Northern mythology

204 NETHERLANDISH TRADITIONS.
void their urine, which they placed a while in the sun, and
then brought it
to the person to whom they had given the
money. This person then led the patient to some water,
by which he stood with his back towards it, and then
threw the bottle over his head into it.
A nobleman dwelling at his castle in the neighbourhood
of Sittard, was every night plagued with a Mare. He sent
for his physician, and at length for the clergyman, but
neither could supply him with a remedy for the evil.
This reached the ears of a shepherd, who came to the
nobleman and told him that he had a certain remedy for
the Mare. On the nobleman asking him in what it consisted,
he said "
: If the Mare comes again, let her remain
quiet ; but when she is gone, make water, put it in a
bottle, and keep it carefully ;
you will then see something
wonderful." The nobleman did so, and shut the bottle
up in his cupboard, keeping the key in his pocket.
Next day about noon there came an old woman to the
gate, asking whether they had any old broken glass to
sell. The maid-servant gave her all the broken glass, but
she again inquired whether they had no entire bottles, and
requested her to ask her master whether he had any. The
master, who instantly knew what she was driving at, answered
that he had none. She then asked whether she
could not speak with the master herself. On seeing him
she besought him to give her the bottle that he had in his
cupboard, and at his refusal, fell at his feet and wept
bitterly, promising that she would do him no further injury.
He thereupon took the bottle, and broke it ^, and drove
^
The original adds :
" und zur Stunde lief das Wasser also von deni
alten Weibe weg, dass das ganze Zinnner vol) ^Yurde."