another, all the curses that could be thought of might light upon her head. So the young nobleman quietly went qfF on his journey to his dying brother. Tina wept bit- terly : but fearful that her tears might spoil her beautiful eyes, she wiped them away, but she still felt very sad. So, to drive away her sad- ness, she would sing little songs as she went about the house. By degrees her melancholy was entirely dissipated, and she recovered all her former gayety. So long as Alan stood in the way, the young villagers had kept aloof. But the young noble- man was no sooner gone, than they came as be- fore, and vied with each other in their gallant at- tentions. Tina accepted their courtesies, and one who knew nothing of her affairs would have supposed that matters stood just as they did be- fore the advent of the young nobleman. To one she gave her horse to hold, to another she hand- ORIGIN OF THE BAT. 17 ed her party-colored, carved riding-switch, and she allowed a third to steal from her pocket the nuts the baker's little daughter had given her. In this way, all the young fellows were on excel- lent terms with her, though in fact no one was any more favored than another ; for Tina made i. \YITCH. 10<3 each other three valuables which my father left behind him at his death." She went to a closet, and brought out a little bell, a knife, and a staff. " These three things have never been out of our family," said she. " This little bell has the gift of notifying by its clear ring the friends of the possessor, whenever he is in danger. The knife has the power of freeing from enchantment whatever it touches, and the staff guides one wherever he wishes to go. I will give you the little bell and the knife, and the staff I will keep myself." William thanked her, and bade her farewell. Bella looked after him with tearful eyes, till he disappeared behind the mountains. In the course of a few days, William came to a town in the vicinity of a lake. He sat down before the door of an inn, and he overheard two ass-drivers talking about the Water-witch on the island in the lake. William inquired who she was, and he was told that she was a fairy who lived on the island in the lake near by, and she was richer than all the kings together. Many people had gone thither to get possession of her treasure, but not one had ever returned. 106 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. William could not get this story out of his head, and he made up his mind to go to the Water-witch and see if he could not get enough from her just to buy a cow and a poor little pig. When the ass-drivers heard this, they cried out with horror, and they tried to keep him back. But William was a little self-willed ; he set off to the lake, and there he met a ferryman who took him over to the island. In the centre of the island there -was a large pond, wholly covered with water-lilies in full flower. In this pond lived the Water-witch. William walked around the pond, and discov- ered in the rushes a boat in the shape of a sleep- ing swan with its head under its wing. This William thought very remarkable ; he had never seen any thing like it before, and he climbed into the boat in order to examine it more thoroughly. But his feet had no sooner touched the bottom of the boat, than the swan seemed to awake, raised its head from beneath its wings, and, rowing with its broad webbed feet, swam swiftly away from the shore. William uttered a cry of horror, but the swan still swam on and on, till the young man sprang THE WATER-WITCH. 107 into the water to make his escape ; but the swan dipped under, caught him up again, and drew him down with her to the bottom of the pond. William was obliged to hold his peace, to keep from swallowing more water than was agreeable. In this manner he was brought to the dwelling of the "Water-witch. This was a palace of rare beauty, built entirely of muscle-shells. A crystal staircase led to it, every step of which gave out a musical tone as soon as a foot touched it. The palace was surrounded on all sides by wide- spreading gardens, containing forests of marine- plants, and meadows of sea-weed, where, in place of flowers, glittered the purest diamonds. The Water-witch was reclining in the first apartment of the palace on a golden sofa. She was dressed in sea-green silk, her long black hair, intertwined with coral, reached down to her feet, and her face was of that delicate red and white which distinguishes the inner surface of the muscle-shell. The young man, dazzled by her beauty, stood as if entranced, but the Water-witch rose from her couch, and kindly inquired who he was, and bade him welcome. 108 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. She conducted him into a second apartment, which was built entirely of pearl, and she placed before him eight golden beakers, with eight dif- ferent kinds of wine. William drank ; he had never tasted any thing so delicious, and he was perfectly charmed with the fascinating Water-witch. Then she showed him her countless treasures, and told him that all the precious things that fell into the sea she man- aged to get into her possession by means of her magical arts. William was astonished ; the wine had made him feel very happy, and he said: "Well, one who is so very rich is much to be envied. If I only had a thousandth part of these great riches I should be content." " Half of them shall be yours if you wish," said the Water- witch. "Remain with me; I will be your wife, and then you can be master of every thing you desire." The eight different kinds of wine were whirl- ing in William's head ; he forgot his promise to Bella, and accepted the proposal of the Water- witch without the least hesitation. The Water-witch immediately commenced pre- THE WATER-WITCH. 109 paring a delicious repast. She betook herself to a fish-tank in the garden, and called out, " Holla! the Miller!" "Holla! the Tailor!" "Holla! the Clerk ! " and so on ; and at each cry a little fish came swimming towards her, which she caught in a steel net until her net was full. Then she went into a room adjoining the eating-room, put the fish into a golden pan, and began to fry them. It seemed to William as if he heard the fish sob while they were frying. " What is that sigh- ing in the golden pan ? " he asked. " It is the wood singing," said the Water- witch. After a while, little voices began to whisper. " What is that whispering there?" he asked. " The fat hissing in the pan," she answered. But now the little voices cried out audibly and loud. ".What is that cry?" said William. " Those are the crickets in the hearth," said the Water-witch, and she immediately began to sing so loud that he could hear nothing more. Still, what he had heard inspired him some- how with terror, and as he began to fear for him- self, he began also to reproach himself for his fri- 110 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. volity, and he thought of his dear Bella. But the Water-witch brought him the fried fish, begged him to eat, and went to fetch twelve different kinds of wine. William drew his knife out of his pocket and was about to commence operations ; but hardly had he touched the golden dish with the knife which Bella had given him, than the spell of en- chantment was broken, the fishes rose up and became little men. One was a miller with a meal-gray coat, the other a tailor with blue hose, the other a chapel clerk with long, flowing robes, and all cried out together, " William, save us, if you would be saved yourself ! " William was astounded. " Pray who are these little people ? " he cried out. " We are men like yourself," they answered. " We came here to get rich ; but the day after our marriage to the Water-witch she changed us into fishes, and threw us into the great fish-tank." " Alas ! " cried William, struck aghast, " has the Water-witch had so many husbands already ? and now are they all fishes ? " " You also soon will be a fish yourself, and will be eaten up by the first new-comer," said the little creatures. THE WATER-WITCH. Ill William gave a spring, he seemed to feel him- self already frying in the golden pan, and he was fain to make his escape before the Water-witch returned. But she met him at the door ; she had heard all ; she touched him with her wire-net, and changed him into a frog, and threw him into the tank. At this moment, the little bell which he wore on his neck sounded, and Bella heard the sound, though she was far, far away. It went to her very heart. She uttered a cry of anguish and said, " William is in danger ! " Without a moment's consideration, or stop- ping to inquire of any one, she put on her shoes and her Sunday suit, hung her little silver cross around her neck, and staff in hand she left the house. She went to a cross-way, and there she stuck the staff in the ground, and said : "Little staff, little staff, hear me ! Little staff, little staff, bear me Over stone and stump, Over copse and clump, Over the river, and over the sea, Far away through the air, little staff, carry me ! " Then the staff instantly changed into a saddle- horse, all nicely groomed, saddled, and bridled, with a blue plume on its forehead, and a flutter- ing ribbon behind each ear. 112 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. Bella mounted the horse without delay, and it started first on a walk, then a trot^ and then a gallop, and at last it went so swiftly that ditches, trees, houses, and towers flew; by her like the arms of a windmill. But still it did not go fast enough for Bella; she urged him on, saying: " The swallow is swifter than the horse, the wind is swifter than the swallow, the lightning is swifter than the wind, but my little horse, if you love me, fly swifter than them all ! " When the horse heard this, he flew as swift as a thought, and in a moment he was at the foot of a high rock, called the Deer's Leap, which was so steep and high he could not get over it. Bella knew very well what to do, and she im- mediately began to cry : " Little horse, little horse, hear me ! Little horse, little horse, bear me Over stone and stump, \> Over copse and clump, Over the river, and over the sea, Far away through the air, little horse, carry me !" She had hardly pronounced the words, when huge wings came out of the horse's sides, and it changed into an eagle, which brought Bella up to the top of the rocks. There he stopped, and THK WATER-WITCH. 