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. <e of them all, and when she had got what she 
 wanted from any one of them, she never scru- 
 pled to dismiss him with contempt, and call 
 him a Tom Fool into the bargain! Alan had 
 promised to return in three months, with heart 
 unchanged ; but a long time had already elapsed, 
 and no news had been received from him, when 
 St. John's day came. St. John's day is a fa- 
 mous festival. Bonfires are then kindled at night- 
 fall, and all the young men and maidens over 
 sixteen years of age assemble for games and 
 dancing. Tina, of course, did not fail to grace 
 the occasion. 
 
 The fete was held on a broad, open meadow, 
 not far from the Zwerglocher, where the wicked 
 Kobolde or imps of darkness celebrate their wild 
 orgies. All the girls wore the blue flax-blossoms 
 in their bodices, and the lads green branches 
 in their hats. Before the dancing began, each 
 2
 
 18 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 young man took his betrothed by the hand, and, 
 in long rows, all proceeded to the Big- Stone, a 
 rock which separated the Zwerglocher from the 
 meadow. Here they laid down their rustic or- 
 naments, the bridegroom placing his sprig of 
 green beside the flowers of his bride. He or she 
 who had not broken his or her plighted troth 
 was sure to find twig or flower as green and 
 fresh as when first placed there. 
 
 Tina passed on with the others, her ring of 
 betrothal on her finger, and the flax-flowers on 
 her breast, when, as the train approached the Big 
 Stone, she observed close at her side a young 
 man dressed in mourning, an entire stranger to 
 her, who offered her his hand. 
 
 " Pardon ! noble sir," said Tina, " I never saw 
 you before, and I do not know what you want." 
 
 " I beg permission," said the stranger, " to 
 place a green twig beside your little nosegay of 
 flax-blossoms." 
 
 Tina laughed aloud. " Ma foi ! " she ex- 
 claimed, " who does not know that I am Alan's 
 bride ? Your lordship must have heard from 
 gray-haired old men, that there are three impos- 
 sibilities, to uproot the forests, level the moun-
 
 ORIGIN OF THE BAT. 19 
 
 tains, and move the rocks ; but now there is one 
 more to be added to the list, and that is just 
 what your lordship asks for." 
 
 The stranger said no more. He merely asked 
 her hand for the dance ; but 'after the first round, 
 perceiving that his courtesy afforded Tina pleas- 
 ure, he continued : " If you will not allow me 
 to place a green sprig beside your nosegay, I 
 can lay a silver sprig on the Big Stone, for my 
 father has left me property enough to keep three 
 carriages and three pairs of horses." 
 
 " Alan is just as rich, and refuses me nothing," 
 answered Tina. 
 
 After they had danced round a couple of times 
 more, the stranger began again : " Besides the 
 legacy of my father, my mother has left me two 
 forests, that employ twelve coal-burners, and ever 
 so many people making wooden shoes." 
 
 " I must not hear a word about it," said Tina, 
 and her heart was no longer quiet. 
 
 They danced another dance, and then the 
 nobleman said, " I have only told you of my 
 landed property ; but my uncle left me meadows, 
 where every year a hundred bullocks and just aa 
 many colts are driven to pasture. To the silver
 
 20 
 
 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 and golden branch, I could also add a sprig of 
 diamonds." 
 
 This time Tina exclaimed, " Silence ! I dare 
 'hot listen to you." 
 
 The nobleman continued to enumerate what 
 he would give to his bride. She should have a 
 dress such as no mantuamaker on earth could 
 make, a palace such as no other human being 
 could inhabit, and there she should be like one 
 of the greatest queens. Promises like these 
 were more than Tina could withstand. 
 
 She gave the nobleman the little bunch of 
 flax-blossoms, together with the ring that Alan 
 had given her. And as night closed in, she 
 suffered him to lead her away from the meadow, 
 to the dwelling he had promised her. The far- 
 ther they went, the darker grew the sky. The 
 road stretched far away before them, and one 
 little star disappeared after another, till it was 
 very dark. Nothing was heard but a kind of 
 moaning noise in the distance, which Tina 
 thought was the cry of the screech-owl. Then 
 she grew anxious, and said to her conductor, 
 " We have come a long way, and yet I see 
 nothing but a low wall that looks as if it be- 
 longed to a churchyard."
 
 ORIGIN OF THE BAT. 21 
 
 " It is the court-yard that leads to my resi- 
 dence," answered the nobleman. 
 
 Tina passed through the stone gate, then she 
 stopped short, and said : " I see a cross there, 
 such as there is on the highway where a mur- 
 derer is buried." 
 
 " That is the weathercock on my roof," re- 
 plied the stranger. 
 
 Tina went on a little piece, then she stopped 
 again. " It looks exactly as if down at our feet 
 was some abandoned stone-quarry, or pit, where 
 they throw dead dogs or horses." . 
 
 " That is the entrance of our house," said her 
 companion. With these words, he seized Tina, 
 in his arms, and bore her with him down into 
 the pit. She had no sooner touched the bottom, 
 than the moon broke through the clouds, and in- 
 stead of the nobleman in silken attire, Tina be- 
 held a skeleton ! 
 
 Horror-struck, she sank on her knees, an4 
 cried for mercy. 
 
 The skeleton answered, " Pray, why do you 
 shriek ! I am Alan, your bridegroom. As I was 
 returning to you, to celebrate our nuptials, some 
 vagrant wretches fell upon me, strangled me
 
 22 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 with the rope you see about my neck, and threw 
 me into a pit. My longing for you was so great 
 as to leave me no peace even in death. I came 
 to you in the form of a stranger, and since you 
 suffered yourself to be beguiled by a stranger 
 into faithlessness to your bridegroom, I will now 
 give you what I promised you, a robe of earth 
 and turf, such as no mantuamaker can make, a 
 dwelling in the damp grave, such as no living 
 person inhabits, and a rank which the greatest 
 queens share with you as soon as they die. 
 Give me your hand, dearest bride, and lie down 
 beside me, for the hour is come when I must go 
 back to the dead." 
 
 At these words, the skeleton bound one end 
 of the rope which was around his neck around 
 the neck of the maiden, with a slip-knot such as 
 no mortal hand could loosen. 
 
 Tina passed the whole night on her knees 
 beside the skeleton, almost dead with fright, and 
 weeping bitterly. Towards morning, she thought 
 she felt something move at her feet. She looked 
 round and spied a field-mouse, staring fixedly at 
 her. 
 
 Almost at the same moment a black point ap-
 
 ORIGtN OF THE BAT. 23 
 
 peared over the grave, and a fluttering of wings 
 soon made her sensible of the presence of a 
 great black raven, which settled upon a withered 
 branch, a few steps from her. Raven and Field- 
 mouse were a wicked wizard and a wicked witch 
 who fed upon dead bodies. They saluted each 
 other. 
 
 " Well, gossip," cried the Raven, " we are 
 met in a lucky hour. I suppose you are select- 
 ing out the dainty bit of the pretty maiden, that 
 you are to eat first." 
 
 " Ah ! " said the Field-mouse, " if it were 
 only not forbidden to touch living flesh." 
 
 " Bah ! " said the Raven, " we '11 wait here till 
 this dear little creature becomes dead flesh." 
 
 " Good ! " said the Field-mouse, " but I speak 
 for the pretty little cheek." 
 
 " And I bargain for the fresh lips," said the 
 jet black Raven. 
 
 " I '11 gnaw out the fine large eyes," said the 
 Field-mouse. 
 
 And I '11 hack off the tender little ears." 
 
 This conversation froze the blood in our Tina's 
 veins. However, she mustered courage to say, 
 " I am too young and too little to satisfy you
 
 SJ4 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 both : ah ! I believe it would be more to your 
 advantage to rescue me." 
 
 " Rescue you ! " cried wizard and witch at 
 once, " how could we do that ? ' 
 
 " O, you could do it well enough if the 
 Field-mouse would gnaw the rope, and you, 
 Raven, would fly with me out of this pit." 
 
 " And what will you give us if we will do 
 it ? " inquired both the cannibals. 
 
 " I will give you two cows and their calves." 
 
 Wizard and witch laughed aloud. 
 
 " I will add flax and corn besides." 
 
 Both laughed still louder. 
 
 " If that will not satisfy you, I will give you a 
 silver spoon and some plates." 
 
 " No ! " screamed the Field-mouse, " I need 
 neither silver, nor corn, nor cattle, but I want 
 you to get me a pair of wings to fly with." 
 
 " And I," said the Raven, " want you to get 
 me four feet, so that I can run the better." 
 
 " And if you do not do this by to-morrow," 
 they both added, " you belong to us, body and 
 soul." 
 
 Tina found these conditions extremely hard; 
 however, she preferred to accept them, rather
 
 ORIGIN OF THE BAT. 25 
 
 than remain in the grave bound to a skeleton. 
 Wizard and witch made her take a solemn oath 
 to fulfil the stipulations: then the Field-mouse 
 gnawed the rope, and the Raven took up Tina 
 and flew with her out of the hole, and brought 
 her into a field belonging to her father's farm. 
 There he set her down, under an apple-tree, and 
 told her he would come with his gossip to that 
 very spot, the next evening, to receive their 
 wages. 
 
 Tina scampered home as fast as she could, 
 and .told the people in the house all that had 
 happened. Nobody knew what to advise, but 
 the old grandpapa bethought himself of a wise 
 woman who lived not far off, and to her he 
 went, taking Tina with him. 
 
 He told her the story, and laid on her table 
 three bundles of flax and a fat hen. 
 
 " This is a bad business, very bad," said the 
 wise woman j " if you had not taken the oath, 
 we could do well enough. I know these two 
 associates. They are wicked magicians, and 
 they know it is impossible to get what they ask 
 for." 
 
 Tina wept and entreated, and the grandfather
 
 26 
 
 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 promised to bring as much more flax and a sec- 
 ond fat hen. 
 
 The wise woman pondered the matter. At 
 length she said, " Listen, my child, and do as I 
 tell you." 
 
 Tina promised the strictest obedience. 
 
 " Take a knife that has never cut flesh, or any 
 thing that comes from flesh, and walk towards 
 the hedge, and listen to the sound of the wind 
 as it blows through the grass. When you hear 
 a rustling like hail, you '11 know that it is the 
 sleep-plant. Cut off the tops and stalks, tie 
 them up in a little bunch, and carry it under the 
 apple-tree. Then come to me again." 
 
 Tina did as she was bid. She went to the 
 hedge, she heard the sound of the wind rustling 
 through the sleep-plant like falling hail, she cut 
 off tope and stems with a new knife, made up a 
 little bunch of it, and carried it under the apple- 
 tree. Then she went back to the wise woman, 
 told her she had obeyed all her directions, and 
 asked her what she should do next. The wise 
 woman kept Tina with her until evening, and 
 instructed her as to what she was to do. When 
 night carne, Tina repaired to the apple-tree, and
 
 ORIGIN OF THE BAT. 27 
 
 as soon as it was pitch dark, the Field-mouse 
 made her appearance and inquired, 
 
 " How is it with the wings ? Are they ready ? " 
 
 " Not yet," said Tina, " but they will come 
 soon." 
 
 " Quick, then ! " said the witch, " for I am in 
 a hurry, and this very night I must be a hundred 
 miles from here." 
 
 " Be quiet a moment," answered Tina, " and 
 you shall see your wish gratified." 
 
 The Field-mouse was delighted to see how 
 politely Tina treated her, and thought to herself, 
 I '11 wait a minute, Gaffer Raven will be here 
 presently. 
 
 She approached the bundle of sleep-weed, 
 which Tina had tied up like a wisp of straw, 
 and laid herself down upon it. In the very next 
 moment, she was sound asleep. It was not long 
 before the Raven came. 
 
 " Now, my darling," said he to Tina, " where 
 are the four feet you are to furnish me with ? " 
 
 " Ah ! I could not obtain them for love or 
 money," said the maiden. 
 
 " Yes, I knew that beforehand," said the 
 Raven, laughing, " now give me the half of your 
 dear little soul, and your dear little body."
 
 28 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 " Just wait a bit, dear Mr. Raven, if you will 
 have pity upon a poor little maiden, I will give 
 you a dainty meal." 
 
 " What is it ? " asked the Raven. 
 
 " I 've caught a mouse in a trap, that is full as 
 large as a rat, and I 've laid it down there." 
 
 Tina pointed to the Field-mouse. The Raven 
 blinked at it with hungry eyes. " A choice bit, 
 indeed, which I shall not refuse. But still I shall 
 insist upon my rights." 
 
 Well, eat, a*nd after that do as you please ; 
 take all you are entitled to." 
 
 The Raven did not stop for a second thought, 
 he pounced upon the Field-mouse and swal- 
 lowed it whole. Thereupon the Field-mouse 
 waked up. She found she was in somebody's 
 stomach, and she began to scream, and kick and 
 plunge about most furiously, and scratch so vig- 
 orously, that she made with her four feet four 
 holes in the belly of the Raven, so that her legs 
 came out through the holes; but as his plump 
 paunch made a strong barrier to further progress, 
 she could get no farther, and just then the wise 
 woman came running, and with her hazel- wand 
 she touched the Raven with the Field-mouse 
 half in and half out of his body, saying,
 
 ORIGIN OF THE BAT. 29 
 
 " Begone, spawn of the wicked serpentj Your 
 desires are fulfilled. You, Raven, have four feet 
 for running, and you, Field-mouse, have two 
 wings for flying ; so neither of you have any fur- 
 ther claim upon the maiden. As a punishment 
 for your diabolical cunning, and as a warning to 
 others, you and your posterity shall henceforth 
 be bird and yet no bird, beast and yet no beast, 
 and neither bird nor beast shall own you." 
 
 Thus originated the " Bat." 
 
 This story of Tina is not only intended to 
 teach us that we should not break our promises, 
 but also to warn us against being haughty and 
 fastidious, lest we reject what is really good, and 
 make choice of what is any thing but desirable.
 
 ST. VALENTINE'S RING. 
 
 THERE was once a king who lived right happy 
 and contented, and who especially rejoiced in a 
 daughter who passed for the most beautiful lady 
 in the whole universe. This beloved daughter 
 was named Tryphena. 
 
 All who knew her said without envy, that 
 Tryphena was as good as she was pretty, and 
 on this account the king would rather by far 
 have lost all his horses and retinue, his castles, 
 and every fortress in the land, than to have had 
 the least harm happen to her. 
 
 One day, messengers from a neighboring 
 prince were announced to the king. They were 
 sent by the Prince of Komorre, a powerful and 
 mighty lord, who possessed a country of equal 
 extent with that governed by Tryphena's father.
 
 ST. VALENTINE'S RING. 31 
 
 The messengers laid at the king's feet honey, 
 linen, and a dozen little sucking-pigs, according 
 to the custom of the country at that time, and 
 explained to him that her admirer had been 
 present in disguise at the king's court, not long 
 before, and had himself seen the young princess. 
 He had conceived a most ardent passion for her, 
 and desired to make her his wife, at whatever 
 cost. 
 
 This proposal troubled both the king and Try- 
 ohena exceedingly. For this Prince of Komorre 
 was a giant, and was considered one of the 
 greatest reprobates, since Cain, that had ever 
 lived upon the earth. 
 
 From a child he had found his pleasure in do- 
 ing evil, and his wickedness even then was so 
 norrible, that, whenever he left his castle, his own 
 mother used to run and ring the alarm-bell, to let 
 the people know that he was out, and give them 
 an opportunity to provide for their safety. Later 
 in life, when he had grown larger, and become 
 lord of the land and people, there had been no 
 bounds to his cruelty ; it was beyond every thing 
 within the memory of man. 
 
 It was said, that one morning when he left his
 
 32 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 castle, he met a child who was driving a colt to 
 pasture ; he immediately fell upon the poor child 
 and killed it. At other times, when he returned 
 from hunting, and had taken no game, he would 
 set his dogs upon the poor people in the fields, 
 and suffer them to be torn in pieces, as if they 
 had been wild beasts. 
 
 But the most infamous thing of all was, that 
 he had had four wives, one after another, who 
 had all died suddenly, without any one's knowing 
 how or why ; but it was universally believed that 
 he had put them to death, either by sword, fire, 
 water, or poison. 
 
 This the king and Tryphena knew, as well as 
 all the common people, and therefore the king 
 answered, that his daughter was too young. 
 
 The messengers replied, in a very insolent man- 
 ner, that the Prince of Komorre would receive 
 no such answer as that, but that he had com- 
 manded them to declare war against the king, if 
 they did not bring the princess home with them. 
 The king replied, that they might do as they 
 pleased. 
 
 The messengers then took up a handful of 
 straw, lighted it, and threw it up into the air-
 
 ST. VALENTINE'S RING. 33 
 
 and as the wind blew the sparks in every direc- 
 tion, they declared that thus would their prince 
 shed his wrath over the country of the king. 
 
 Tryphena's father was a man of courage, and 
 a threat of this kind inspired him with no terror. 
 He assembled his people and prepared for de- 
 fence. A few days after this, news came that 
 the Prince of Komorre had crossed the boun- 
 dary with a powerful army, and with trumpets 
 and cannons was advancing upon the capital. 
 
 The king placed himself at the head of his 
 people, and sallied forth to meet the enemy. 
 When the king had departed, and Tryphena was 
 left alone, weeping, the door suddenly opened, 
 and a hermit entered, who had the reputation of 
 leading a very holy life, and of understanding 
 things quite unintelligible to common people. 
 He informed her that the two armies were met 
 in battle ; that her father would be defeated, and 
 that she must rescue him by giving her hand to 
 the Prince of Komorre. 
 
 Tryphena began to moan and lament, but the 
 
 hermit said to her, " Fear nothing, Tryphena. 
 
 Go quietly to the Prince of Komorre; through 
 
 you shall he ^receive the punishment of his evil 
 
 3
 
 34 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 deeds. Here, take this milk-white silver ring, 
 and mark my words, whenever the prince con- 
 ceives any harm against you, the ring will be- 
 come as black as a raven. The rest you will 
 learn hereafter." 
 
 The ring lent the princess fresh courage, and 
 she agreed to do what he said. 
 
 Swiftly the hermit hastened away, and an- 
 nounced the joyful news to the contending 
 armies. Still, notwithstanding the acquiescence 
 of his daughter, the king would never have con- 
 sented to the marriage had not the Prince made 
 such solemn promises that he was persuaded to 
 accept him as a son-in-law. ^ 
 
 The marriage was celebrated with unheard-of 
 splendor. On the first day an entertainment 
 was given to six thousand guests, and on the 
 following, the*. same number of poor people 
 were feasted, the young pair themselves waiting 
 upon them at table. Then followed dancing- 
 parties, at which all the musicians of both king- 
 doms were in attendance, with:' every variety of 
 instrument. 
 
 At last, when all the meats and all the pastry 
 were devoured, and all the wine-fl^cs drained 

 
 ST. VALENTINE'S RING. 35 
 
 of their contents, each one returned to his home, 
 and the Prince of Komorre repaired to his own 
 castle with the beautiful Tryphena. 
 
 Tryphena found the giant much more amiable 
 than he had been represented ; she could do 
 with him just as she pleased ; he was as docile as 
 a little dog, and as gentle as a lamb. The dun- 
 geons of the castle were thrown open ; no one 
 now suffered any violence, and the people said 
 in astonishment, " Wonderful ! Since the beau- 
 tiful Tryphena has become the bride of our 
 prince, he no longer thirsts for tears and blood ! " 
 
 But auspicious as appearances now were, 
 Tryphena still felt sad whenever she thought of 
 
 the sudden death which had overtaken all the 
 
 ^ 
 other wives of the giant, and she could only still 
 
 her disquiet by going down into the castle 
 chapel and there engaging in prayer. 
 
 About this time, there was a great convoca- 
 tion of lords and knights, which the Prince of 
 Komo,rre was under the necessity of attending. 
 He took a sorrowful leave of' his dear Tryphena, 
 handed her all the keys from garret to cellar, and 
 \vent away with a great retinue. Six months 
 passed before he returned. His ardent desire to
 
 36 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 return to Tryphena at length brought him home 
 in all haste, and quite unexpectedly, and he 
 entered her room just as she was busied in mak- 
 ing a little lace cap for an infant. 
 
 At this sight, the Prince turned pale ; he in- 
 quired for whom she was making that little cap, 
 and when Tryphena replied that it was for their 
 future son, the giant threw her a terrific glance, 
 and went away without saying a word. 
 
 Still the princess suspected no harm, but as 
 she looked down again to continue her sewing, 
 she saw with horror that her silver ring was 
 black as jet ! She uttered a loud shriek, for she 
 remembered the words of the hermit, and the 
 danger that awaited her. 
 
 As may readily be supposed, what most trou- 
 bled Tryphena was, that she was entirely igno- 
 rant of the reason why her husband was angry 
 with her. In vain she revolved the matter over 
 in her mind, all day long, and even till late into 
 the night, and as her anxiety would allow her no 
 rest, she arose and went down into the chapel. 
 Hardly had she knelt down, when the castle 
 clock struck, and its finger pointed to midnight. 
 In the same moment, the graves in the chapel
 
 ST. VALENTINE'S RING. 37 
 
 sprung open, and forth came the wives of the 
 giant in their winding-sheets ! 
 
 Half-dead with terror, Tryphena attempted to 
 fly, but the corpses called out to her : " Stay, 
 poor wife, the giant is lurking about to kill you ! " 
 
 " Me ! " said the princess, hardly able to speak 
 for terror ; " what have I done that he desires my 
 death ? " 
 
 " It has been foretold to him, that his own son 
 should kill him, as a punishment for his crimes ; 
 for this reason he desires to murder you, as he 
 has murdered us." 
 
 Tryphena burst into tears. " O Heaven ! " 
 she moaned, " what shall I do ? " 
 
 " Escape from the castle of the giant, and re- 
 turn home to the land of your father." 
 
 " That is impossible," replied the princess ; 
 " the giant's big dog lies in the court, and keeps 
 watch." 
 
 " Give him the poison with which his master 
 killed me," said the first corpse. 
 
 " How shall I get down to the ground from 
 the high wall?" 
 
 " Take the rope with which I was strangled," 
 said the second corpse.
 
 38 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 " But what will guide me in the darkness ? " 
 
 " The flames that consumed me," said the 
 third corpse. 
 
 " But how am I to travel so great a distance ? " 
 
 " "With the aid of this staff that fractured my 
 skull," said the fourth corpse. 
 
 The princess took staff, flame, rope, and poi- 
 son : with the poison she silenced the dog ; she 
 descended the wall by means of the rope ; and, 
 leaning on the staff, she followed the flames 
 which lighted her way to her father's kingdom. 
 
 That very next morning the giant intended 
 to put Tryphena to death; but she was gone, 
 and he sought her in vain in every room and 
 corner. When he found she was not in the cas- 
 tle, he mounted hastily into the watch-tower, 
 and looked out, at the four points of the com- 
 pass. He looked to the north, and there croaked 
 a raven ; he looked to the east, there flew a swal- 
 low ; he looked to the south, there swept along a 
 sea-gull ; he looked to the west, there fluttered a 
 timid turtle-dove. 
 
 He knew at once that Tryphena had fled in 
 that direction, and he immediately had his 
 horse saddled, and prepared to pursue her.
 
 ST. VALENTINE!S RING. 39 
 
 The poor princess was still in the great forest 
 which surrounded the giant's castle, and the 
 ring, which had again turned black, now warned 
 her that the giant was approaching. She fled 
 hastily over the heath, till she came to a shep- 
 herd's hut, that was occupied by no one but an 
 old magpie, which hung in a cage on the wall. 
 Here, in this hut, the unhappy fugitive concealed 
 herself the whole day, weeping and bemoaning 
 her hard fate, and when night came she set out 
 again upon her journey, choosing the most retired 
 paths through the cornfields. 
 
 But the giant took the high road, and there- 
 fore did not fall in with Tryphena. Two days 
 long he sought in vain, then he turned back, and, 
 as ill luck would have it, he went into the shep' 
 herd's hut on the heath. The magpie had over- 
 heard Tryphena's lamentations, and her tongue 
 being loosed, she chattered to herself continually, 
 repeating the words she had heard : " Poor Try- 
 phena ! poor Tryphena ! " The giant immedi- 
 ately perceived that the princess had been in this 
 place ; he called his bloodhound, and put him 
 upon seeking out her tracks, arid thus he fol- 
 lowed up the footsteps of the flying princess.
 
 40 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 Tryphena meantime had continued her way, and 
 at length arrived in the vicinity of heir father's 
 territory. But she was unable to proceed farther ; 
 she was forced to lie down in a thicket, and there 
 she gave birth to a remarkaoly beautiful boy. 
 She took the child in her arms, caressed it, and 
 wept for joy and sorrow at the same time. 
 
 All at once a falcon flew thither and alighted 
 before her. By the golden ribbon around its 
 neck, she perceived that it was her father's fal- 
 con. She called him by name, held out to Tiim 
 the silver ring, and said : " Fly, my falcon, fly, 
 and carry this ring to my father, that he may 
 know that I. am in great danger." 
 
 The bird understood what she meant, took the 
 ring in its beak, and flew away with the swift- 
 ness of lightning. Not long afterwards, the 
 giant came up with his bloodhound, and Try- 
 phena, having parted with her ring, had no warn- 
 ing of his approach, until she heard the voice of 
 the cruel wretch. She trembled all over with 
 terror, and hardly had time enough to wrap the 
 baby in her mantle, and conceal him in a hollow 
 tree, so swiftly rode up the giant on his fleet 
 horse.
 
 ST. VALENTINE'S RING. 41 
 
 When he saw Tryphena he sent forth a roar 
 like that of an enraged beast, rushed upon her, 
 and with one stroke severed her head from her 
 body. He did not observe the child in the hol- 
 low of the tree, but whistled to his dog, and 
 rode off. 
 
 The falcon carried the ring directly to the 
 court of the king. The king was seated at his 
 table, and was just talking of his beloved daugh- 
 ter, when the falcon flew in, and laid the silver 
 ring on the table. The king immediately per- 
 ceived that it was the hermit's ring, and he sent 
 for the holy man, who informed him how things 
 stood. " Up, up, sir king ! " he cried ; " have your 
 horses saddled, your daughter is in danger." 
 
 The horses were quickly ready, and the king, 
 with the hermit and a numerous retinue, set off 
 to aid the princess. The falcon flew on before 
 them to show the way, and the horses kept up 
 with the bird ; but when they arrived at the 
 place, they found the princess lying dead, and 
 the child crying in the hollow tree. The king 
 threw himself on the earth, tore his hair, and 
 moaned so as to move the very oaks to pity; 
 but the holy man soothed him, and bade him be
 
 42 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 silent, then went up to the corpse, said a prayer 
 over it, and uttered the command, " Arise ! " 
 
 The corpse did so. " Take your head, and 
 your child, and follow us to the giant's castle," 
 was the second command of the hermit. The 
 dead obeyed also here, and the astonished com- 
 pany mounted their horses, and set off at a quick 
 gallop to the giant's castle. But swift as the 
 horses galloped, the corpse steadily preceded 
 them, holding in the left arm the dissevered 
 head, and in the other the new-born child, and 
 thus they all arrived before the giant's castle. 
 The giant had seen them coming, and had or- 
 dered the drawbridge to be raised. 
 
 But the hermit took the dead princess by the 
 hand, approached the castle moat, and cried with 
 a loud voice, " Prince of Komorre, I bring you 
 your wife, such as she is, through your murder- 
 ous hand, together with the new-born child that 
 belongs to you. Will you receive them under 
 your roof ? " The giant gave no answer. The 
 hermit repeated these words a second time, but 
 no voice answered ; and when he had done so 
 a third time, and still no reply came, he took the 
 child from the arms of the corpse, and placed it
 
 ST. VALENTINE'S RING. 43 
 
 on the ground. O wonder ! The child began 
 to walk, wholly alone, and without any assist- 
 ance ! It went to the edge of the castle ditch, 
 took up a handful of sand, flung it through the 
 air against the castle, and cried with a bold 
 voice : " Thus be thy ashes scattered, like this 
 handful of sand, horrible wretch ! The measure 
 of thy iniquity is full ! " 
 
 In the same instant, the towers fell with a 
 stunning noise, the walls were rent asunder, and 
 the whole castle became a heap of ruins, in 
 which were buried the giant and all those who 
 had taken part in his wickedness. 
 
 Then the hermit went up to the corpse, which 
 still bore the dissevered head, took the head from 
 the left arm, placed it again between the shoul- 
 ders, and pronounced a prayer ; the eyes instantly 
 opened, and the beautiful princess was again 
 alive, and both she and the land were freed from 
 the wicked prince. 
 
 With joyful shout and acclamation, the king 
 and his retinue brought the princess and the 
 beautiful child back to the castle, and all praised 
 the holy man, who was no other than Saint Val- 
 entine !
 
 THE THREE ALMS. 
 
 A LONG time ago there lived two young lords, 
 who were as rich as they could ask to be, and as 
 handsome as their mother could desire to have 
 them. Mylio, the oldest brother, was nearly 
 seventeen years old, and Tonyk was fourteen. 
 Both had received an excellent education, so that 
 either might have been priest or magistrate, had 
 he been old enough, and desired to become so. 
 
 Tonyk was kind-hearted, and always ready to 
 help the poor, and to pardon offences ; his heart 
 was ever disposed to love, and his hand to give. 
 Mylio, on the contrary, gave to no one, not even 
 what he owed them ; he was always trying to 
 cheapen what he bought ; and if any one injured 
 him, he revenged himself upon them with all the 
 severity in his power.
 
 THE THREE ALMS. 45 
 
 Their father died when they were little chil- 
 dren, and their mother, an excellent lady, had 
 educated th3m herself. As the boys grew older, 
 she thought of sending them to a distant uncle, 
 that they might profit by his good counsel, and 
 some time or other succeed to his great posses- 
 sions. So one day she gave them each a new 
 hat, shoes with silver buckles, a sky-blue cloak, a 
 purse full of gold, and a good horse ; and thus 
 equipped, she sent them to live with her father's 
 brother. The two youths set off highly delighted 
 to visit a land that was wholly new to them. 
 They suffered their horses to go so fast, that on 
 the third day even they reached a foreign king- 
 dom, where other trees grew than those they were 
 accustomed to at home, and other fruits were 
 ripening in the fields. 
 
 One morning, as they were riding over a cross- 
 way, they saw a poor woman sitting beside the 
 stone cross, by the way-side, who kept her face 
 covered with her apron. Tonyk drew up his 
 horse, and asked what was the matter. The 
 beggar-woman answered, sobbing, that her son, 
 her only support, had died the day before, and 
 that she was now left to the mercy of strangers.
 
 
 46 POPULAR LKGKNDS .OF BRITTANY. 
 
 Tonyk was touched with compassion ; but My- 
 lio, who had ridden on, and stopped some way 
 off, cried out to him, mockingly : " You surely 
 are not going to believe every beggar you meet 
 with on the way ! This woman is only looking 
 out for the purses of the passers-by." 
 
 Tonyk answered, " Speak not so harshly, my 
 dear brother ; see how your hard words make her 
 weep. Only see now, how much in figure and 
 age she resembles our mother." 
 
 Then, turning to the beggar, he said, as he 
 reached her his purse, " Take it, my poor woman. 
 I cannot, indeed, do much, but Heaven will fur- 
 ther help you." 
 
 The beggar-woman took the purse, kissed it, 
 and said to Tonyk, " Noble lord, you have made 
 a poor woman rich : refuse not this nut from my 
 hand; there is a wasp in it, with a diamond 
 sting." 
 
 Tonyk took the nut, thanked the poor woman, 
 and continued his way with Mylio. It was not 
 long before they reached the edge of a wood, and 
 there they saw a half-naked boy, who was look- 
 ing about in the holes of the trees, and singing 
 in a most doleful manner. From time to time
 
 THE THREE ALMS. 47 
 
 he would beat his frozen hands together to warm 
 them, and then say in a singing tone, " O, I 'm 
 freezing, I.'m freezing." They could hear his 
 teeth chatter. 
 
 At this sight, the tears came into Tonyk's 
 eyes, and he said to his brother : " Ah, Mylio ! 
 how that poor, innocent boy must suffer with 
 the cold!" 
 
 " He must be a very chilly body," answered 
 Mylio. " I do not find the cold so cutting." 
 
 " But you have on a satin vest, and over that 
 a cloth coat, and over that still the sky-blue 
 cloak ; but he is half naked." 
 
 " Ha ! " laughed Mylio, " he is a little peasant 
 lad." 
 
 " Ah ! " replied Tonyk, " it goes to my very 
 heart, when I think that you might have been 
 born in his place. I cannot see him suffer so." 
 
 At these words, he stopped his horse, called 
 the boy to him, and asked him what he was do- 
 ing. " I am hunting for titmice, that sleep in 
 the holes of the trees," answered the boy. 
 
 " And what do you do with the titmice ? " 
 
 " When I have caught enough, I shall carry 
 them to the city to sell, so that I may buy me a
 
 48 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 coat, that will keep me as warm as if the dear 
 sun shone all the time." 
 
 " Have you found any yet ? " asked Tonyk. 
 
 " Only one as yet," replied the boy, showing 
 a little cage made of rushes, in which sat a tit- 
 mouse. 
 
 " Give it to me ; I will buy it of you," said 
 Tonyk, and threw the sky-blue cloak over him. 
 " Wrap yourself in it, you need it more than I." 
 
 The two brothers now set off again on their 
 journey. Mylio ridiculed his brother, and indeed 
 Tonyk had at first to suffer considerably from 
 the north wind, for want of his warm cloak. 
 But when they had got through the wood, the 
 air grew milder, the mist melted away, and the 
 sun threw its friendly rays through the clouds. 
 They soon came to a meadow, where a spring 
 was flowing, near which they found an old man 
 sitting, covered with rags, with a beggar's pack 
 upon his shoulder. When he espied the travel- 
 lers, he called to them with tones and gestures 
 of earnest entreaty. Tonyk went up to him. 
 " What do you wish, old man ? " he asked, taking 
 off his hat to the venerable old man. 
 
 " Ah, my dear gentlemen ! " he answered, " you
 
 c.A
 
 THE THREE ALMS. 49 
 
 see my hairs are gray, and my cheeks are hollow. 
 I am so weak from extreme old age, that my 
 limbs can no longer carry me. I must perish 
 here, if one of you will not sell me his horse." 
 
