Northern mythology

184 DANISH TRADITIONS.
he had seen in the night, whereupon she was so terrified
that she bestowed on hhn the farm which he had held on
lease, in order to secure his silence as to what he had witnessed
as long as he lived.
When this lady had for many years been leading so unrighteous
a life, she one evening ordered her coachman to
put the horses to, as she washed to take a drive. The
man objected that it was so dark that he could not find
the way, but she answered that the horses knew it well
enough. She then for more than two hours rode over
stock'and stone, until the horses stopt before an illuminated
mansion which the man had never observed before. They
drove in, the lady ahghted and went into the saloon which
was illuminated.
In the mean while the man waited with
the carriage. After a considerable time had elapsed he
stole up to the window and peeped in, and saw his mistress
sitting on the middle of the floor undressed ;
by her side
a pile was burning, and a man stood combing her hair.
Immediately after the man received orders to diive home,
but from that hour no one ever
saw the lady more, and
the coachman's belief was that she was on that night conveyed
to hell. Her family, it is true, gave out that she
returned home, and immediately after sickened and died ;
while others asserted that at her pompous funeral the cofiin
contained only a whisp of straw.
A FEAST WITH THE DEVIL.
In Ostrel there once dwelt a man who entertained
the
suspicion that his wife was a witch, and one St. John's eve
resolved to remove his doubts by watching whether she
went to the devil's banquet. At night therefore he kept
an eye on her movements, and saw her take from a drawer
a small phial of ointment which she rubbed over a peel,
then setting herself astride on the peel, she said :
"
Now
in the devil's name !" and immediately at full speed flew