113 Bella espied a great nest in which sat a little black, crippled dwarf. The dwarf uttered a loud cry when he saw Bella. "Dear maiden," he cried, " save me, save me ! " " Save you ? " cried Bella ; " who are you, pray, my dear little man ? " " I am the husband of the Water-witch, who has enchanted me here, because I could not en- dure her witchcraft ; and now I am condemned to sit here till somebody frees me, or till I have hatched out these stone eggs." Bella began to laugh aloud. " Ah, my little setting hen, how can I set you free ? " " If you rescue William, who is in the power of the Water- witch " Bella did not wait to hear that a second time. " Quick, what must I do ? " she said. " There are two things that must be done," re- plied the dwarf. " You must dress yourself like a man, so that the. Water-witch may not recog- nize you, and then you must snatch away the wire-net which she wears at her girdle, and im- prison her in it for ever." " But I have no men's clothes," said Bella. " We '11 soon help you to them," answered the 8 114 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. little man, and he tore out four of his red hairs. He murmured softly a few words, and blew the hairs into the air ; they instantly turned into four tailors, one of whom bore a cabbage-head, the second a pair of shears, the third a needle, and the fourth a tailor's goose. They quickly seated themselves around the nest, crossed their legs, and began to make an entire man's suit for Bella. Out of the first cabbage-leaf they made a beau- tiful coat, out of the second a long vest, two oth- ers gave the flowing trousers, the heart served for a hat, and the stump for shoes. Bella looked in her new dress like a nobleman. She received a few more directions from the little man, mounted her eagle, and betook her- self to the island of the Water-witch. Here she changed the eagle into a walking-staff, and suf- fered herself to be brought by the swan to the dwelling of the Water-witch. The Water- witch did not recognize Bella, and at the sight of the young man in silk and satin, she was greatly delighted. She brought Bella into the pearl room and served her with wine. Bella found William's knife on the table, and she stuck it into her girdle. Then she went with the THE WATER-WITCH. 115 Water-witch to walk in the garden, and they both stood beside the fish-tank. Bella leaned over the little fishes, wholly beside herself with delight, and when the Water-witch invited her to remain with her, she said, " Yes, if you will per- mit me to fish a little in the tank." The Water-witch suspected no harm, she gave her the net which hung from her girdle, and said, laughing, " Now let 's see what you will catch." Bella threw the net over the Water-witch with a cry of joy. " Infamous witch, become in ap- pearance what you are in heart ! " The Water-witch shrieked, but she was soon silenced, for in a few minutes she was changed into an odious mushroom. Bella drew the net close together over the mushroom and threw it into a deep well, which she filled up with heavy stones. Then she hastened back to the fish-tank. But the fishes had already come up out of the water, and in a long procession were wriggling along in an upright position towards Bella, cry- ing out, " That is the nobleman who has rescued us from the steel net and the golden frying-pan." Bella took the knife in her hand. She had ob- served close at her feet a frog who wore a little 116 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. bell around his neck, sighed heavily, and pressed his two front claws upon his heart. She touched him with the knife ; the frog turned into a man, who was no one else than William. Then she touched the fishes, and they immediately changed back to what they were before. When she had done all this, the little man from the Deer's Leap made his appearance ; he sat in his nest as in a carriage, and the six stone eggs had been changed into as many beetles, and were drawing the carriage/' ' He thanked Bella a thousand times, and led her and William to the treasure-chamber, which was entirely filled with gold and precious stones. Both filled pockets, hats, and handkerchiefs brim- ful ; then Bella changed her staff into a winged carriage which was large enough to hold them both, and which took them back to their native village. Now they could get married ; but instead of a little cow and a poor little pig, William bought all the land there was to be sold, and all the cat- tle, horses, sheep, and goats there were to be had, and they built a splendid house, and lived a long life in happiness and peace. THE BAGPIPER. THERE was a consecration-festival held in the neighborhood, and the music and dancing con- tinued far into the night. But when the stars, brightly sparkling, and the moon high in heaven warned the revellers that it was time to break up, the inhabitants of the different villages joined company, and took their way homewards. The village lasses wore pewter rings on their fingers, which their friends had given them at the fair, and the jovial village lads went on before, singing at the top of their voices. But their mer- riment was at its greatest height when Leonard was one of the party. Leonard was the merriest and the most famous piper in that part of the world ; he never knew what it was to be out of spirits, he played up at 118 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. every dance, and he was always the most pleased of the whole party. Whenever there was a dance or a wedding he always came down from the mountains with his bagpipe, and he would play the livelong night. He was never tired of playing, but he was also never tired of drinking ; and if it had not been for the sake of his music, people would not always have been so glad to see him, for when he had drank a great deal, according to his usual cus- tom, he became insufferable, for he did nothing but rave and swear. At these times he would swear by all that was dear that he would remain a merry bagpiper till his end, and if he ever felt that he was going to die, he would drink deep, as long as he could, and mock death with the last wail of his bagpipe. He had gone on with his usual recklessness on this occasion, or, if possible, he had been even wilder and more jovial than ever. Warning and persuasion were of no avail. " Leonard, beware for your own sake," his friends cried, in vain. He cursed and swore high and dry that he would die drunk, and in the midst of mu- sic and dancing, and no otherwise. THE BAGPIPER. 119 This time he preceded the homeward-bound troop. His bagpipe squeaked and whistled all the way, and the lads sang in their Swiss fash- ion, and the white dresses of the lasses glim- mered in the moonlight. When they came to the cross-way, where the roads parted, the bagpiper took the right hand road, which led up to the heights. The maidens stopped short and shrieked out, " Where are you going, piper ? Here, the left- hand road, that goes round through the valley ! " Leonard pointed to the right, where the tower of the village church could be seen in the moon- light. " Shall we not go this way ? " he asked. " 1 thought it was nearer over the heath ; why should we go so much out of our way ? " The maidens replied, " It is not safe to go over the heath, bagpiper ; the dwarfs haunt the place in the night, and it is very seldom any one passes over the heath in the night-time without getting into trouble." Leonard burst into a hearty laugh. " Pray, what harm can the dwarfs do to any body ? " " They force you to dance, and they can do you great harm." 120 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. " Ha ! ha ! " laughed Leonard again. " I have wandered about alone many a night, over moun- tain and valley, over cross-ways and even by the gallows, but nothing has ever happened to me yet. I should like right well to meet with the little people, for they are said to own a great deal of silver and gold, and it would be no bad thing if I filled my knapsack full. Where is the way to the dwarfs?" "Leonard! Leonard!" cried the maidens, " be not so foolhardy ; he who plunges headlong into danger only rushes upon his fate. If you go to the dwarfs, you '11 have to dance till your breath is wholly gone." " Dance ? " replied Leonard, " that 's just what I should like. Pray, have the little people any musicians to play for them ? " " They have the wind that whistles over the heath for their piper, and the night-birds join their songs by way of accompaniment." " They cannot dance very well to such music as that ; the little people ought to know for once how well one can dance by a bagpipe. Fare- well, if you will not go with me. I'm going over the heath." THE BAGPIPER. 121 With these words he seized his bagpipe, played up a merry tune, and strode boldly up the heights which led to the heath. The maidens and their companions raised a loud, lamenting cry, and hastened away. Leonard strode fearlessly on through the moon- light, playing all the time on his bagpipe ; the farther he went the more jolly he grew, and the squeaking tones of his bagpipe screamed shrill through the night air. When he had got to the middle of the heath, he saw huge blocks of stone that rose up in the pale moonlight, and not far from these were the dwellings of the dwarfs. Leonard kept on playing louder and louder, till all at once he perceived a sound, at first like the soft murmur of a brook, then louder like the rush- ing of a torrent, and at last deep and fearful like the roar of the breakers. He could hear low, tit- tering laughs, suppressed whispers, and at length shuffling steps through the sand. The piper held his breath. He thought all this very strange. He looked anxiously to the right and the left : the whole heath was alive and stir- ring, and moving in every direction with some- thing, he could not see what, for the moon was just then covered by a cloud. 122 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. All at once the moon shone out, and Leonard cried out aloud with terror. On the right and on the left, before him and behind him, every- where, as far as his eye could reach, the heath was covered with dwarfs, and all were rushing towards him. Leonard turned back, and would have taken to his heels, but the dwarfs everywhere blocked up his way, and called out with their grasshopper- like voices : " This is the jolly piper, Leonard, who is come to play for us to dance." Leonard struck about him, and tried to keep off the dwarfs, but they cried out, " You belong to us, and now you shall see come to pass what you have always declared should happen. Play up and dance with us." All resistance was vain, an invisible power con- strained him ; he put the mouth-piece of the bag- pipe to his lips, and began to play and to dance in spite of himself. The dwarfs whirled with him in a circle, and every time he tried to stop, they shouted, " Play away, jolly piper ! play and dance as we do ! " So it went on the whole night. But the paler grew the stars, the weaker grew the tones of the THE BAGPIPER. 