"This was originally a stable and coach-house (_rimessa_), and there was
a hayloft above. Every night the horses were heard to neigh, and in the
morning they were found all curried and well managed, and no one knew who
did it; but none of the grooms ever shed any tears over it that ever I
heard of.
"Now, the master of the place had a son, a priest named Michele, who was
so holy that he worked many miracles, so that all began to call him a
saint. And after he died he appeared to his parents in a dream, and told
them that the stable and barn should be transformed into a church, and
that he would read mass therein thrice a day.
"But his parents wished to have him buried under the altar of a church
which was on their estate in the country, but the saint did not wish to
be buried there.
"One day one of the grooms of the stable found that a horse could not
move a foot, so he ran to call the _manescalco_, or blacksmith, who led
the horse to his forge. And when he took the hoof to examine it, lo! it
came off at the joint and remained in his hand. Then the smith said that
the horse should be killed, because he was now worthless. But the horse
struck his stump on the hoof, and the latter joined itself to his leg as
firmly as ever it had been. But in doing this the old shoe fell off,
whence it comes to this day that whoever finds an old horse-shoe gets
luck with it.
"When the smith had shod the horse anew, he tried to lead it back into
the stable, but it refused to enter. Then it was plain that this was a
miracle worked by San Michele. So they removed all the horses and hay
from the building, and made of it the fine church which is now called _La
Chiesa di Or' San Michele_."
* * * * *
There is a vast mass of tradition extant relative to the Horse, enough to
make a large volume, and in it there is a great deal which is so nearly
allied to this story as to establish its antiquity. Karl Blind has found
an old Norse spell, in which, by the aid of Balder and Odin, the lameness
of a horse's ankle or pastern joint can be cured. There is another
version of this story, which runs as follows: