The unfruitful district of Smaland and the lazy and servile
people of Schonen (as retold and communicated by Dr. v.
Sydow-Lund), are supposed to be creative efforts of the devil,
at least so the Danes and Swedes were wont to say, and Selma
Lagerloef has repeated it after them with variants. But the
people of Schonen lost no time in inventing a close
relationship between the Smalanders and the devil.