123 bagpipe, and Leonard could scarcely lift his feet from the ground ; but when the day dawned and the cocks began to crow, the dwarfs vanished and all became still. The jolly mountain piper fell breathless to the ground. The bagpipe dropped from his mouth, his hands fell powerless at his side, and his head sunk heavily upon his breast. All around him in the air resounded a kind of whispered song : " Sleep, jolly piper, sleep ! what you have so often sworn should happen, has come to pass. Your last moment was spent in music, dancing, and drunkenness." When the people came in the morning to look for the piper, they found him lying dead on the heath. The meeting with the dwarfs had been his destruction. THE WASHERWOMEN ON THE HEATH. A SOBER, temperate disposition is a very excel- lent thing. For he who gives himself up to glut- tony and drunkenness runs all sorts of dangers, and he never knows whether he shall reach home safe or not. Not merely that the foot becomes too light when the head grows too heavy, and a man loses his balance, and stumbles and staggers about, but there are other risks to be run. When a man goes home in the night with too much under his hat, then the wine-spirits out in the midnight start into life, and open for him a pair of eyes such as he never has at other times, and then he sees all sorts of things which a sober man never sees or gives himself any trouble about. For the wine-spirits leave a man no rest, but with their wicked brothers and sisters change THE WASHERWOMEN ON THE HEATH. 125 themselves into Nixies and Kobolds, and thereby lure him on to destruction. Let every one take heed, then, that he goes home sober, or else he may fare like William, the hero of our tale. William was a drunken swaggerer, who did no good his life long, but lay the whole day in the alehouse, and spent his money for beer, or wine, or brandy. This propensity he had inher- ited from his father, who often drank a mug more than was necessary to quench his thirst, and you know, " As the old cock crows, so crows the young." His father had broken his neck in a drunken fit, and it was a real miracle that William still had the use of his limbs, he had had so many falls and mishaps himself. In the morning he was the first at the ale- house, and at night he was the last. He never failed to be at a fair, and when the uproar was right boisterous, you might be sure William was there, and that he shouted and screamed the loudest of all. His mother, his sisters, and his wife had all died in one short year, but this had not touched him in the least. He took possession of their 126 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. property, and only thought, " Well, I can drink the more ! " While the funerals were taking place, he sat behind his glass, and sung in an insolent tone : " What if I have no wife at home ! I '11 e'en go out in search of one." And so said, so done. The magistrate and other respectable men warned him, but in vain. He pursued the same mad course, and the more he was advised, the worse he behaved. It happened that the village fair fell upon Walpurgis-day, the first of May, the time when the witches are abroad, and when they practise their wicked arts on the rash and unwary. As at this time there is always a great deal to be done in the field, thrifty people took care to return home in good season. Not so with Wil- liam. He had fallen in with a goodly number of sailors and dissolute people at an alehouse, and he was singing with the bar-maids all kinds of frivolous songs, so that he thought nothing about the time. At midnight, all had filled their heads and bel- lies, and had lain themselves down to rest. Wil- THE WASHERWOMEN ON THE HEATH. 127 liam had had his share, but still he never had enough. Vexed that the others had left off so soon, he started off on his way home, singing through the streets all kinds of drinking songs, and he jodelied and shouted, and swept about right and left with his cane, so that if any one had passed him they would certainly have been hurt. Thus he came to a crossway where the road divided into two. One road was longer, but in good order, and perfectly safe; the other was shorter, but it went over a heath, and beneath the gallows, and people who passed that way in the night-time had always heard singular noises, and in fear and trouble had reached the village on the full run. William, in his tipsy mood, troubled himself about nothing, but took at random the left-hand road ; and as he went along, he made such a clatter with his wooden shoes upon the stones, that he might have been heard a long way off. The night was dark, neither star nor moon was to be seen in the sky ; the wind swept over the heath with a blustering sound, the brook which flowed through it rippled over the stones 128 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. with a kind of dreamy monotony, and the thorn- bushes on the road-side trembled as a person does when overcome by terror ; and between whiles, nothing was heard but the far-resounding steps of William, who took no heed of all this, but reeled along in his drunken, care-for-n aught fashion. As he came along by some old ruins, the weathercock creaked, and called out audibly to William : " Turn back ! turn back " ! William did not hear, and went steadily on. He came to the brook ; the water murmured : " No farther ! no farther ! no farther ! " William groped with his cane for the crossing- stones that lay in the brook, and strode boldly over to the other side. A little way oft' there stood an old oak-tree. The wind whistled fearfully in the branches, and whispered in William's ear : " Stay here ! stay here ! stay here ! " William took his cane, struck at the branches of the tree, switched off a couple of twigs, and went on. At last he came to the place on the moor that had always had a very bad reputation. In the THE WASHERWOMEN ON THE HEATH. 129 neighboring village, he plainly heard the clock strike twelve. William commenced whistling a tune, but just as he was in the midst of it, such a strange sound met his ear, that he held his breath, and listened to see what it could be. The noise was that of a carriage, but the sound it the wheels made was peculiar, and before i could rightly make out what it meant, he ,ould see a vehicle coming directly towards him. It seemed to be covered with a pall, and when William looked steadily at it, he found it was a hearse. It was drawn by six black, horses, and Death sat in front as driver, with his hour-glass and scythe. The skeleton coachman cried out: " Make way, or die ! " " What are you doing here, friend Death ? " cried William, boldly, as the hearse drove along- side. " I attack and I cut down ! " answered the skel- eton. " Then you are a robber and a murderer ? " " I am a reaper without mercy or forbear- ance." " In other words, you are a brute or a fool. But pray what are you doing here ? " 9 130 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. " I am looking for a man named William," re- plied the man of bones, and drove on. William laughed aloud, and walked on. When he had struck deeper into the heath, where the brook became wider, he saw two women hanging linen on the thorn-bushes. " By my faith," cried William, " these damsels are not afraid of spectres. Tell me, my dear little doves, what are you doing so late on the heath ? " " We wash, we wring, we bleach," answered both women at the same moment. " But what, pray ? " " The shirt of the dead man who at this mo- ment still walks and talks." " A dead man ? Hey ? But I must know who he is." "His name is William." William broke out into a loud laugh, as he had done before, and went stumping along by the side of the brook. The farther he went, the plainer he heard a noise before him, which came from the washer- women on the heath, who in the broadest part of the brook were beating the linen in the water, THE WASHERWOMEN ON THE HEATH. 131 and not long afterwards William saw them him- self. They washed and wrung out grave-clothes, and sang in a fearful way : " We whirl in the dance, In the darkness of night, By the moon's pale glance, By the stars' gleaming light. " In rain and in snow, Winter's cold, summer's glow, We wash and we spread The clothes for the dead, Who to-day, full of life, Rejoice in health's glow, Like roses so red, t In the morning are dead. O, woe to thee, William, 0, woe ! " As soon as these strange people got a sight of William, they hastened up to him, and, holding out the linen they were washing, requested him to help them wring it out. " That is a trifling service, which no one would refuse to such pretty children," said William, in his tipsy good-naturedness ; " but one at a time, for a man has but two hands, and he cannot serve all at once." He laid down his staff, and seized the grave- 132 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. clothes of one of the washerwomen, and tried all the time to twist the same way that she did ; for he had presence of mind enough to remember, that this was the only way that he could escape being torn limb from limb. While he was thus wringing and twisting, the other women carne up, and William thought he recognized among them his mother, wife, and sisters, and it seemed to him that they called out to him, in a fearful tone : " Woe to you, you reckless drunkard ! You have rejoiced over our death, because you could drink up our property ; but the hour is come, when you have drunk the last drop you ever will drink." And then they shook out their dishevelled hair, which hung down long and wild behind them, and looked like a tissue of snakes, and they swung huge wooden mallets, with which they pounded the clothes they were washing, and with angry gestures they cried out more threateningly and fearfully than ever : " Woe to thee, William, O, woe ! " This took away all William's self-command. The sweat poured from his forehead, and as he THE WASHERWOMEN ON THE HEATH. 133 raised one hand to his head to push back his hair, he forgot to twist the same way with the wash- erwoman. The very moment that he wrung the other way, the cloth was torn from his hands, and every member of his body was wrenched to pieces by the Washerwomen on the Heath, and he fell senseless to the ground. The next morning, the maidens who went to the city to carry their milk to market saw Wil- liam lying in a hole under a bush on the heath. They supposed he had drunk too much brandy, and had fallen there on his way home. They went up to awaken him, and they saw that all his joints were dislocated. Full of terror, they ran into the village, and called some of the neigh- bors. The magistrate came also, for he thought some crime had been committed. But when he saw how twisted the whole body was, he said: " Let him alone, children. William is dead ; he has been wringing grave-clothes with the Washerwomen on the Heath." THE GIFTS OF THE DWARFS. A GREAT many years ago there lived an old man in a village, who, with his wife, used to go, year in and year out, to work for other people, and thus earn their living. Benedict was the poorest man in the village, but what was denied him in worldly goods was amply made up to him in two other endowments, one of which was very desirable and the other as undesirable ; namely, he had a very excellent heart, and a terrible hump on his back. The first gained him many friends, and endeared him to every body, but by reason of the latter he often had to endure the unfeeling jests of the idle vagabonds of the streets. And in- deed this hump was a little too big, for if Bene- dict wished to sit down, he must either take a chair without a back, or else let himself down THE GIFTS OF THE DWARFS. 