 " You buy one of our horses, you beggar ! " 
 cried Mylio, in a contemptuous tone ; " how will 
 you pay for it ? " 
 
 " Look at this hollowed acorn," answered the 
 beggar, " there sits a spider in it that spins 
 threads stronger than steel ; give me up one of 
 your horses, and I will give you the acorn and 
 spider for it." 
 
 The eldest brother broke out into a loud laugh. 
 " Do you hear, Tonyk ? " he cried out. " I be- 
 lieve the old man is an impudent fool." 
 
 But the younger brother mildly replied, " A 
 poor man cannot offer more than he has." He 
 dismounted from his horse, approached the old 
 man, and said : " I give you my horse, good old 
 man, not on account of the price which you offer 
 for it, but for pure compassion's sake ; it is 
 yours." 
 
 The old man wished him thousand-fold bless- 
 ings, mounted the horse with his help, and disap- 
 peared from the meadow. 
 4
 
 50 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 But Mylio could not forgive this last alms- 
 giving of his brother. 
 
 " Senseless prodigal ! " he cried, angrily, " are 
 you not ashamed of the condition into which 
 your folly has brought you? You think, for- 
 sooth, after you have squandered all your own 
 property, to share my purse, my cloak, and my 
 horse. You have deceived yourself. You may 
 now gain wisdom through adversity. The pri- 
 vations which follow your prodigality may teach 
 you economy for the future." 
 
 " You are right, my brother," answered Tonyk, 
 gently. " It will be no bad lesson for me, and 1 
 am not disposed to escape the consequences at 
 your expense. It never occurred to me to lay 
 claim to your money, cloak, or horse ; so ride on 
 your way quietly and happily, without troubling 
 yourself about me." 
 
 Mylio returned no answer, but gave the spur 
 to his horse, and galloped away. Tonyk fol- 
 lowed on foot, but he harbored no grudge 
 against his brother. 
 
 They found themselves not far from a moun- 
 tain gorge, through which the road led. It was 
 called the Valley of Torment, for on the very top
 
 THE THREE ALMS. 51 
 
 of the rocks that towered up on both sides of it 
 there lived a giant, who laid in wait for travellers, 
 like a hunter for his prey. This giant was blind, 
 and he had no feet ; but he had so sharp an ear, 
 that he could hear the grass grow in the ground, 
 and he was a great magician. His servants were 
 two trained eagles, one white and the other red ; 
 these he sent out to seize the prey, when he heard 
 it coming. When the people of that country 
 were obliged to pass through this ravine, they 
 took off their shoes, and went barefoot, not dar- 
 ing to breathe loud, for fear that the giant should 
 hear them. Mylio knew nothing of this, so he 
 rode proudly through the valley, and the clatter 
 of his horses' hoofs upon the stones waked the 
 giant. 
 
 " Hallo, my huntsmen !" he cried, " where are 
 you?" White eagle and red eagle were im- 
 mediately at hand. " Go and bring me for sup- 
 per what is going through the valley down be- 
 low," cried the giant. Swift as arrows, the two 
 eagles shot down into the gorge, seized Mylio by 
 the sky-blue cloak, and dragged hirr up the 
 heights, to the dwelling of the giant. 
 
 At this moment Tonyk arrived at the entrance
 
 52 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 of the ravine. He saw his brother snatched up 
 into the ah* by two eagles, and he uttered a loud 
 cry, and rushed to the spot. But the eagles van- 
 ished with Mylio in a few minutes, behind the 
 clouds which covered the summits of the rocks. 
 Stunned and motionless with terror, Tonyk stood 
 looking up to the rocky walls, which rose up 
 steep and perpendicular till they reached the 
 sky. 
 
 " O my brother ! my brother ! " he cried out at 
 last; " how shall I rescue my brother?". 
 
 Suddenly he heard three little, fine voices close 
 by, which said : " Who would despair like that, 
 at every little misfortune ? " 
 
 Tonyk looked around astonished. " Who 
 speaks to me, and where are you ? " he asked. 
 
 " In your coat-pocket," answered the three 
 voices. 
 
 Tonyk felt in his pocket, and took out the nut, 
 the acorn, and the little rushen cage. He re- 
 membered the little creatures that were shut up 
 in them, and he said : " Will you rescue my 
 brother Mylio?" 
 
 " Yes, yes, yes ! " answered the tiny creatures, 
 with their three several voices.
 
 THE THREE ALMS. 53 
 
 " And how will you begin, my poor play- 
 things ? " asked Tonyk farther. 
 
 " Open our cages, and you shall see." 
 
 Tonyk did as they desired. The spider has- 
 tened to a neighboring tree, and began to spin a 
 glittering web, as fine as silk, but stronger than 
 steel. Then the titmouse flew thither, took the 
 spider on his back, and mounted with her higher 
 and higher, till the web, whose threads formed a 
 kind of staircase, reached the top of the rocks. 
 Tonyk now climbed the marvellous ladder, which 
 reached to the heights above. The wasp flew 
 on before him, merrily buzzing the while, and 
 thus they came together to the dwelling of the 
 giant. 
 
 In a great stone cavern, as high as a church, 
 sat the giant, without eyes or feet. He seemed 
 to be in great spirits, for he was rocking to and 
 fro, like an enormous poplar swayed by the wind, 
 and he sang in a loud voice while he sharpened 
 a big knife with which he was going to kill poor 
 Mylio, who lay close beside him, with his arms 
 and legs, tied upon his back, so that he looked 
 like a chicken ready trussed for the spit. Both 
 eagles were in a corner by the hearth, one turn-
 
 54 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 ing a spit, and the other laying wood on the fire. 
 Amidst the noise of his singing and the whetting 
 of the knife, the giant did not observe the en- 
 trance of Tonyk and his little companions. But 
 the red eagle saw him, and darted upon him, and 
 was about to seize him with his claws ; but the 
 wasp was quickly at hand, and put out the 
 eagle's eyes with his diamond sting. White 
 eagle went to his brother's assistance, but he 
 fared no better, for he too had his eyes put out. 
 Then the wasp fell upon the giant, who had 
 risen up at the outcry of his servants, and with 
 his sting he left him neither rest nor repose. The 
 giant sent forth a horrible roar ; but strike about 
 as he would, he could not hit the wasp, for he 
 had no eyes to see with, and he could not get 
 away, for he had no feet to run with. At last he 
 threw himself down, with his face to the earth, 
 to protect it from the stings of his tormentor. 
 The spider hastened up to him, and spun a net 
 over him as fine as silk and as strong as steel ; 
 so there he lay imprisoned, without power to stir. 
 Loudly he called his two eagles to his aid, but 
 all in vain. They were both mad with pain, and 
 as they knew the giant was overpowered, they
 
 THE THREE ALMS. 55 
 
 feared him no longer, but resolved to avenge 
 themselves upon him for the long slavery in 
 which he had held them. So they flew at their 
 former master, beat him violently with their 
 wings, and, full of rage, tore his flesh through 
 the meshes of the steel net. With every stroke 
 of their bills they tore off a piece of his flesh, ,and 
 they did not desist till the bare bones appeared. 
 Then they sat down to rest ; but the flesh of a 
 magician is so indigestible, that they fell down 
 dead on that very spot. 
 
 Tonyk loosed his brother's bonds, embraced 
 him with tears of joy, and went with him out of 
 the giant's cave to the edge of the rocks. There 
 quickly appeared the titmouse and the wasp, 
 harnessed like horses to the little rushen cage, 
 which was changed into a stately coach, and 
 they invited the two brothers to take their seats 
 in it. The spider took his place behind as foot- 
 man, and, with the swiftness of the wind, away 
 they went. Tonyk and Mylio passed in this 
 manner with the greatest ease over meadows, 
 woods, mountains, and villages ; for in the air 
 the roads are everywhere of the very best descrip- 
 tion, till they came to their uncle's castle. There
 
 56 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 the coach descended to the earth, and rolled to- 
 wards the drawbridge, where the brothers found 
 both their horses tied. On the saddle of the 
 horse that belonged to Tonyk hung the purse 
 and the cloak, only the purse was much larger 
 and better filled, and the cloak was decorated 
 with precious stones. Tonyk looked with aston- 
 ishment towards the coach, to ask what all this 
 meant, but tu. "oach had vanished, and instead 
 of the wasp, the titmouse, and the spider, there 
 stood three glittering angels ! 
 
 The brothers fell down upon the ground, struck 
 with amazement and admiration ; but the most 
 beautiful and glorious angel of the three ap- 
 proached Tonyk, and said : " Fear not, dearest 
 youth. We are called Good Works ; the poor 
 beggar-woman, the freezing boy, the lame old 
 man, were no other than ourselves. Remain as 
 good as you have been thus far ; and you, Mylio, 
 learn a lesson from what you have seen, that 
 even the humblest and smallest of God's crea- 
 tures can be useful." 
 
 At these words they rose in the air, ascending 
 higher and higher, till they vanished at last like 
 swallows behind the clouds.
 
 THE THREE ALMS. 57 
 
 Mylio embraced his brother Tonyk, whose 
 kind heart had saved his life, and became ever 
 afterwards benevolent and charitable as his 
 brother.
 
 THE LITTLE MAN OF THE RUSHES. 
 
 ONCE on a time, before an almanac was ever 
 heard of, or any body had ever thought of reck- 
 oning the years, there lived on the finest farm in 
 the whole valley an honest peasant, who had 
 one daughter, who was called Barbary, or more 
 commonly Bab. She was famed, far and wide, 
 for her beauty ; but above every thing else, she 
 was counted the best dancer and the most 
 daintily dressed maiden in the country. 
 
 When she went to church on Sundays, she 
 wore a little cap embroidered with gold ; a lace 
 kerchief about her neck ; five petticoats, one over 
 the other ; and shoes with silver buckles ; o that 
 every body looked at her with envy, and out of 
 ill-will they turned up their noses at her. 
 
 Bab troubled herself little about that, for the
 
 THE LITTLE MAN OF THE RUSHES. 59 
 
 | 
 
 handsomest young men of the village nocked 
 round her, and whispered her praises in each 
 other's ears, so that she often blushed up to the 
 eyes at overhearing what they were saying about 
 her. 
 
 Among all the young fellows that gazed with 
 eyes of love on Miss Bab, there was one in par- 
 ticular who was deeply smitten with her charms. 
 This was her father's head workman on the farm, 
 an active laborer, and an honest-hearted blade, but 
 simple and bashful, and as homely as a tailor. 
 For this reason the girl would not listen to him, 
 although he was in other respects a worthy per- 
 son, and whenever he accosted her, she always 
 used to tell him that he was a clumsy ass. But 
 Joachim loved her oift of the very depths of his 
 heart, and he could bear to have her scold him ; 
 but it troubled him sorely that she whom he 
 loved should, at the same time that the very 
 sight of her was a joy to him, occasion him such 
 unspeakable vexation. 
 
 One evening, as he was driving the horses 
 home from the pasture, he stopped at a swampy 
 watering-place to let them drink. He stood a 
 little apart, with his head sunk upon his breast,
 
 60 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 and he sighed heavily, for he was thinking of 
 Bab, when all at once a voice, issuing from 
 the rushes of the swamp, called out to him : 
 " What troubles you so, Joachim ? You must 
 not be so easily discouraged." 
 
 Joachim, full of astonishment, raised his head, 
 and said, " Who is it that speaks to me ? " 
 
 " It is I, the little man of the rushes," an- 
 swered the same voice. 
 
 " I see no one," Joachim called out. 
 
