Northern mythology

196 NETHERLANDISH TRADITIONS.
to a crossway, over which the evil spirit being unable to
pass, casts away his half-dead bearer.
It would seem that Osschaert had been
repeatedly irritated
by the above rimes, for the longer he infested the
place the worse he grew, until at length it was not only
the drunken and the foolhardy who teazed him that were
the objects of his malice, but every one that he found
abroad at unseasonable hours of the night. The husbandman
consequently left the field with hasty steps before
sunset, the benighted traveller anxiously sought a
shelter
before nightfall, and not a few of the country people
trembled even at their firesides, sending up fervent prayers
that the spectre might have no power over them.
But most painful was Osschaert's riding to those who
had some heavy burthen on their conscience. On such he
pressed with an intolerable weight, struck his claws deep
into their flesh, burned their necks wdth his hellish fiery
breath, and thereby infected with a most insufferable
stench every respiration of the sinner. Even when any
one thus tormented sank down from pain and weariness,
he got no respite ; he must rise again and continue his
course until he reached either a crossway or an image of
the Virgin in the vicinity of one.
But at Hamme there lived a pious priest, who, deeply
affected by the misery inflicted on his
flock by Osschaert,
resolved to drive him away, and by exorcisms banished
him, for ninety-nine years, to the sea-shore, where he still
wanders.
An old man from the neighbourhood of Doel related
many of Osschacrt^s tricks, among which was the following.
His grandfather, when a young man, had gone one
evening on a courting expedition. On his return he had