135 flat on the floor, because this burdensome embel- lishment of his was for ever in the way. Even his wife, who loved him dearly, and who before their marriage never thought any thing at all about the hump, in the course of a year began to think it was rather uncomely, and she would of- ten say : " Ah ! dear Benedict, how handsome you would be, if your back was a little more slender ! I believe you would be the handsomest man in the whole village." This observation Benedict had to hear repeat- ed one day when he was returning with his wife from their day's labor. They had been turning hay for a rich neigh- bor, and as they were not lazy hirelings, who ran away from their work as soon as the prayer-bell sounded, but were willing to labor till their work was done, they came home unusually late. The meadows in which they had been at work lay a long distance from the village. The stars al- ready twinkled high in heaven, and the night was far advanced. Benedict must cross a wide heath, which was not considered safe by night. But he had never done harm to man or beast, and so he had a clear conscience, and was afraid of nothing. 136 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. " Come, Lisette," said he, " let 's make haste, and get over the heath as soon as possible, for wicked dwarfs live there, who compel belated wanderers to dance till their breath gives out, and they are found the next morning lying dead in the open air." They walked hastily on. But when they came to the middle of the heath, where a great quan- tity of stone blocks were lying about, among which the dwarfs dwell, a long row of little ko- bolds rushed out upon them. Some of them car- ried great horns on which they blew, and the oth- ers, with hands joined, danced about, forming a great circle around Benedict and his wife, whom they thus inclosed in their midst. " Alackaday ! " cried Benedict to his wife, " we are lost! If the dwarfs force us to dance, it is all over with us." Dame Lisette clung tightly to her husband, and could not speak for terror. The dwarfs were actually making preparation to force the good people to dance. But they had no sooner approached Benedict than they started back with a loud shriek, and cried in a singing tone : THE GIFTS OF THE DWARFS. 137 " Let him go, let him go, The sickle protects him ; Ah ! the sickle protects him, Safe, away let him go." " Aha ! " thought Benedict, " they are afraid of the sickle. In my whole life I never thought that that thing was of any other use than to cut grass." He drew his wife hastily along with him, and they soon reached their home in safety. But all night his thoughts were very busy. He thought about the hump which his wife had to-day for the third time found so ugly, and about the dwarfs who understood so many arts, and who were so afraid of his sickle. He said not a word, but in the morning, when he got up, he thought, " I know what I will do." At evening, he contrived it so that he should go home alone. He waited till the stars glis- tened in the sky, like millions of precious gems, and nobody dared at that late hour to go near the heath. Then he took his sickle in his hand and went straight to the heath. The dwarfs saw him coming, when he was a good way off, and they called out in a friendly way, " See ! there comes Benedict ! " 138 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. " Yes," answered Benedict, " now I know that you live in my neighborhood, I have come to pay you a visit." " That is brave," cried the dwarfs. " Will you dance a little with us ? " " Do not take it ill, dear little people, but I am very short-breathed, and I could not hold out long." " We will stop as soon as you say so." " Will you promise me that ? " said Benedict, who thought it would be no harm to have one round with them, for the sake of getting into their good graces. " We promise it," answered the little people. " Swear it by my sickle ! " " We swear it by your sickle." Benedict trusted the little people, stepped into the ring, and the dance began. The dwarfs sang as they danced, but it was always the same thing over and over again : " Monday, Tuesday, Wed-nes-day, Monday, Tuesday, Wed-nes-day." Benedict bore this for a while, then he stood still and said : " All due deference to you, little people, but your song is horribly monotonous; THE GIFTS OF THE DWARFS. 139 you always stick in the middle of the week, and you never get over the middle ; with your permis- sion I will add another line, but you must put up with it, good or bad, for I'm no rhymester." " Excellent ! let us hear," cried the dwarfs. Benedict began to sing : " Monday, Tuesday, Wed-nes-day, Thursday, Friday, likewise say." The dwarfs manifested the most lively emo- tion. " Bravo ! bravo ! " they cried, and crowd- ed around Benedict. " Thou art an unequalled poet, and canst dance famously. Sing it once more ! " Benedict sang it over again : " Monday, Tuesday, Wed-nes-day, Thursday, Friday, likewise say." The dwarfs whirled in a dizzy dance, as if mad with joy, then hastened again to Benedict and cried out all at once : " Hast thou any wish ? What desirest thou ? Wilt thou have riches or beauty ? Thou mayst express one wish, we will fulfil it!" " Are you in earnest ? " asked Benedict, sur- prised. " Sober earnest. Wish ! Wish ! " 140 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. "Now, then," said Benedict, "just look here. I have a hump which I like none of the best, and it does not seem to please my wife any better ; could you help me off with it ? " " Never fear that. Come here." They seized Benedict, and began to toss him like a ball from one to the other, till he had made the round of the whole circle. " It 's all over with thee now," thought Bene- dict, as he flew briskly through the air, "the dwarfs have betrayed thee ! " But when he came back to the first dwarf, he placed him qui- etly on his feet again, and Benedict's hump was gone! He had become so trim and handsome that his own mother would never have known him! At first his wife would not receive him into the house at any rate. Benedict had to tell her how many shirts he had lying in his chest, and how many spots there were on his working-coat ; at last she believed him, and allowed him to tell her how he had become so changed. She scold- ed him somewhat, though, because he had risked himself among the wicked dwarfs, but her joy at seeing him so beautified was plainly enough to be read in her face. THE GIFTS OF THE DWARFS. 141 The hut that Benedict lived in belonged to his neighbor, a tailor, who was a very spruce little man, and very rich, but he was extremely avaricious, and stuttered a little. The tailor had been dunning Benedict for his house-rent for several days, and when he observed the change which he had undergone, he became en- vious of his good luck, for a covetous person cannot help feeling pain whenever any thing good happens to another, let the thing be ever so trifling or innocent. He thought it must have been brought about in some very unusual way, and he determined to sift the matter to the bot- tom. So he went to Benedict, demanded the house- rent again, and threatened to turn him out of the house if he did not pay him on the spot. Bene- dict begged him to wait a couple of days till he received his wages, and then he should be able to discharge the debt. But the grasping tailor would give no pardon. At last, after long en- treaty, he said, " Well, I will wait three days, if you will tell me how you got rid of your hump." Benedict told him the whole story, and also imparted to him the secret of the sickle. 142 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. " Beauty and riches ! " thought the tailor, " that will not be a difficult choice, and one can wish according to his fancy." As soon as the moon was in the sky, he went to the heath, and there he found the dwarfs. They were singing their old verse with the addi- tion that Benedict had made to it, and they danced merrily in a circle. The tailor danced with them, and after he had gone round in the ring some time, he stopped and called out that he would like to add a line also. The dwarfs stood still in their delight. " Sing ! " they cried, " sing ! " They themselves began : " Monday, Tuesday, Wed-nes-day, Thursday, Friday, likewise say." "Sing! sing!" cried they. Stammering began the tailor : "Sa-Sa- Saturday." " Go on ! go on ! " cried the dwarfs. " Sa-Sa-Saturday thereto." The tailor could get no farther, the sweat stood in big drops on his forehead, and his heart thumped like a hammer. THE GIFTS OF THE DWARFS. 143 The dwarfs ran about wildly, and seemed to be angry with the tailor. At last they ranged themselves around him and said : " Since you have changed our verse somewhat, you shall have your wish. Choose between beauty and riches." The tailor recovered fresh courage. " Hear ! " said he, " Benedict has chosen beau- ty; that you may not have to grant the same thing twice, I will take what Benedict did not wish for." The dwarfs instantly seized him, and flung him from one hand to the other through the cir- cle. When he had reached the last, his wish was fulfilled, but not in the sense that he meant, that he should obtain money and possessions, but the hump which Benedict did not wish for sat be- tween his shoulders. With insults and abuse the dwarfs drove him from the heath. The tai- lor was raving over this disaster, and like most people, who are always ready to shift the blame of the mischief they have brought upon them- selves, upon others, he cried out that Benedict had misled him, and he swore to be revenged upon him. He shut himself up two whole days, 144 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. and on the evening of the second day he ?cvA word to Benedict, that, if he did not pay ihe rent the next morning, he would have him expelled from the house, and he would sell all lhat -\vns in it. Benedict had expected that the tailor would wait one day longer. When he received this message and heard the people in the village whispering to each other that the tailor now car- ried Benedict's hump, then he lost all hope. In great distress he took the sickle and went to the heath. The dwarfs were again singing their song : " Monday, Tuesday, Wed-nes-day, Thursday, Friday, likewise say, Sa-Sa-Saturday thereto." Sad as Benedict was, he could not help laugh- ing. " That does not jingle well at all," said he. " Ah ! there is our Benedict ! Yes, yes, that is a poor rhyme." " Well, let 's see, perhaps the thing might be improved," said Benedict, and he began to sing: " Monday, Tuesday, Wed-nes-day, Thursday, Friday, likewise say, Add the Saturday thereto, Sunday we have nought to do." THE GIFTS OF THE DWARFS. 