 " Look straight before you, and you '11 see a 
 handsome green frog in among the rushes. I 
 take all kinds of shapes, just as I please, and I 
 can even make myself invisible when I 've a 
 mind to." 
 
 " Can you ever be seen in your ordinary 
 shape ? " 
 
 " Why not ? You shall see that, forthwith, if 
 that will amuse you." 
 
 With these words, the frog sprung upon the 
 back of one of the horses, and suddenly changed 
 into a tiny dwarf dressed in green, with very 
 delicate, shining boots. Joachim was rather 
 frightened, and he drew back several paces ; but 
 the dwarf said he need not be afraid, for he
 
 THE LITTLE MAN OF THE RUSHES. 61 
 
 would do him no harm, but on the contrary he 
 would be of use to him. 
 
 " But how have I deserved your favor ? " said 
 the husbandman, a little mistrustful. 
 
 " You did me a service last winter," answered 
 the little man of the rushes. " My brother and I 
 are at strife with the Kobolds, who live in the 
 holes and caves, because they consider it a crime 
 in us to be well disposed to mortal men. So we 
 were obliged to escape from them, and conceal 
 ourselves under the form of animals, and from 
 that time we have been in the habit of wander- 
 ing about under different shapes, and thus I 
 have had an opportunity of becoming acquaint- 
 ed with you." 
 
 How so ? " 
 
 " Do you remember that about three months 
 ago, when you were working in the alder thicket, 
 you found a robin redbreast caught in a snare ? " 
 
 " O yes ! " replied Joachim, " I remember it 
 well. I gave him his freedom, and said, ' Thou 
 eatest no corn ; there, take thy freedom, bird of 
 heaven ! ' ' 
 
 " Well now, that robin redbreast was I, and at 
 that moment I resolved to be your friend ; and
 
 62 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 to give you a proof of it, I will get Bab for your 
 wife, for I know you love her dearly." 
 
 " Ah ! little man, if you could do that ! I 
 would give you every thing in the world but 
 body and soul." 
 
 " Let me manage it ; between now and a 
 couple of months, the farm and the maiden shall 
 be yours." 
 
 " How will you bring that about ? " 
 
 " That you shall certainly see. In the first 
 place, smoke your pipe, eat, sleep, and trouble 
 yourself about nothing." 
 
 Joachim thought the conditions were not hard, 
 and he would certainly take up with them. 
 Thereupon he thanked the dwarf, pulled on his 
 hat, and drove the horses on to the farm-yard. 
 
 The next day was Sunday. Bab rose earlier 
 than usual, and went out to the cow-stalls, of 
 which she had the care. To her great astonish- 
 ment, she- found every thing already in order ; 
 fresh straw was laid, fresh fodder was placed in 
 the manger, the cows were milked, and the milk 
 made into butter. 
 
 As she had told Joachim, the evening before, 
 that she should be up betimes to be ready to go
 
 THE LITTLE MAN OF THE RUSHES. 63 
 
 to church, she naturally thought that he had 
 done all this, and she thanked him for so doing ; 
 but Joachim answered shortly, that he did not 
 know what she meant. Nevertheless Bab re- 
 mained of the same opinion. 
 
 These services were now done for her every 
 day. Never were the stalls so clean, nor the 
 cows so sleek and fat. Morning and evening 
 Bab found her pans full of milk, and a pound 
 of fresh butter delicately bordered with green 
 leaves. In a few weeks she became accustomed 
 to this state of things, and consequently did not 
 get up until the sun was high in the skies, and 
 it was time to think of breakfast and dinner. 
 
 But this labor was soon taken out of her 
 hands, for one morning, when she rose from her 
 bed, she found the house swept, the kitchen 
 utensils brightly scoured, the porridge on the fire, 
 and the bread cut in slices, so that she had 
 nothing to do but step to the street-door, and 
 call in the men and maidservants. 
 
 Again she thought this must be Joachim's do- 
 ings, and she could not get rid of the thought 
 that Joachim must make an excellent husband 
 for a woman who liked rest and pleasure.
 
 64 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 In fact, Bab needed only to express a wish be- 
 fore Joachim, when it was immediately fulfilled. 
 
 When the wind blew so cold, or the sun 
 glowed so warm, that Bab feared to spoil her 
 complexion by going out to the spring, she 
 would say softly, " I wish that my water-pails 
 were standing full in their places, and my pitch- 
 ers were filled." 
 
 Then she would go to gossip with a neighbor, 
 and when she came back, there stood the pails 
 and the pitchers on the stone table, filled accord- 
 ing to her wish. 
 
 If it was troublesome to her to bake bread, or 
 inconvenient to heat the oven, she had only to 
 whisper, " I wish to my heart I had my six fif- 
 teen-pound loaves on the table, over the tray," 
 and in a couple of hours afterward, the six loaves 
 were there ! 
 
 If she thought the market too far off, and the 
 roads too bad, she would say, the day before, 
 " Why am I not back again with the empty milk- 
 pails and butter-bowls, a pound of black cherries 
 in my dish, and money in my pocket ? " The next 
 morning when she rose, she found, at the foot of 
 her bed, the milk-pails empty, and the butter-
 
 THE LITTLE MAN OF THE RUSHES. 65 
 
 bowls likewise, a pound of black cherries in the 
 wooden dish, and a bright gold piece in her 
 pocket. 
 
 But she was not long satisfied with all this. 
 Would she send a message to another maiden, 
 or bespeak any thing she wanted, did she wish 
 to buy a ribbon from the city, or to know when 
 a church festival or a dance would take place, 
 Joachim was always at hand ; she needed only 
 to say what she wanted, and it was immediately 
 done. This went so far, that she would revenge 
 herself sometimes on her young friends in this 
 way, and often play them many a harmless trick. 
 
 In this way it was that she could not live with- 
 out Joachim, because in her own mind she con- 
 sidered him as the cause of all these things. 
 He served her for rest, as well as for pleasure, for 
 her friendships and her spites ; in one word, he 
 was any thing and every thing to her. 
 
 When things were in this train, the little man 
 of the rushes advised his protege to renew his 
 proposals again, and this time Bab actually 
 heard him to the end. He was too awkward 
 and homely for a lover, but she thought he would 
 do very well for a husband. If she married him, 
 5
 
 DO POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 she could sleep till breakfast-time like a city 
 lady, she could wear fine clothes, she could gos- 
 sip at a neighbor's door, with her hands under 
 her apron, and every Sunday she could go to a 
 dance. Joachim cared for every thing for her. 
 He labored for her, he took care of the house for 
 her. Joachim was the beast of burden which 
 drew the wagon, and Bab sat above on the hay, 
 and plied the whip to make him go faster. 
 
 All this the maiden thought over in her mind, 
 so she told the young man he might see her 
 father, and she would do as he said. But she 
 knew very well beforehand that her father would 
 give his consent, for he had often declared, that 
 he knew no one who could superintend a farm 
 better than Joachim. 
 
 So the next month they were married, and a 
 few days afterwards the father died, and left the 
 house and farm to the young folks. This was 
 for Joachim no small charge. But the little man 
 of the rushes came to his aid. He worked for 
 him as a servant, and he did more than six hired 
 men would have done ; he kept the tools and the 
 horses in excellent order ; he repaired what was 
 going to decay, and he chose the best time for
 
 THE LITTLE MAN OF THE RUSHES. 67 
 
 sowing and harvest. If there was work to be 
 done in haste, the little man would call his broth- 
 ers, and all the dwarfs would hasten to the spot, 
 with mattocks, sickles, or rakes; did they lack 
 draught cattle, the little man would send Joa- 
 chim where his brothers lived, and he had only to 
 say, " Dear dwarfs, be so good as to lend me a 
 pair of oxen, or a span of horses, with all thereto 
 belonging," and in a moment he had what he 
 wanted. For all this, the little man asked no 
 other pay than a milk-pan of milk every day, and 
 on this account Joachim loved him as if he had 
 been his own son. Bab, on the contrary, hated 
 him, and not without reason. From the very 
 morning after her marriage, she found, to her as- 
 tonishment, that the help which had been so long 
 extended to her was withheld, and when she be- 
 gan to find fault with Joachim on this account, 
 and he did not rightly understand what she 
 meant, the little man laughed aloud, and told her 
 that he had performed all these services for her, 
 but that he merely did so before her marriage, and 
 only for Joachim's sake. Now, he added, he had 
 other things to do, and she must begin again to 
 take charge of the household affairs.
 
 68 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 Bab, seeing her hopes thus deceived, was filled 
 with hatred and bitterness towards the little man. 
 Every morning, when she had to rise before day 
 to milk the cows or go to market, and every 
 evening, when she had to churn till midnight, 
 she cursed the little man who had ruined all her 
 expectations of an idle, pleasure-seeking life. 
 And then, when she saw Joachim's sun-burnt 
 face, his bristly hair, and his squinting eyes, her 
 rage knew no bounds. 
 
 " No, cursed dwarf," she would say, " I will 
 never forgive you for seducing me into taking 
 Joachim for a husband, and I will be sure to pay 
 you for it some time or other." 
 
 One day she was invited to a wedding in a 
 neighboring village, and the saddle-horse hap- 
 pened to be sick, and the others were in use on 
 the farm ; and as she did not choose to go on 
 foot, she 'conquered her pride, and asked the li ttle 
 man for a saddle-horse. He sent her out on the 
 moor to his brothers, and he charged her to be 
 sure to remember to ask piece by piece for every 
 thing that belonged to a horse. 
 
 Bab went, and she thought she could do no 
 better than to say, " Little dwarfs, my dear
 
 THE LITTLE MAN OF THE RUSHES. 69 
 
 friends, lend me a black horse, with eyes, mouth, 
 ears, saddle, and bridle." Immediately the horse 
 stood before her; she mounted it, and rode to 
 the wedding. On the way, she noticed that 
 every body looked after her with surprise, and 
 laughed, and some said, " Look, look, she has 
 left her horse's tail hanging in the stable." 
 
 Bab looked behind her, and sure enough her 
 horse had no tail ! She had forgotten to ask for 
 the tail, and the dwarfs had taken her exactly at 
 her word. Bab grew red with rage ; she tried to 
 make the horse go faster, but blows and kicks 
 were of no avail, the horse would go his own 
 gait, and Bab was constrained to overhear the 
 jokes of the passers-by at her expense. Raving 
 against the little man of the rushes, she came 
 home at night, for she had no doubt that he had 
 played her this trick intentionally, and she re- 
 solved to take vengeance on him at the first op- 
 portunity. 
 
 Spring had now opened, and, May being 
 the festival time of the dwarfs, the little man 
 begged permission of Joachim to invite his 
 brothers to a feast, and dance in the evening on 
 the barn-floor. Joachim naturally could not say
 
 70 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 no. He told Bab to prepare the barn-floor, to 
 spread out her whitest sheets, and to set out an 
 abundance of fine wheat-bread and butter, to re- 
 serve all the morning's and evening's milk for 
 them, with other appropriate accompaniments. 
 To his great surprise, Bab made not a word of 
 objection. She prepared every thing, 'spread the 
 sheets, and set out the bread and the milk ; but 
 in the place where the dwarfs were to seat them- 
 selves, she strewed all the red-hot coals which 
 she had drawn out of her oven, so that the little 
 man and his guests were burnt to the bone, and 
 with loud shrieks they ran away. They came 
 back again, however, each one with a bucket of 
 water, which he poured on the coals, so that the 
 building might not be injured. But after they 
 had extinguished the fire, they arranged them- 
 selves in a circle, and danced around house and 
 farm-yard, singing at the same time : 
 
 " With treacherous heart and cruel hand, 
 
 You 've burned with fire your faithful friends ; 
 Henceforth we quit both house and land, 
 With us your prosperous fortune ends." 
 
