"Two students did once fare afoot from Rintel. They purposed putting
up for the night in a village; but for as much as there did a violent
rain fall, and the darkness grew upon them, so as they might no
further forward, they went up to a near-lying mill, knocked, and
begged a night's quarters. The miller was, at the first, deaf, but
yielded, at the last, to their instant entreaty, opened the door, and
brought them into a room. They were hungry and thirsty both; and
because there stood upon a table a dish with food, and a mug of beer,
they begged the miller for them, being both ready and willing to pay;
but the miller denied them--would not give them even a morsel of
bread, and only the hard bench for their night's bed.
"'The meat and the drink,' said he, 'belong to the Household Spirit.
If ye love your lives, leave them both untouched. But else have ye no
harm to fear. If there chance a little din in the night, be ye but
still and sleep.'
"The two students laid themselves down to sleep; but after the space
of an hour or the like, hunger did assail the one so vehemently that
he stood up and sought after the dish. The other, a Master of Arts,
warned him to leave to the Devil what was the Devil's due; but he
answered, 'I have a better right than the Devil to it'--seated
himself at the table, and ate to his heart's content, so that little
was left of the cookery. After that, he laid hold of the can, took a
good Pomeranian pull, and having thus somewhat appeased his desire,
he laid himself again down to his companion; but when, after a time,
thirst anew tormented him, he again rose up, and pulled a second so
hearty draught, that he left the Household Spirit only the bottoms.
After he had thus cheered and comforted himself, he lay down and fell
asleep.
"All remained quiet on to midnight; but hardly was this well by, when
the Kobold came banging in with so loud coil,[34] that both sleepers
awoke in great fright. He bounced a few times to and fro about the
room, then seated himself as if to enjoy his supper at the table, and
they could plainly hear how he pulled the dish to him. Immediately he
set it, as though in ill humour, hard down again, laid hold of the
can, pressed up the lid, but straightway let it clap sharply to
again. He now fell to his work; he wiped the table, next the legs of
the table, carefully down, and then swept, as with a besom, the door
diligently. When this was done, he returned to visit once more the
dish and the beercan, if his luck might be any better this turn, but
once more pushed both angrily away. Thereupon he proceeded in his
labour, came to the benches, washed, scoured, rubbed them, below and
above. When he came to the place where the two students lay, he
passed them over, and worked on beyond their feet. When this was
done, he began upon the bench a second time above their heads; and,
for the second time likewise, passed over the visitants. But the
third time, when he came to them, he stroked gently the one which had
nothing tasted, over the hair and along the whole body, without any
whit hurting him; but the other he griped by the feet, dragged him
two or three times round the room upon the floor, till at the last he
left him lying, and ran behind the stove, whence he laughed him
loudly to scorn. The student crawled back to the bench; but in a
quarter of an hour the Kobold began his work anew, sweeping,
cleaning, wiping. The two lay there quaking with fear:--the one he
felt quite softly over, when he came to him; but the other he flung
again upon the ground, and again broke out, at the back of the stove,
into a flouting horse-laugh.
[Footnote 34: Exactly so, the hairy THRESHING Goblin of Milton--at
_going out_, again:--
"Till, cropful, out o' door HE FLINGS."
He, too, is paid for his work, with
----"_his_ CREAM-BOWL, duly set."
"The students now no longer chose to lie upon the bench, rose, and
set up, before the closed and locked door, a loud outcry; but none
took any heed to it. They were at length resolved to lay themselves
down close together upon the flat floor; but the Kobold left them not
in peace. He began, for the third time, his game:--came and lugged
the guilty one about, laughed, and scoffed him. He was now fairly mad
with rage, drew his sword, thrust and cut into the corner whence the
laugh rang, and challenged the Kobold with bravadoes, to come on. He
then sat down, his weapon in his hand, upon the bench, to await what
should further befall; but the noise ceased, and all remained still.
"The miller upbraided them upon the morrow, for that they had not
conformed themselves to his admonishing, neither had left the
victuals untouched. It was as much as their two lives were worth."
* * * * *
Three heads only of the ATTRACTION, above imputed to the Fairies
towards our own kind, have been here imperfectly brought out; and
already the narrowness of our limits warns us--with a sigh given to
the traditions crowding upon us from all countries, and which we
perforce leave unused--to bring these preliminary remarks to a close.
_Still_, something has been gained for illustrating our Tale. The
Hill-Manling at the dance diligently warns against PRIDE--the rank
ROOT evil which the Fairies will weed out from the bosom of our
heroine, whilst throughout a marked feature of the Fairy ways--"THE
ACTIVE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRITS IN A HUMAN HABITATION" has forced
itself upon us, in diverse, and some, perhaps, unexpected forms.
And _still_, our fuller examples, coming to us wholly from the
Collection of the Two Brothers, and expressing the habitudes of
_various_ WIGHTS and ELVES, may furnish, for comparison with Ernst
Willkomm's Upper Lusatian, an EXTRA Lusatian picture of the TEUTONIC
FAIRYHOOD.