Every intelligent grandmother knows that the fire must not be allowed
to go out in a room, where there is a child not yet christened; that
the water in which the new-born child is washed should not be thrown
out; also, that a needle, or some other article of steel must be
attached to its bandages. If attention is not paid to these precautions
it may happen that the child will be exchanged by the Trolls, as once
occurred in Bettna many years ago.
A young peasant’s wife had given birth to her first child. Her mother,
who lived some distance away, was on hand to officiate in the first
duties attending its coming, but the evening before the day on which
the child should be christened she was obliged to go home for a short
time to attend to the wants of her own family, and during her absence
the fire was allowed to go out.
No one would have noticed anything unusual, perhaps, if the child had
not, during the baptism, cried like a fiend. After some weeks, however,
the parents began to observe a change. It became ugly, cried
continuously and was so greedy that it devoured everything that came in
its way. The people being poor, they were in great danger of being
eaten out of house and home. There could no longer be any doubt that
the child was a “changeling.” Whereupon the husband sought a wise old
woman, who, it was said, could instruct the parents what to do to get
back their own child.
The mother was directed to build a fire in the bake oven three Thursday
evenings in succession, lay the young one upon the bake shovel, then
pretend that she was about to throw it into the fire. The advice was
followed, and when the woman, the third evening, was in the act of
throwing the changeling into the fire, it seemed, a little deformed,
evil-eyed woman rushed up with the natural child, threw it in the crib
and requested the return of her child. “For,” said she, “I have never
treated your child so badly and I have never thought to do it such harm
as you now propose doing mine,” whereupon she took the unnatural child
and vanished through the door.
Another changeling story, but with less unfortunate consequences, is
told in Södermanland.
A resident of Vingåkir, who made frequent trips to Nyköping with loads
of flour, was in the habit of halting for the night at the house of a
farmer in Verna. One summer night he arrived later than usual, and, as
the people were already in bed and asleep, the weather being pleasant,
he did not wish to wake anyone, so unhitched his horse from the wagon,
hitched him to a hay stack and laid himself under the wagon to sleep.
He had been some time under the wagon, yet awake, when, from under a
stone near by, an ugly, deformed woman, carrying a babe, made her
appearance. Looking about her carefully, she laid the child on the
stone and went into the house. In a short time she returned, bearing
another child; laid it upon the stone, and taking up the first one,
returned to the house.
The man observed her actions, and divining their purpose, crept
cautiously from his resting place as soon as the woman had disappeared
into the house, took the sleeping child and hid it in his coat under
the wagon. When the Troll returned and found the child gone she went a
third time to the house, from which she returned with the child she had
just carried in, whereupon she disappeared under the stone.
The traveler, anxious for the welfare of his little charge, which had
in such an extraordinary manner fallen into his hands, could not close
his eyes for the rest of the night.
As soon as it dawned he went with his precious burden to the house,
where he found the occupants in great consternation over the
disappearance of the child, which, as may be presumed, was received
with great rejoicing.