 And that very same evening they vanished from 
 the country, and never showed themselves again.
 
 THE LITTLE MAN OF THE RUSHES. 71 
 
 With them vanished prosperity and success. 
 After the little man left, Joachim had no one to 
 care for him, or assist him in the labors of his 
 farm ; instead of thrift came waste and misfor- 
 tune, and Joachim became poorer from day to 
 day, till at last he mourned himself to death. 
 Then proud Bab was driven from the farm, and 
 forced to take service with other people, where 
 she had to endure a great many hardships.
 
 THE STROLLING BEGGAR. 
 
 THE days when good fairies and spirits de- 
 scended to the earth to make mortals happy, or to 
 console them in misfortune, are long since gone 
 by. People do not believe in them now-a-days, 
 and therefore they have discontinued their visits, 
 and a great many beliefs which are now enter- 
 tained will have passed away in the same man- 
 ner, in the course of a century hence, because 
 people will then think and feel differently from 
 what they do now. Whether this change of 
 views takes place because people are, as they 
 affirm, actually richer in spiritual endowments, 
 or poorer in that respect, is a matter we will not 
 trouble ourselves about; but at the time when 
 every body believed in such good spirits, it hap- 
 pened that a young man named Melchior set 
 out upon his travels.
 
 THE. STROLLING BEGGAR. 73 
 
 Melchior was in the prime of his youth, and he 
 had neither father nor mother, nor any relations 
 whatever. His guardian had given him a walk- 
 ing-staff, pressed three dollars into his hand, and 
 sent him forth into the wide world to seek his 
 fortune. 
 
 Melchior had already passed over a good piece 
 of road, and he was thinking over to himself 
 what he had better do with this vast sum of 
 money. While he was cogitating the matter, he 
 drew near a village, and he saw just without the 
 village, on the road behind the little church, a 
 corpse lying on the ground. He waited there till 
 some people came along, and he inquired of them 
 why this dead body was left lying there. 
 
 " It is a poor travelling beggar," they said, 
 " who last evening breathed his last out here in 
 the open air ; he left nothing behind him but the 
 poor, ragged clothes he has on, and so the priest 
 would not take the trouble to have him properly 
 buried." 
 
 " And was there no one who would furnish a 
 paltry coffin and pay the surplice fees, when the 
 priest is so hard-hearted ? " 
 
 The people said, " No," and Melchior ex-
 
 74 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 claimed, " No ? But no one knows how nearly 
 this may concern him. The poor man shall not 
 lie here and waste away", the sport of the people 
 and the prey of the ravens. I have three dollars, 
 if that will suffice ; I am sure I shall get through 
 the world somehow or other." 
 
 He begged an introduction to the base priest ; 
 to whom he counted out the burial fees, and 
 with the rest of the money he bought a coffin. 
 He remained until the corpse was interred ; but 
 the service took no more time than a smith 
 would take to shoe a horse, for a bad priest 
 prays according to his pay. Melchior covered 
 up the grave decently, planted a green bush on 
 the mound, wished the dead a peaceful rest, and 
 went on his way. 
 
 After a short time, he became hungry and 
 thirsty, and then he remembered that, of all the 
 money his guardian had given him for his travel- 
 ling expenses, not a cent remained. He went 
 into the wood, and looked for berries and other 
 wild fruit, and when he had gathered what he 
 wanted, he looked around upon the little birds 
 who were hopping among the branches, and 
 pecking for worms in the holes of the trees, and 
 he said to himself:
 
 THE STROLLING BEGGAR. 75 
 
 " The birds are much better off than men ; they 
 need neither butler nor baker ; the broad, blessed 
 light of heaven belongs to them, and the earth is 
 their garden, in which they find their appropriate 
 food, the insects are their game, the grass their 
 barley-field, and there is fruit for them every- 
 where. Yes," he added, " they have reason to 
 sing and twitter the whole day long." 
 
 Full of these thoughts he had gone deeper in- 
 to the wood, but his step grew gradually slower, 
 and at length he sat down under a. tall oak, and 
 soon fell asleep. 
 
 As he lay there sleeping, he began to dream, 
 and it seemed to him that he saw the strolling 
 beggar whom he had just had buried appear be- 
 fore him ; but his ragged clothes were changed 
 into glittering raiment, and upon his head was 
 a coronet sparkling with diamonds. While he 
 was gazing at him, and wondering if it were he 
 or not, he heard a voice that came from the mouth 
 of the apparition, which thus addressed him : 
 
 " Melchior, attend to my words ! I am the 
 strolling beggar, Stephen, whose body you have 
 had buried. Long as I wandered around among 
 men, I found not one who deserved my favor ;
 
 76 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 for I am no mortal man, but a powerful being 
 who rules over the spirit-world, and also over 
 subterranean treasures. But what all denied me 
 during my lifetime, you have done for me in 
 death. Now, hear me : presume not to think 
 that the birds in the trees are better off than 
 yourself or than other men, for you possess a 
 higher intelligence than they, and you were born 
 to a more glorious destiny, and therefore is it 
 that you had your option to do as you did, or 
 to keep your three dollars, and suffer my body to 
 decay in the open air. But after the deed comes 
 the recompense, and that you may perceive this 
 to be so, hear me further, and mark me well, for 
 it is no dream. 
 
 " Not far from here, in a level field, stands a 
 house which you will easily recognize by its red 
 and green weathercock, in which lives a man 
 with a daughter as fair as the day, and as gentle 
 as a babe in the cradle. Go thither, knock at 
 the door, and say that they know already why 
 you have come, and the man will receive you 
 into his house, and the rest you will soon learn 
 yourself. Only do not forget, when you stand in 
 need of assistance, to call out :
 
 THE STROLLING BEGGAR. 77 
 
 1 Help, dead beggar-man, friendly shade ! 
 Myself I cannot help or aid ! ' " 
 
 After these words, the apparition and the 
 dream vanished together, and Melchior awaked. 
 He marvelled greatly over what he had dreamed ; 
 but after much reflection, he thought best to try 
 and see if there was any thing in it. So he 
 went over the field and searched about for the 
 house. Night was coming on, so that it cost 
 him some trouble to find it ; but at last, seeing 
 a flock of pigeons, he followed their course, and 
 soon came in sight of the red and green weather- 
 cock. 
 
 Melchior knocked at the door, and said, as he 
 had been directed, that it was already known 
 to the people of the house why he had come. 
 
 Immediately the man of the house appeared, 
 a feeble old man, whose head was shaking with 
 palsy, and who was supported by his daughter, 
 a pretty, fresh-looking maiden, who looked, at her 
 father's side, like the ivy blossoming on an old, 
 ruined wall. 
 
 Both saluted Melchior in the most friendly 
 manner, and brought him into a beautiful 
 apartment. Melchior was pressed to sit by the
 
 78 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 old man's settle, on a chair of satin, while his 
 daughter prepared the evening repast. 
 
 Melchior wondered greatly over this reception, 
 and particularly over the blooming face of the 
 maiden, whom he could not gaze at enough, and 
 the longer he looked at her/ the prettier he 
 thought she was, till at last his heart beat like 
 an old-fashioned timepiece. 
 
 " Ah ! " he thought, in his mind, " how happy 
 must he be, who, alone and undisturbed, can 
 chat with this lovely maiden ! " 
 
 When the supper was ended, and Lizzy (as 
 the maiden was called) was clearing away the 
 tea-things, the -old man turned to Melchior, and 
 said : " We have entertained you to the best of 
 our ability, but not with the pleasure with which 
 we should do so, if our house were not visited by 
 a terrible calamity. Formerly we had about 
 twenty horses and forty cows, but an evil sprite 
 has got into the stables, and horses and cows 
 have vanished one after another ; and as often as 
 we buy more, these also disappear in the course 
 of a single night. No means of driving away 
 the evil sprite has succeeded, and as I can keep 
 no cattle, the whole of this farm lies fallow. I
 
 THE STROLLING BEGGAR. 79 
 
 have long been expecting the return of my cou- 
 sin Matthias, but he has been drawn for the war, 
 and we hear nothing from him, and I know not 
 whether he is living or dead. So at last I have 
 given out word in all the towns throughout the 
 country, that whoever would rid my stables of 
 the wicked elf should receive my daughter as 
 his wife, and the whole farm as her marriage 
 portion." 
 
 " Alas ! " he added, with tears in his eyes, 
 " many have come, but not one has ever returned ; 
 ah 1 have disappeared in the stable, as the horses 
 and cows did before them." 
 
 Melchior, who had the greatest confidence in 
 the words of the apparition, because every thing 
 had thus far turned out just as he had said, re- 
 plied, that he hoped to overpower the wicked 
 spirit. 
 
 He asked leave to make a fire in the stable, 
 took his travelling staff and a stout club in his 
 hand, and was conducted to the stable by Lizzy. 
 
 The building into which he was brought was 
 an enormous stable, divided into two parts, one 
 half being designed for the cows, and the other 
 for the horses ; but all the stalls were empty, and
 
 80 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 the spiders had spun their great webs in them 
 without let or hinderance. 
 
 Melchior lighted a fire on the pavement, and 
 waited to see what would happen. For the first 
 quarter of an hour, he heard nothing but the 
 crackling of the wood ; in the second quarter of 
 an hour, he heard nothing but the whistling of 
 the wind through the broken window-pane ; in 
 the third quarter of an hour he heard nothing but 
 the gnawing of the worms in the beams ; but in 
 the fourth quarter of an hour, there began to be 
 a rushing and roaring among the stones of the 
 paved floor, the heaviest stone slowly rose up, 
 and a dragon's head issued forth out of the 
 ground, that was as big as a barn-door, and flat 
 as a viper's head, and in its forehead glittered a 
 row of eyes of all the colors of the rainbow. 
 
 Now the beast placed a pair of powerful red 
 claws on the pavement, fixed its eyes on Mel- 
 chior, and, with a fearful hiss, left its hole. His 
 long, scaly body was wreathed up in enormous 
 coils, as it came up like an endless cable out of 
 the hole. Melchior was a bold youth, but never- 
 theless at this sight the blood froze in his veins. 
 Already he felt the poisonous breath of the drag-
 
 THE STROLLING BEGGAR. 81 
 
 on blowing upon him, and he called out in his 
 anguish : 
 
 " Help, dead beggar-man, friendly shade ! 
 Myself I cannot help or aid." 
 
 And that very moment the apparition of his 
 dream stood by his side. 
 
 " Fear not, Melchior," said he, " but attack 
 the monster boldly." 
 
 Melchior raised his club, advanced upon the 
 monster, swung his staff, and after a few sturdy 
 blows upon the head, the dragon lay dead upon 
 the floor. 
 
 In the morning, Melchior left the stable, and 
 called the people to take away the dead dragon. 
 At the sight of the monster, the stoutest-hearted 
 were horror-struck, and started back with terror. 
 
 " Be not afraid," said Melchior ; " he will do no 
 more harm, he is dead. Henceforth the stalls 
 are safe again, and no more cows or horses will 
 be destroyed." 
 
 With a long rope the men dragged the dragon 
 out of the stable, the length of his body being 
 twice the length of the whole farm. 
 
 The father embraced Melchior in great joy, 
 and kept his promise by giving him Lizzy for his 
 6
 
 82 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 wife, and the whole farm for her dower. A short 
 time after this he died. 
 
