Memories of the epidemics that have ravaged our country still live in
the minds of the people, though, with time, like many other
recollections, they have taken the form of myths.
During the plague there was seen, wandering from village to village, a
boy and a girl, the one with a rake, the other with a broom. Wherever
the boy was seen to use his rake, one and another was spared from
death, but where the girl swept, death left an empty house, and the
places that were not approached by these beings escaped the plague
entirely.
On Soller Island, in Siljan, they strewed gold and precious stones
along the roads and paths, which were so infected that he who so much
as moved one with his hand became a corpse before the next sunset.
In the end there remained no one on the island except two wise old men,
one named Bengh, the other Harold, who were not deluded by the gold,
thereby saving their lives.
A number of the islanders escaped by flight and moved to the North Land
through the “Twelve-Mile Roads,” that bordered upon Vermland.
Among those who fled was a young and beautiful maiden named Malin, who,
when she came out upon the road, observed a glittering jewel, which,
upon closer inspection, represented Christ upon the cross.
Notwithstanding the warning of her companions, she could not resist the
temptation to pick up the doubly valuable article.
When they came later to their first camping place, Rossberg, about four
miles from Soller Island, Malin was seen to fall upon her knees and
give herself up to earnest prayer, but just as the evening sun hid
himself behind a mountain, she sank lifeless upon a stone, which even
to this day is called “Malin’s Church,” and is dressed every midsummer
by the herdsmen with fresh leaves and fragrant flowers.