145 " Bravo ! bravo ! " cried the dwarfs. " Bene- dict is our deliverer! He has completed the verse that was given us, and we are released from our dance." They crowded round Benedict, and told him. that, as a punishment for some improper use they h id made of their power, they had been con- demned to dwell on this heath and dance the livelong night till some one should finish the verse, the first words of which were furnished them. " How pleased they are ! " thought Benedict, " now will be a good time to present my peti- tion." Then he complained to the dwarfs, that he was obliged to suffer for what they had done to the tailor, and that he would the next morning turn him out of the house and sell all his prop- erty if he did not pay the rent. " Do not give yourself any uneasiness about that. We leave the heath now, and we shall gladly show ourselves grateful to our deliverer. Look ! here between the stones lie twelve sacks ; they shall be yours, take them and carry them to your house." Benedict thanked them, took his leave, and went home with the sacks. 10 146 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. When he got home, he threw his heavy load on the floor, and called to his wife : " Kindle a fire, and fasten door and windows, so that our neighbor may see nothing of the rich- es I have brought home. Zounds, how heavy it was ! There must be enough to buy three whole villages ! " The wife did as he said, then she hastened back, and opened one sack after another ; in ev- ery one there was nothing but sand, dry leaves, and pebble-stones. At this sight, she ut- tered a loud cry. " There ! see what thou hast ! I have always told thee that nothing good ever came from the dwarfs. If it only does not bring more misfor- tune to our house" Benedict stood stupefied with horror; in his fright the sickle which he still held fell from his hand. The handle was of hazel-wood, and it fell exactly into the sack. The dry leaves immedi- ately changed into gold pieces, the pebble-stones into diamonds, and the sand into pearls. Bene- dict perceived now that the hazel-wood possessed peculiar powers, not merely to make a bad boy behave himself, but to change enchanted treas- THE GIFTS OF THE DWARFS. 147 ures back again to what they were originally. He tried the same experiment with the remain- ing sacks, and became at once the richest man in the place, to the great vexation of the tailor, who would gladly have seen himself in Bene- dict's place, but in his greedy avarice had only brought upon himself a most unwelcome acqui- sition. Observe now, content is far better than ava- rice. THE ENCHANTED CITY. TIME out of mind, there once lived a king, whom all the people loved and praised because he was benevolent and kind beyond measure. Unfortunately, however, he had a daughter who led a wild life, and who had left her father in or- der to get rid of his serious admonitions. This grieved the king exceedingly, but he could not remedy the evil ; for though his daughter vexed him greatly, he loved her too much to take any severe measures against her. One day the king was hunting with his reti- nue in a great wood, when they all lost their way, and at length reached the hut of a hermit The king had heard a great deal about this her- mit, that he was a man who understood wonder- ful things, and he rejoiced that he was so fortu- THE ENCHANTED CITY. 149 nate as to meet him. The hermit received the king and his followers in a most friendly man- ner, and when he saw by their sad faces that they were hungry, he inquired of the king if he would not take a bit of luncheon. The king replied, that he had not tasted a mouthful since morning. The hermit then called the king's cook and cup-bearer, led them to the spring, gave the cup-bearer a pitcher of wa- ter, and the cook a little fish out of the basin, and ordered them to make ready a repast for the king. Cook and cup-bearer began to laugh aloud, and inquired if he thought they were beggars. But the hermit replied, that it was all the same to them, and they had only to do as he bade them. They made contemptuous faces, and then did as the hermit had commanded them\ Butlko^ were they surprised, when, instead of watej^ge^vj en wine flowed, and the little fish changed into many large and delicious trout. They ran hastily to the king, and informed him of the miracle. The king ate, gave thanks, and begged the hermit to go with him to his court, and he would make him Chancellor. The hermit consented, 150 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. and the king assigned him a residence in the vicinity of the city in which the princess had established herself, because he hoped that the influence of the hermit might have a good effect upon her. But the princess was a wicked enchantress. The city in which she dwelt was the most splendid in the world. It lay beneath the level of the sea, but the princess had summoned all the spirits which were under her authority to build high walls, to prevent the encroachment of the waters, and to erect the most splendid pal- aces and castles that could be imagined. All the people who lived in the city were rich as princes, but the princess wore around her neck a golden chain with silver keys, which were worth more than the whole city; because these silver keys locked up the flood-gates of the sea, which the princess herself went every day to open, to let the water into the city, in order that there might be no mistake or oversight by which the water should inundate the whole city. The inhabitants of the city all being so very rich, became voluptuous and extravagant, and in their arrogance they committed all kinds of THE ENCHANTED CITY. 151 crimes and iniquities of which human beings are capable. In this respect, the princess herself fur- nished them with an example, which all were ea- ger to imitate. In her court there was continual feasting and banqueting, so that the fame thereof went forth into the most remote lands, and all the nobles and gentry came to witness the splen- dor, and the princess received them graciously till far into the night, then, when they attempted to depart, she caused them to be strangled and thrown into the sea. The hermit had heard of all these proceedings, and had warned the princess against continuing such a course. But the princess believed that what he said came in reality from her father, and she therefore invited him to visit her, and threw him into a dark dungeon, and she warned the her- mit not to let himself be seen at her court again. Some days after this, there was a great ban- quet given, on account of a foreign prince, who had come a great many hundred miles to witness the magnificence of the princess. He was a tall man, arrayed in red satin, his beard was also red, and his eyes gleamed like glowing coals. The prince complimented the princess very much 152 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. upon the splendor of her court and the beauty of the wonderful city. She entertained him in her finest style, and at evening she invited him to dance. The unknown prince danced with the princess, and during his flattering conversation she did not observe that he had stolen the silver keys. In the night, just as the princess was about to have the prince strangled and thrown into the sea, ac- cording to her usual custom, her people an- nounced to her, that the prince was not to be found, though he had not left the castle. The princess felt for her silver keys, in which lay, not merely her power over the flood-gates of the sea, but also her great magical craft, and re- marked with horror that they were gone. Quite beside herself, she ran down the staircase, and met the foreign prince leading her father by the hand. The princess also possessed a ring of nut- wood, with which she could practise a great many magical arts ; this she reached for, to turn the strange prince into stone, but at that moment the prince became of enormous size, his red cloak and beard glowed like burning coals, and his eyes sparkled like wheels of fire. THE ENCHANTED CITY. 153 With terrific voice, he cried out : " Accursed be thou, outcast of humanity! The measure of thy iniquity is full. Thy magical power is broken, and in this very night thy city with all that is therein shall be swallowed up by the waves of the sea. Accursed be thou, with thy whole city ! " He dragged away the king, whom he had freed, and who still wore the shackles on his hands and feet, opened the flood-gates of the sea, and brought the king up on the high land, without al- lowing himself to be moved in the least by his entreaties. When they reached the high land, he stopped and relieved the king of his fetters, and pointed back to the city they had just left. The waters of the sea were rushing in ; they had already reached the spire of the tower, they mounted vis- ibly higher and higher, and in a few minutes all was overwhelmed. The strange prince was no other than the her- mit ; he flung the silver keys into the deep abyss, conducted the king to his castle, and returned to his hermitage. Nothing more was ever heard of him, and the king died not long after. 154 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. Since that time, many thousand human beings have been born, and have died, oak forests have grown up and have passed away again, and yet the legend of the Enchanted City is known even to this day ; and it is also added, that once in every five years, on the first night in May, when the clock strikes twelve, the castle and city of the princess emerge from the sea, that then walls mountain-high dam out the waters, and a door is opened to the entrance of the castle. Who- ever then has courage to take advantage of the right moment and hasten into the fifth saloon of the castle will find there the ring of nut-wood, by means of which all his wishes may be grati- fied. But he must be sure to hasten, for when the last stroke of the midnight hour sounds, the spell is broken, the door closes, the floods press in, and all retreat is cut off for the next five years. Well, there once lived, many, many hundred years ago, a young man named Kurd, who had much rather be idle than to work, and would gladly have become with one lucky stroke a rich man for life. Kurd had heard the story of the Enchanted Castle from a strolling beggar, and he had THE ENCHANTED CITY. 155 thought of nothing ever since but of getting pos- session of the nut-wood ring of the princess. He watched for four years every first May-night to see if the city rose out of the sea, and on the fifth year he went again on the scout. He tar- ried and tarried till it should strike midnight. At last, a clear ring was heard in the night air ; it was the first stroke of the nearest town-clock, which announced the hour of midnight. A joyful tremor ran over Kurd. Before his eyes arose walls mountain-high, and house- tops and tower-spires shot up in the air. By the light of the stars he descried an opening in the walls just before him, and a massive bridge by which he could cross over into the city. He started for the bridge upon the full run, and passed through the opening into the city. On his entrance he found every thing dark ; farther on it became brighter and brighter, till he reached the palace, which seemed to float in light. Just as Kurd hastened up the broad steps, the fifth stroke of the midnight hour sounded. Kurd entered the first saloon ; enormous trunks filled with silver stood all around against the walls ; but Kurd wanted something better than 156 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. silver, so he passed through. Then sounded the sixth stroke. He found a second saloon in which stood huge coffers with much more gold than a hundred acres can yield of barley-corns; but Kurd dis- dained the gold, he had a mind for something better. He went on through the apartment. Then sounded the seventh stroke. In the third room, there were real pearls, that lay around like sand on the sea-shore ; but these could not entice Kurd, who knew there was something more precious yet to be had, and who still pushed on. Then sounded the eighth stroke. The fourth apartment glittered and sparkled with nothing but diamonds ; but he restrained himself, recollecting that, if he once got posses- sion of the nut-wood ring, he could have dia- monds, pearls, gold, and silver at his pleasure. As he hurried into the last room, the ninth stroke sounded. But when Kurd entered the fifth and last sa- loon, he stood transfixed with astonishment. Be- fore him in the centre of the room hung the ring of nut-tree-wood, yet he hardly marked the pre- cious treasure, for before him and on both sides THE ENCHANTED CITY. 157 he espied countless maidens more beautiful than he had ever seen before, and every one held in one hand a wreath of flowers which she extended towards him, and in the other a golden cup filled with wine, the delicious odor of which invited him to drink. Kurd, who had resisted the silver, the gold, the pearls, and the diamonds, could not withstand the charming maidens. The tenth stroke sound- ed, he heard it not. The eleventh, Kurd remained motionless, lost in the sight of so much beauty. Now, the twelfth stroke, like thunder in the mountains, it roared. Kurd started from his stupefied bewonderment, the figures before him changed into marble statues, and a rushing sound like that of mighty waters came upon his ear. He tries to go back, the doors are closed, dark night comes on, and with horror he feels his limbs stiffening into stones. No one ever saw him again, neither since that time has any one ever dared to enter the Enchanted City ; the sea has rushed over it for centuries, and the force of the waves has long since utterly destroyed it. SILLY PETER. PETER was called throughout the place noth- ing else than Silly Peter, and he put up with this, because he was in fact a little simple, though in his own way he was shrewd enough, only he kept this to himself, and, besides, the people meant no harm by this nickname. On the con- trary, they rather liked him, and they always gave him the remains of their dinners. He used to go all around the town, with his mouth set wide open, and his great, staring eyes glowering about, without any particular business of his own. His parents had died when he was quite young, and he had grown up wild and untutored, but still he never did any harm to any body. When he was thirsty he went to the well and drank, when he was hungry he went to the first house- SILLY PETER. 159 wife that he saw standing at her door and ate of what was left from her table, and when he was sleepy he crept into a barn and went to sleep in the straw. Considering his circumstances, Peter was not so badly dressed after all; He had an excellent pair of linen trowsers that lacked noth- ing but the waistband, a jacket with one sleeve, and half a cap which had once been new. And when he had eaten, he was always in high spir- its, and he sang merrily out of the joy of his heart. There was only one thing that he knew how to do well, and that was to trill like a sing- ing-bird, and he could imitate the lark best of all. So he lived just like a bird, eat and drank when- ever he could get the wherewithal, and when he was sleepy he went to sleep. At the time that Silly Peter lived, the earth looked very different from what it does now. There were then great woods, many hundred miles long, and ancient knights and great giants lived in those days, and there were a great many other wonderful things. One day, it was long after the noon-bell had rung, and Silly Peter felt excessively hungry, as he came by a very neat farm-house ; so he stepped in and asked for something to eat. 160 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. The farmer's wife was just washing up her dishes as Peter came in. When she heard his voice, she left her work, and set before him the little half-tub into which she had scraped the fragments that were left of the dinner, and said : " There, my poor little Peter, eat as much as you want, and say a paternoster for our swine, that they may fatten well." Silly Peter let himself down on the ground, took the tub between his knees, and searched about in it for something to eat ; but he found very little, for there had been a great many forks in the plates and a great many spoons in the bowls that day, so that there was not much left for the tub. However, when Peter had done, he licked his fingers and murmured a prayer of thankfulness, as if he had never eaten any thing so delicious in his life. " There was some excel- lent dumpling there," said he ; " it must have been made of the finest flour and prepared by one of the best of cooks." The farmer's wife was just going away, but she caught these words, and she felt very much flattered. She turned back to Silly Peter and said : " Poor boy ! wait a moment and I '11 bring you a bit of bread." SILLY PETER. 161 She actually brought him out a thick slice of bread, with a nice, delicate crust, and most deli- cious crumb. Silly Peter bit into it like a hun- gry wolf, and he cried out that there could be but one baker in the world, who knew how to bake such bread as that, That flattered the farmer's wife still more. " Hem ! " thought she, " how he would relish it, if he had a bit of my fresh May butter to eat with it ! " And she went quickly into the house, and brought out a piece of her best butter, which Silly Peter accepted with no little delight. Now, how he extolled the farmer's wife and her butter ! " In the whole village, and for miles around, there was not another person who under- stood making such butter as that ! How many things were necessary to good butter ! clean ves- sels, the most careful attention to the cows, rich pasture, verily, a bit of beef from cows that gave such butter must be delicious ! " The increasing self-complacency of the far- mer's wife led her to bring Silly Peter a nice piece of beef. This went on till she went in again and again, and brought the delighted Peter as much as he could eat. 11 162 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. A horseman now came galloping along; he stopped at the door and asked the farmer's wife the way to Glasburg Castle. " Heavens ! " cried the frightened woman, "are you going to Glasburg ? " " Yes," replied the horseman, " I have come for that purpose from distant lands, and I have rid- den day and night for three months, till I have arrived here." " And what are you going to do in the Glas- burg ? " inquired the woman. " I am going to procure the golden vase and the diamond spear." " Are they such very precious things ? " said Silly Peter, putting in his question. " Far more precious than all the crowns in the world, for the golden vase procures for its pos- sessor every thing that he can desire to eat and drink, and has, at the same time, such magical power, that whoever drinks from it is immedi- ately cured of whatever disease he may have, and it even awakes the dead to life, if it is put to their lips." " But the diamond lance breaks in pieces and destroys every thing that is touched with it." SILLY PETER. 163 " And to whom do the golden cup and the diamond lance belong ? " said Peter, greatly won- dering. " A great magician," answered the farmer's wife, " who lives on the Glass Mountain ; he may be seen every day on the heath below there, at the edge of the woods, where he sits on his black horse, followed by a colt of thirteen months. But no one ever dares to go near him, because in his hand he carries the lance from which there is no deliverance." " Yes," said the strange knight, " but in his castle of Glasburg he has no use for it. As soon as he comes home, he shuts it up in a sub- terraneous vault which no key will fit. I intend to seize him in his own castle." " Ah ! " said the woman, " you will never suc- ceed, for many hundred knights have already tried it before you, but not one has ever returned." " That is not unknown to me, dear woman, but all these men had not, like me, received coun- sel from the hermit, the deadly foe of this giant ; that will assist me." " And what did the hermit tell you ? " said Silly Peter. 164 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. " He told me every thing that I must do. First, I must ride through the Enchanted Forest, where all kinds of enchantments would be put into operation to make me lose my way, and to fill me with terror. Almost all who have gone before me have suffered themselves to be be- guiled, and have perished in the wood, of hunger, cold, or exhaustion." " And what if you get through the wood, or farther ? " inquired Silly Peter. " When I get through the wood, I meet a dwarf with a fiery sword, with which he sets ev- ery thing on fire that it touches. This dwarf keeps guard over an apple-tree with golden fruit, one apple of which I must have." " And after that ? " inquired Peter. " After that I find the Laughing Flower, guarded by a lion whose mane is of poisonous adders, I must pluck the Laughing Flower, and then swim through the Lake of the Dragon, in order to fight with the black giant, who has the iron nine-pin ball that never fails its aim, and al- ways returns again to its master. Then I come first into a pleasure-garden, where all kinds of expensive amusements will seek to seduce me ; SILLY PETER. 