 Melchior and Lizzy were the happiest people 
 in the world, and there was nothing that they 
 could wish for to add to their happiness. But 
 one evening when they were sitting at table eat- 
 ing their supper, the door opened, and a soldier 
 entered, who was so tall that his head reached the 
 cieling. Lizzy recognized her cousin Matthias ; 
 he had come back from the war, to marry his 
 cousin Lizzy, not that he cared for her, but for 
 the sake of the marriage-portion. 
 
 When he saw how things had gone, he was 
 wild with rage, but he was careful to conceal his 
 feelings from the young couple. Melchior re- 
 ceived him like an affectionate brother, and set 
 before him the best that the house afforded, he 
 showed him into the best room, and went himself 
 with him through the fields, which were loaded 
 with a glorious harvest. But the more Matthias 
 saw of Melchior's prosperity, the greater grudge 
 he bore towards him, and the more intense grew 
 his indignation that all this did not belong to 
 him. 
 
 One day he invited Melchior to go hunting
 
 THE STROLLING BEGGAR. 83 
 
 with him, and he took him to a lonely windmill 
 on a heath, which had no owner. Around it he 
 had heaped up fagots and brush-wood, and when 
 they came up to it, he stood still a minute and 
 then called out : " Ha ! look ! you can see your 
 farm from here." 
 
 Where ? " asked Melchior. 
 
 " Here, behind this heap of bushes ; do'nt you 
 see the windows of the upper story ? " 
 
 " I am too short," answered Melchior. 
 
 " That is true," answered Matthias. 
 
 " What a pity ! I can see Lizzy in the little 
 meadow near the garden." 
 
 " Is she alone ? " 
 
 " No, she is talking with two men, who are 
 talking very kindly to her." 
 
 " And what is Lizzy doing ? " 
 
 " She is listening to them, and plucking at her 
 apron." 
 
 Melchior raised himself on tiptoe. " Ah, if I 
 could only see her ! " he said. 
 
 *' That is easy enough," replied Matthias. 
 Climb up on the mill, and you will be higher 
 than I." 
 
 Melchior was pleased with this good advice,
 
 84 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 and climbed hastily up the ladder. When lie 
 was up, Matthias asked him what he saw. 
 
 " I see trees that look no higher than ripe corn, 
 and houses that look no bigger than snail-shells." 
 
 " You must look nearer." 
 
 " Nearer to me, I see water with boats on it, 
 that look no larger than floating tubs." 
 
 " Look still nearer," said the soldier again. 
 
 " Still nearer, I see the heath, with thousands 
 of red flowers." 
 
 " Look close beside you ! " 
 
 " Close beneath me," cried Melchior enraged. 
 " I see flames that are rising up high around the 
 mill, and you have taken away the ladder ! " 
 It was indeed so. Matthias had lighted the 
 heaps of brush, and carried away the ladder. 
 The mill was all on fire like a baker's oven, and 
 Matthias ran away with a mocking laugh. 
 
 Luckily Melchior remembered his wondrous 
 couplet, and hardly had he called out, 
 
 " Help, dead beggar-man, friendly shade ! 
 Myself I cannot help or aid," 
 
 than the apparition came again as at first, hold- 
 ing a rainbow in his hand, on which Melchior 
 descended as if it had been a ladder, unhurt from 
 the flames of the mill.
 
 THE STROLLING BEGGAR. 85 
 
 When Melchior entered his house, Matthias 
 was thunderstruck, and ran for his horse and 
 weapons of defence, for he thought nothing else 
 than that Melchior was going to give him up to 
 justice. Melchior saw him as he was going out 
 of the door, and called to him. 
 
 , " Fear not, cousin ; no person in the world shall 
 know what has happened on the heath. Your 
 heart is diseased and filled with envy because 
 every thing goes well with me, but I will cure 
 you. From this day forth, so long as I live, half 
 of every thing I possess, Lizzy excepted, shall be- 
 long to you. Be comforted then, and remain 
 with us." 
 
 The deed of gift was drawn up, signed, and 
 sealed, and every three months Matthias received 
 half the produce of the whole estate, the fields as 
 well as the stables, the hens as well as the pig- 
 eons. 
 
 Generosity like that of Melchior ought surely 
 to have satisfied him, but Matthias grew more 
 dissatisfied and envious than ever. Benefits 
 which are unmerited are like wine when one 
 drinks it without being thirsty, they give neither 
 joy nor blessing. Matthias no longer desired the
 
 86 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 death of Melchior, for then the generous donation 
 would be taken from him ; but he hated him as a 
 caged wolf hates his keeper. 
 
 What most vexed him was, that his cousins 
 lacked nothing. Even the only thing that had 
 been wanting to their happiness was now vouch- 
 safed to them, a son, a most beautiful boy. 
 
 Melchior invited all the gentlefolks for five 
 miles round to the child's baptism. They came 
 from all the neighboring towns, with their wives 
 and daughters, and the whole farm was full of 
 horses and carriages. 
 
 When they w T ere all assembled, Melchior 
 brought in the little boy and showed him to his 
 guests. The door opened, and in came Matthi- 
 as. Lizzy uttered a stifled cry, for his wicked 
 expression of face boded nothing good. 
 
 Matthias went laughing up to Melchior, and 
 clapped him on the shoulder, and said, " Many 
 thanks, my dear cousin, for the new present you 
 have made me." 
 
 " What present ? " asked Melchior much puz- 
 zled. 
 
 " Only your little boy there." 
 
 " What do you wish to do with him ? "
 
 THE STROLLING BEGGAR. 87 
 
 " You surely have not forgotten," said Matthi- 
 as, with a mocking laugh, " what is promised to 
 me on this parchment, the half of all the prop- 
 erty, Lizzy excepted ; and surely this little boy is 
 included in the bargain." 
 
 All present shrieked with horror, but Matthias 
 remained unmoved, and insisted that he would 
 have his half of the little boy. 
 
 Melchior and Lizzy entreated him to spare the 
 child, but the hard-hearted soldier persisted in his 
 claim, and seized his sword to divide the little 
 creature in two. 
 
 In the anguish of his heart Melchior repeated, 
 almost unconsciously, the magical couplet, 
 
 " Help, dead beggar-man, friendly shade ! 
 Myself I cannot help or aid." 
 
 A flash of lightning brought the soldier crippled 
 to the floor. The parchment containing the deed 
 of gift was burned up, and the glittering appari- 
 tion of the Beggar-rnan became visible in the room 
 in all its glorious beauty. 
 
 " That is the reward of your covetousness," he 
 cried, in a voice of thunder, to the half-dead Mat- 
 thias. " No kindness could improve your black 
 heart, now adversity may do its work. Hence-
 
 OO POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 forth you shall possess nothing more than what 
 the compassion of honest hearts may confer upon 
 you, and that you may do no further harm, your 
 hands shall remain crippled and powerless to the 
 end." 
 
 " You, good people," turning to Melchior and 
 Lizzy, " are now free from every engagement, and 
 you will have no further need of me. Live hap- 
 pily and in peace ! " 
 
 The apparition vanished, but Matthias remain- 
 ed lame and feeble, dependent upon the bounty 
 of his cousins, till he died a miserable death, be- 
 cause his envious spirit embittered every favor 
 which their kind hearts bestowed upon him. 
 
 But Melchior and Lizzy lived in happiness and 
 peace many, many years.
 
 THE WALKING STONES. 
 
 AWAY on the moor-side lies a poor, obscure 
 little village. All around, the whole surface of the 
 ground is nothing but a dry, barren waste, with 
 no trees except an occasional clump of pines, and 
 throughout the whole town there is not enough 
 grass growing to pasture a pair of oxen, nor oats 
 enough to fatten a pig. 
 
 But if the inhabitants have no corn or cattle, 
 they have no lack of stones : for there are flint- 
 stones enough lying about, to build a dozen cit- 
 ies, and yet leave enough to build a dozen vil- 
 lages beside, and on one side of the village there 
 is a wide heath, where the dwarfs, or somebody 
 else, have planted long, long rows of blocks of 
 stone, close together, so that it looks like a street. 
 
 Between the little village and the moor, there
 
 90 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 lived a man who passed for rich ; that is, he could 
 every year slaughter a small hog for the family 
 use, every Michaelmas he could buy a pair of 
 wooden shoes for the winter, and he always had 
 as much black bread as he wanted. 
 
 He was also considered the proudest man in 
 the whole country, for he had refused his sister 
 Rosa to all the young men in the place who lived 
 by the labor of their hands. Among these, there 
 was one young man by the name of Berend. 
 
 Berend had known Rosa from a little child, 
 and had often played " Catch " with her, repeat- 
 ing as he did so, " I throw my kerchief here and 
 there " ; and the older they grew, the closer became 
 their friendship, till' at last Berend thought he 
 could not live without Rosa. 
 
 You may well think, then, that Martin's de- 
 cided refusal went to his very heart. Luckily, 
 Rosa paid little heed to her proud brother, but 
 continued to be kind and friendly to Berend, and 
 often when he passed by the house, she would 
 smile pleasantly and begin to sing, " I throw my 
 kerchief here and there " ; and then Berend would 
 be reminded of the pleasant days of their child- 
 hood, and he would join in with
 
 THE WALKING STONES. 91 
 
 " I know not to whom I shall give it, 
 I '11 give it to my dearest," 
 
 and then his heart grew so light, that he no longer 
 felt sad or discouraged. 
 
 At length New-year's time came. The weath- 
 er was so cold, and the snow so deep, that it was 
 not possible to go across the moor to the next 
 village, where there was a band of music, and the 
 young people were playing and dancing, but as 
 Martin was a rich man, he thought he would 
 have a little entertainment on Sylvester-day,* 
 which occurs about this time ; so he assembled 
 all his relations, and invited several jovial young 
 fellows besides, among whom was our friend 
 Berend. , 
 
 The master of the house prided himself in pro- 
 viding a liberal entertainment for his guests, and 
 he had a plenty of oat-meal pudding with honey 
 for sauce. "While this delicious dish was prepar- 
 ing, all eyes were turned to the hearth, in eager 
 expectation ; Berend alone gazed on his beloved 
 Rosa. At last the desired moment came, when 
 the benches were drawn up to the table, the plates 
 were set on, and the spoons were stuck like a 
 
 * Dec. 31, Old Style.
 
 92 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 wreath all around the dish of hasty-pudding. 
 But just as the guests were about to fall to, the 
 door was forcibly pushed open, and an aged man 
 entered, who wished them a blessed meal. 
 
 This man was a travelling beggar, who be- 
 longed to no particular place, and who inspired 
 all the people with terror. A great many stories 
 were told about him ; he was said to have an evil 
 eye, so that the cattle fell sick when he looked 
 upon them ; he could blast the corn in the ear, 
 and he sold simple people salve for cuts and 
 bruises. Indeed, many people affirmed that he 
 had it in his power to change himself into a 
 Wehr-wolf* 
 
 But as he appeared to be a poor, needy beg- 
 gar, Martin permitted him to sit down by the 
 fire, and warm himself. He handed him a three- 
 legged stool, and out of compassion gave him a 
 dish from the table. The sorcerer ate, warmed 
 himself, and then asked for a night's lodging. 
 Martin opened the barn, there stood in the stall 
 
 * Those wolves that had- tasted human flesh were called Wehr- 
 or Were-wolves by the Saxons, who held them in peculiar dread, on 
 account of their having acquired additional ferocity from that cir- 
 cumstance. Miss Strickland.
 
 THE WALKING STONES. 93 
 
 an old gray ass and a meagre heifer. The beg- 
 gar laid himself down between the two beasts to 
 keep himself from freezing, and stuck a bundle 
 of heath under his head. Just as he was begin- 
 ning to grow sleepy, the clock struck midnight. 
 
