At Arfeld, a small village in Germany, a number of young lads and lasses
were assembled one winter evening in a warm and comfortable room, the
girls spinning and singing, as they usually do on these occasions.
One of the lads, in silly playfulness, said to the girls he should like
them to try whether they could hang him on a single thread of their
spinning. The novel idea found ready approval. They made him stand on a
chair, and bound a thin thread around his neck, fastening it on a nail
under the ceiling.
At this moment all were greatly surprised by hearing strains of
exquisitely fine music penetrating into the house. They directly
hastened outside the door to ascertain whence it came; but there they
neither heard nor saw anything.
On returning to the room, they found, to their great astonishment and
dismay, that the chair had been drawn from under the lad, and that the
poor fellow was hanging on the thread and was dead.[20]