165 but I must touch nothing, but hasten to the river which has but one fording-place. On the other side, I am to find a lady dressed in black, whom I am to take up behind me on my horse, and learn from her what I am next to do." The farmer's wife attempted to dissuade the knight from his purpose ; but he said those were things which women did not understand, but took her directions as to the road, and, giving the spur to his horse, he soon vanished behind the trees of the forest. The farmer's wife sighed with regret, she gave Peter some more bread-crusts, and bade him go on his way. Just as she was sending him away, her hus- band came in from the field. He had just sent away his herd-boy, and was in want of another. When he saw Silly Peter, it occurred to him that he might engage him for a cow-herd. He asked him if he would stay on the farm, and take care of the cows. Now Peter much preferred to devote his time to taking care of him- self, and nobody understood better how to while away the whole day in doing nothing than he. But the taste of the bacon, the beef, the butter, 166 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. the fresh bread, and the delicious dumpling that he had r.elished so much, still lingered in his mouth, so he took up with the offer. The man immediately led him out into the field, counted out the cows before him, cut a switch for him to drive the cows with, and told him to drive them home at sunset. Thus was Silly Peter all at once turned into a cow-herd ; he must see that the cows did no harm to the fields, and .he had to run sometimes from the white to the brown, and from the brown to the black, to hinder them from breaking through and getting into the cultivated lands. While he was going about in this manner, from one side to the other, he heard all at once the tramp of a horse, and looking around, he saw the giant with the diamond spear, riding through the wood on a black horse, followed by a colt of thir- teen months. Around his neck hung the golden cup, and the diamond spear flashed like a blaze. Full of terror, Peter hid himself behind a bush. The giant passed along and rode quietly on his way. When he had gone, Silly Peter hastened out of his hiding-place, and looked about for the horse's tracks, in order to ascertain the direction SILLY PETER. 167 v the giant had taken. But that was impossi- ble. In the mean time there came an immense number of knights seeking the way to Glasburg. Peter never saw any of them return again, but every day the giant appeared at the edge of the wood, where he went to ride for pleasure. Peter at last became accustomed to the sight of- him ; he no longer concealed himself when the giant came along, but he looked at him, and at last with a somewhat envious glance ; for the oftener Peter saw the diamond spear and the golden cup, the more anxious he became to possess them both. But as Peter was, in this respect, like most people, that is to say, like an old woman, he continued to wish and to envy. One evening, however, Peter was alone, as usual, in the meadow, when all at once a man with a long white beard made his appearance, and remained standing by the edge of the wood. Peter thought it might be another knight who was about to attempt the adventure ; and he asked him if he sought the way to the Glasburg. " I have no need to seek it," said the man, " I know it already." 168 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. " Then you have returned back safe, and the giant has not killed you ? " " He has nothing to fear from me," answered the man with the white beard, " for I am Bryak the Sorcerer, and the brother of the giant. When I wish to visit him, I come here and call for the black colt, because otherwise I could not get through the Enchanted Wood without losing my way ; but the colt knows the way." After saying this, he drew with his finger a threefold circle in the sand, murmured a few words softly, and then cried : " Colt so young, colt so black, Come quick and take me on thy back." And the colt made its appearance immediately. Bryak threw the halter and bridle over him, swung himself upon his back, and rode away into the wood. Peter said nothing of this adventure to any body, but he thought enough about it himself, for he knew now that the first condition of reach- ing the Glasburg was the black colt. But alas! this knowledge helped him very little, for no mat- ter how many times he drew the three circles in the sand, and called out : SILLY PETER. 169 " Colt so young, colt so black, Come quick and take me on thy back," the colt never appeared. It was necessary for him to think of some oth- er means of getting at the colt, and then it was a most hazardous affair to obtain the golden ap- ple, and the Laughing Flower, to escape the un- erring ball of the black giant, and to pass safely through the pleasure-garden. But not the less did the golden cup and the diamond spear take possession of Peter's mind. Peter thought much and long over the matter, to contrive how he should bring it about. He could not obtain these things by violence, he was too weak for that, so he must turn his thoughts to stratagem. But the difficulties in the way did not give him any anxiety. " It is the same with them," said he, " as it is with medlars ; when they hang unplucked on the trees, they are hard and sour, but if one gathers them, with a little straw and some patience, they grow soft and well-fla- vored." So he delayed taking any measures for obtain- ing the black colt till the hour when the giant was in the habit of riding by on his way to the 170 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. wood. Then he had ready a halter and bridle and a hempen noose, filled a sack with feathers and birdlime, took with him the bacon which he had saved from his meals for several days, and a piece of bread, which he rubbed into crumbs, and strewed over the route which the giant with his horse and his thirteen month's colt were accus- tomed to take. Giant, horse, and colt appeared as usual, and crossed over the meadow, but the colt dropped its head to the ground and snuffed, it scented the crumbs, and remained behind to eat, and was soon alone. When the giant was too far off to notice it, Peter slipped softly up to the colt, threw the noose over it, put on the halter and bridle, swung himself upon its back, and suffered the colt, who knew the way, to carry him to Glas- burg. The colt took his way straight to the Enchant- ed Wood, where he struck into the wildest path, and flew through it like the wind. Peter trem- bled like an aspen-leaf. Around him, in the En- chanted Wood, rose up a thousand horrible fig- ures. Sometimes an abyss opened before his eyes, into which he thought that he and his colt must SILLY PETER. 171 fall together and break their necks; sometimes the trees would burst into flames, and he be- lieved he should be burned to death; or frightful rocks would be rent asunder, and look as if they were going to fall upon him and crush him to pieces ; and he heard moans and shrieks and wild ravings all around him, till his hair stood on end with horror. But Peter kept repeating to him- self that it was only magic, and when his fear grew too strong for him, he pulled his cap over his eyes and let the colt go as he would. Thus he came to a level plain. Here the enchantments ceased, and Peter raised his cap and looked about him. It was a waste, desolate place. All around lay the bones of the knights who had attempted to reach the Glasburg ; here they lay beside their horses, a prey to the ravenous wolves. At length Peter reached a meadow which was entirely overshadowed by one single apple-tree, so richly laden with fruit that the branches hung down to the earth. Before the tree stood the dwarf with the fiery sword, which burned every thing that it touched. When he saw Peter he uttered a shrill scream, like that of the sea-gull when a storm is threatening, and swung his fear- ful sword. 172 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. Peter gave himself no uneasiness, but drew off his cap very politely. " No offence," said he to the dwarf, " I am going to Glasburg by order of the lord of the castle." " You! " cried the dwarf, " pray who are you ? " " I am Silly Peter, and I am to take service with the lord of Glasburg. Has he not said any thing to you about it ? " " No," said the dwarf, " and I believe you are an impostor." " With permission," answered Peter, still hold- ing his cap humbly in his hand, " that is not my business, I am a bird-catcher, I catch birds and tame them. But do not detain me, for the lord of Glasburg is expecting me, and he has given me his colt, so that I might get here the quicker." The dwarf saw that it really was the giant's colt, and he thought it must indeed be so. Yet he thought it not amiss to ask Peter what he was going to do at the Glasburg. " Catch birds," answered Peter ; " what else ? The sparrows are devouring all the cherries on the trees, so that the people can hardly save any of them." " And how will you destroy them ? " SILLY PETER. 173 Peter showed him his noose, and told him no bird could hop away with that. " That I must see myself," said the dwarf; " I have numberless sparrows here, catch me a quan- tity of them." Peter was delighted. He pretended to tie his colt to a branch of the tree, but instead of that, he fastened one end of the noose to it, and called to the dwarf to take hold of the other end while he climbed the tree. Then he snatched the noose out of his hand, and threw it over him. Thus was the dwarf taken prisoner. He roared with rage, and struggled to free himself, but the noose was of threefold twisted hemp, which resists all enchantment. Peter sprang quickly on his colt, plucked an apple from the tree, and galloped away. After the meadow came a level field, and be- yond that a great flower-garden. There grew all kinds of beautiful flowers, but in the midst of the garden rose one flower of surpassing ele- gance : that was the Laughing Flower. Peter gazed upon it with longing eyes, but the lion with the snaky mane was running round before the entrance, rolling his glowing eyes like a pair of mill-wheels, and gnashing his teeth furiously. 