 Then the old gray ass shook his long ears, and 
 turned to the meagre heifer. " Now, coz," he be- 
 gan, "how have you been since last Sylvester- 
 night, when we last saw each other ? " 
 
 The meagre heifer made no answer, but shook 
 
 X 
 
 her head, and cast a contemptuous glance on the 
 beggar. 
 
 When the ass repeated his question again, the 
 meagre heifer said, in a droll tone, " There 's great 
 pleasure in talking, when the only hour in which 
 we can speak for the whole year is embittered 
 by the presence of this miserable, beggar." 
 
 " Fie ! how proud you have grown ! The dress 
 makes no one better than he is ; I think myself 
 that my hide is getting rather speckled with 
 years, and for that reason I despise nobody. It 
 is very true that this beggar is a good-for-nothing 
 fellow, and a wicked magician ; but you see he is 
 asleep, and cannot hear us." 
 
 " Yes," answered the meagre heifer, " all his
 
 94 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 magic arts have not availed to make him rich. 
 He toils and toils, but luck slips through his fin- 
 gers. I could succeed better if I could only make 
 use of the means, and in a few days there will be 
 a fine opportunity, and close by here too." 
 
 " How so ? " asked the gray ass. 
 
 " What ! Is it possible that you do not know 
 that once in every hundred years the stones on 
 the moor go down to the sea-side to drink, and 
 while they are gone, all the treasures of the earth 
 lie open and exposed, so that you have nothing 
 to do but to reach out and get what you want ? " 
 
 " Ah ! now I remember," said the gray ass, 
 " that this takes place on Three-Kings'-night." * 
 
 " Well, this is the year that it falls upon." 
 
 " Yes," answered the gray ass, " but there is, 
 nevertheless, a difficulty in the matter. In a few 
 minutes the stqnes come back again, to take their 
 old places for the next hundred years to pome, 
 and then those that they do not crush will have 
 time enough to starve." 
 
 " Bah ! " replied the meagre heifer ; " one only 
 needs to take a five-leaved clover with him, and 
 
 * 6th of January, Old Style.
 
 THE WALKING STONES. 95 
 
 they will do him no harm, and he can walk un 
 disturbed through the midst of them." 
 
 " Well, then, there 's another thing," continued 
 the gray ass ; " if one succeeds in bringing up the 
 treasures, they soon change into dust and ashes." 
 
 " Who would be so stupid," replied the mea- 
 gre heifer, " as not to put them into a chest, and 
 lay a bit of witch-hazel on the top. If they are 
 left thus until mid-day, they will remain just as 
 they are, and whoever has them is richer than the 
 whole village." 
 
 " Aha ! " thought the beggar, who had not 
 gone to sleep, but had only kept his eyes shut, 
 while he was listening to this conversation be- 
 tween the ass and the heifer, " Aha ! my dear 
 creatures," thought he, " many thanks to you ! 
 You make me richer than the proud Martin, and 
 for the future I'll have no more to do with mag- 
 ic, which amounts to nothing." 
 
 He went to sleep, and at daybreak the next 
 morning he went over the heath. There he found 
 Berend breaking stones with a hammer. 
 
 " Holla ! my friend," said the magician, " are 
 you going to build yourself a cabin out of these 
 stones ? "
 
 96 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 " Not that," answered Berend, " but I was 
 cold, and I thought I could not do better than to 
 collect some good stones to improve the road. I 
 think I deserve Martin's thanks for that, for he 
 always has the worst road." 
 
 " Do you care so much for Martin's favor ? " 
 
 " I like to be friends with every body," said 
 Berend, looking at the beggar with a surprised 
 air. 
 
 The beggar laughed aloud. 
 
 " And have not you really thought any thing 
 ahout Rosa in this matter ? " 
 
 Berend did not know what to say. " Ah ! " he 
 said at last, " you know every thing, but I need 
 not be ashamed ; the maiden is so handsome and 
 so good ! Ah ! if I only were not so poor ! " 
 
 " If that is all," said the beggar, laughing, " 1 
 can help you. What should you think," said he 
 softly, " if I should give you a purse full of bright 
 dollars?" 
 
 " You ? " cried Berend. 
 
 " Yes, I." 
 
 " And what do you want in return ? " 
 
 " Nothing at all, only that you have a bit of 
 courage."
 
 THE AVALKING STONES. 97 
 
 " If that 's all," said Berend, " I have courage 
 enough to go through fire and water." 
 
 When the beggar found Berend so friendly 
 disposed, he went on to tell him what would 
 take place on Three*-Kings'-night. But he said 
 nothing at all of what was necessary to be done 
 to avoid being crushed to pieces by the returning 
 stones, because he wished to destroy him and 
 marry the pretty Rosa himself. 
 
 So he told Berend -to go to the moor on Three- 
 Kings'-night, and there he, the beggar, would 
 meet him. Berend kept his appointment. A 
 full hour before midnight he was on the moor, 
 and there he found the beggar seated with 
 two sacks in his hands, and a third about his 
 neck. 
 
 " Sit down a little while," said the beggar-man, 
 "and think over, while you are waiting, what 
 you shall do when you hoist up gold and silver 
 in .the greatest abundance." 
 
 Berend sat do\vn on the ground, and said, 
 " When I have silver enough I will marry my 
 dear Rosa, and give her every thing her heart can 
 wish." 
 
 " And what will you do with the gold ? " 
 7
 
 98 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 " When I have gold enough, I will enrich all 
 Rosa's relatives, and my own too." 
 
 " But you will obtain precious stones, too, 
 which are more valuable than gold and silver; 
 what shall you do with them ? " 
 
 " Ah ! " exclaimed Berend, and he sprang up 
 for joy ; " then no human being shall ever suffer 
 before my eyes ; I will help all the poor, and con- 
 sole the sick and feeble in their sufferings." 
 
 The clock now struck twelve. Suddenly a 
 tremendous roaring sound, like that of an earth- 
 quake, was heard on the moor, and by the glim- 
 mer of the stars they could see that the stone 
 blocks had lifted themselves out of their places, 
 and had begun their journey to the sea. They 
 looked like an army of giants who were all 
 drunken, they staggered so from one side to the 
 other. They passed by Berend and the beggar, 
 and vanished in the darkness. 
 
 " Come ! come ! " cried the beggar, " and fill 
 your pockets full." 
 
 Berend ran with the sorcerer to the place 
 where the stone blocks used to stand. O mar- 
 vellous! Instead of the stones, there were now 
 wide openings like huge chests, and everywhere
 
 THE WALKING STONES. 99 
 
 lay in the greatest profusion, gold, silver, and 
 precious stones. 
 
 Then, what a scramble! The sorcerer could 
 not snatch enough, and Berend, whose pockets 
 were soon filled, must now help him to fill the 
 three sacks. They had just thrown the last 
 handful into the last sack, and the sorcerer was 
 shaking the bag to make the treasure settle 
 down so as not to get out of the sack again, 
 when a deep roar was heard in the distance. 
 The stones had drunken, and they were now 
 coming back from all sides to resume their old 
 places again. Berend was the first to hear it. 
 
 " O Heaven ! we are lost," he cried ; " there are 
 the stones coming back ! " 
 
 " What do I care about that ? " said the sor- 
 cerer. " You ought to have looked out better for 
 yourself, and have brought a clover-leaf with 
 you. Look! the five-leaved clover opens the 
 way for me." 
 
 Berend gave himself up for lost. He would 
 have tried to run away, but the sorcerer insisted 
 upon his helping him drag up the last sack out 
 of the deep hole. He had already reached the 
 edge of the cavity, when the stone that belonged
 
 100 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 there made its appearance, and threw poor Be- 
 rend back again into the hole. 
 
 But at that very moment Berend heard the 
 voice of the sorcerer, " My clover-leaf! my clover- 
 leaf!" 
 
 In his struggle with the last sack, the clover- 
 leaf had fallen from his hand, and behold! a 
 draught of wind blew it towards Berend just as 
 he was falling back into the hole. He quickly 
 stretched out his hand, and luckily reached it 
 just before the stone sunk down upon him and 
 shut him up for a hundred years. Then the 
 block of stone stopped and waited till Berend 
 had climbed up out of the hole, and ah 1 the 
 stones that met him stood aside and let him 
 pass. 
 
 The sorcerer was caught in his own trap ; the 
 walking-stones strode unmercifully over him, and 
 crushed him to pieces. 
 
 Berend went home, and hid his gold, silver, 
 and precious stones in his chest. He knew 
 nothing about what was to be done to prevent 
 the whole treasure from turning to dust, but 
 luckily he had all his life taken great pleasure in 
 carving, and in the lid of his chest he had a great
 
 THE WALKING STONES. 101 
 
 many carved images filled in with hazel-wood. 
 So his treasure remained to him. 
 
 A few hours afterwards, he went again to the 
 moor. The stones all stood again in order; 
 there was nothing to be seen of the sorcerer but 
 blood-tracks on a stone, beside which the three 
 full sacks stood untouched. You may well sup- 
 pose that he quickly seized upon them and car- 
 ried them home. 
 
 " Now," thought he, " I am richer than any 
 other man, and I will just let Martin feel my 
 superiority a little." 
 
 While he was considering what he had better 
 do first, it was noon ; and the sun had no sooner 
 turned, than the three sacks, with their count- 
 less treasures, vanished all at once, changing into 
 dust and ashes before his eyes. 
 
 Terrified, he ran to his chest; he might 
 thank his good luck that this was not empty 
 also. 
 
 As it usually happens when any misfortune 
 befalls us, we are ready to attribute it to this or 
 to that, so Berend thought this had happened to 
 him as a punishment for the pride which had 
 crept over him in view of his riches.
 
 102 POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY. 
 
 This was not a bad idea, however, for it 
 brought him to himself, and he became as un- 
 assuming and kind-hearted as before, although 
 he was richer than the whole village, and Martin 
 into the bargain. 
 
 Of course Martin no longer refused to give 
 him his sister. He gave to the poor Berend, who 
 from this time was called Berend the Rich, his 
 sister Rosa to wife, and he hoped himself to de- 
 rive much profit from this rich connection. 
 
 But therein he deceived himself. Berend was 
 not avaricious, but he only gave to those that 
 needed it. He built a pretty house for himself, 
 bought lands and cattle, and with what he had 
 left, he established a comfortable home for the 
 aged and feeble. 
 
 So he lived with Rosa in happiness and peace ; 
 but this was much more attributable to his good 
 heart and honest soul than to the treasure, be- 
 cause the happiness of man comes from within, 
 out of his own breast, and not from gold and 
 wealth alone. 
 
 And though every one may not have the good 
 luck to be on the spot when the stones walk 
 down to drink, and disclose all the treasures of
 
 THE WALKING STONES. 103 
 
 the earth, each one can nevertheless take care 
 that no remorse crush his conscience like a heavy 
 stone ; and all else may be accomplished by un- 
 tiring diligence, with which there will be no lack 
 of success and prosperity.
 
 THE WATER-WITCH. 
 
 A LONG, long time ago there lived a young 
 peasant called William, and a pretty young 
 maiden who was named Bella. They loved 
 each other dearly, and they would gladly have 
 married ; but they were poor, and were forced to 
 go out to service for a living. 
 
 One day William said to Bella, " I have 
 driven the cows into the village for the last time. 
 I cannot succeed here, so to-morrow morning I 
 go into the wide world, to see if I can meet with 
 luck anywhere." 
 
 Bella wept, but William was not to be turned 
 from his purpose. He consoled his betrothed as 
 well as he could, and promised to return soon. 
 
 " Now, then," said Bella, " since it must be so, 
 go in God's name. But first we will share with
 
 THE WATKI> \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.