174 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. Peter drew up the colt and pulled off his cap, remembering the old saying, that, " with the hat in the hand, one may go through the whole land." Then he saluted the lion very politely, and asked him if that was the right way to the Glasburg. " And what do you want there ? " said the lion in a terrific voice. " Most gracious Mr. Lion," said Peter timidly, " a lady, whom the lord of Glasburg knows very well, has sent me to bring him this sack full of larks." " Larks ! " said the lion, smacking with his tongue; "it is a long time since I have tasted any. Have you many ? " " This whole sack full," replied Peter, showing the sack of lark's feathers and birdlime. In order that the lion might the more readily believe him, he began to imitate the song of the lark. The song made the lion more delighted than ever. " Show me your birds," said he, " I will see if they are fat enough for our master." " Right willingly," said Peter, " only, if I open the sack, they will fly away." " Well, just let me peep in a little." SILLY PETER. 175 That was just what Peter wanted. He took his sack and opened it a very little; the lion poked his head in to snatch a mouthful, and was stuck fast in the feathers and birdlime. Peter pulled the sack over his head, ran to the flower- garden, broke off the Laughing Flower, and rode off. It was not long before he came to the Dragon Lake, through which he must swim. He was hardly in the water before the dragon came rush- ing along to swallow him up. It was of no use to take off the cap here, nor was there a word to be said to the dragon, who opened his jaws and snapped at Peter. But Peter had the bacon ready which he had brought with him, and he threw a piece of it into the open jaws of the dragon, and the colt bore him swiftly away be- fore he had time to swallow it. Now he had only to encounter the black giant with the iron bowling-ball. Peter saw him sit- ting close by the landing on the opposite shore. The giant's feet were fettered to the rocks ; there he sat, and held in his hand the unfailing ball, which always came back to its master. All around his enormous head were six great eyes, 176 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. that watched by turns, so that while two of them slept the other four were constantly spying about. Peter bethought himself that it would not do to let himself be seen, because as soon as the gi- ant espied him he would throw his ball, before he would have time to say a word to him. So he slipped off the colt's back and crept along behind the bushes till he had got very near the black giant. Luckily the two eyes that were turned towards Peter were asleep. Peter sat down very softly. He began to imitate the songs of differ- ent birds, and at first he sang like a lark ; then one more of the giant's eyes fell asleep, complete- ly ravished by his song. Then he began to war- ble like a nightingale ; the giant stretched and yawned, and after a little while two more eyes closed in sleep. Now Peter drew his flute out of his pocket, and played upon it an air so melt- ing, so charming, that the last eye sunk in slum- ber and the whole giant was asleep. Swiftly sped Peter to his colt, held his rein lightly till he had passed by the giant, and at length happily arrived at the entrance of the pleasure-garden. This was a most delightful garden, filled with enticing fruit, flowers, and SILLY PETER. 177 fountains. The fountains threw up jets of de- licious wine, the flowers sang with most bewitch- ing voices, and the fruits were all kinds of dain- ties, which flew towards him of their own accord. At the end of each shaded walk stood tables as richly spread as if kings had been going to feast there ; the smell of rich pastry regaled the nose, pompous servants offered the best and the hand- somest of every thing, and charming maidens presented wine, and seemed ready to join in the dance. That was a heavy trial for Silly Peter. All his former perils were trifling compared with this. He snuffed the delicious odors and his mouth watered for the tempting delicacies ; his eyes were riveted on the flying fruits and the inviting banqueting-tables, and if he had not that very moment remembered the diamond spear and the golden cup, Peter would certainly have surren- dered here. But he made use of his previous precaution of pulling his cap over his face, drew his flute out of his pocket and played so merrily that he could no longer hear the seductive songs of the maid- ens or the flowers ; and, thanks to the fleetness of 12 L78 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. his horse, he withstood this most dangerous trial to his food-loving belly. As he came out of the garden, the Glasburg gleamed upon his sight. In his joy Peter had al- most forgotten that, in order to reach the castle, he must cross the river with only one ford, but he was reminded of this by seeing a lady in black sitting on a high rock on the other shore. The colt knew all the ways, so of course he knew the way to the ford. Peter forded the riv- er and approached the lady. She was dressed in black satin, and she was as yellow as a dancing Peter drew off his cap very obsequiously, and asked her if she would like to be taken over the river. " I have been waiting for you," said the lady ; " come nearer, so that I can get up on the saddle behind you." Peter did as she said, took her up behind him on the colt, and rode again through the river. When they were in the midst of the river, the lady said, " Do you know who I am ? " " I crave your pardon," said Peter, " but judg- ing from your dress, you must be noble and pow- erful." SILLY PETER. 179 " Noble," replied the lady, " I certainly am, be- cause my lineage dates from the beginning of the world, and powerful I am also, because all men must yield to me if I will." " And pray what is your name ? " said Peter. " My name is the Plague ! " At these words Peter sprung up in terror from the horse, and was about to throw himself into the river, when the Plague said : " Keep your seat quietly, Peter, I will do you no harm ; on the contrary, I think I may be need- ful to you." " Is it possible, Mrs. Plague ? " cried Peter, and drew off his cap without putting it on again. "Will you be so good?" "Ah!- yes!" he added thoughtfully to himself, " I have been told that you would aid me against the Magician of Glasburg." " Yes," answered the Plague, " the Magician must die." " That will be just what I want, Mrs. Pest, but he is immortal." " Listen, Peter, and pay strict attention. The apple-tree guarded by the dwarf with the fiery sword is an offset of the tree, the fruit of which IbO POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. changed men from immortals to mortals. The apples of this tree have still the same power, and you must see that the Magician eats of it, and then I will touch him, and he will instantly die." " I will try," answered Peter. " But when he is dead, how shall I come at the golden cup and the diamond spear? They are in a subterranean vault that no key can unlock." " The Laughing Flower has the power of open- ing all doors," answered the Plague, "and it lights up the darkness as brightly as the sun." During this discourse they reached the other shore, and took their way towards the Glasburg. At the entrance of Glasburg there was a great canopy, under the shade of which the giant was reposing; he was sitting cross-legged, like the rich lord of the manor who has just reaped a rich harvest, and he was smoking a golden pipe. When he saw Peter with the lady in black coming towards him on his black colt, he cried out in an angry voice, that resounded like thun- der in the mountains : " By the powers ! There is Silly Peter riding on my thirteen month's colt." " Yes, I am Silly Peter, most powerful lord under the sun," said Peter, dismounting. SILLY PETER. 18] " And pray, how did you get here ? " " I have done as your brother Bryak taught me. I went to the edge of the wood, and called out : ' Colt so young, colt so black, Come quick and take me on thy back.' And the colt came directly." " Then you know my brother ? " " He is my master." " And why has he sent you hither ? " " To bring you two presents which he has just received from Ethiopia. The apple of Delight, and the virgin Meekness." " If you eat the apple, your heart will all the time experience the delight which a poor man feels who suddenly discovers in his empty pock- ets a hundred gold pieces, and if you take the maiden into your service, there will be nothing left upon earth for you to wish for." " Well, help the maiden down from the horse, and hand me the apple." Peter reached him the apple, and went to the Plague to assist her to dismount. The giant eagerly bit the apple ; the Plague then hastened up, touched him, and he instantly fell dead to the ground. Peter went into the palace with the Laughing 182 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. Flower in his hand. He passed through, one af- ter another, more than fifty rooms, and came at last to the silver door. This immediately sprang open before the Laughing Flower, and there lay the golden cup and the diamond spear. But hardly had he grasped them, when the earth heaved beneath his feet, a frightful crash was heard, the palace and the Plague had van- ished together, and Peter found himself with his two treasures in the midst of a thick wood. Nothing daunted, he travelled on, and soon reached the court of a neighboring king. On the way, however, he bought the richest garments and the finest horse that were to be found. This king was in great distress ; he was in- volved in a war with a powerful adversary, who had besieged him in his capital city. The enemy pressed closely upon him. there was no longer a mouthful of bread to be had in the city, and meat was not to be thought of ; and in his ex- tremity he had promised his daughter in marriage to any one who would come to his relief. Then Peter made his appearance before the king, and said that he would rescue him. " How can you do that ? " said the king. " Our SILLY PETER. 183 people are but a handful ; the enemy, on the con- trary, is strong, and you are but a single man." But Peter did not allow himself to be discour- aged. He placed himself at the head of the sol- diers, and led on an attack. Before his diamond spear, down sank all that he touched, and if one of his party fell, he hastened to him and held the golden cup to his lips, and the dead instantly rose to life and health, and continued the combat. At length the enemy were beaten and their whole country conquered. The king kept his promise, gave his daughter in marriage to Peter, and made him heir to his whole kingdom. Thus did Silly Peter, whom every body regard- ed as a simpleton, become a great prince ; but that was because he never boasted or gave him- self out for any great things, but quietly thought within himself how it would be best to act, be- cause "DISCRETION TRANSCENDS FORCE," or "if one only begins right, one can accomplish a great deal." THE END.