Northern mythology

NETHERLANDISH TRADITIONS. 209
kill him or let him go free^ but they resolved on the latter
course ; and after he had promised not to divulge what
he had witnessed^ his mistress took him on her shoulders,
and they both Hew off through the air. But when they
came to a lake the woman thought within herself it were
better to throw him into the water, for then there would
be an end to all tattling, and she did accordingly, giving
him a smart shake, so that the poor fellow fell into the
lake.
But his guardian angel would not allow him so to die,
and he escaped with his life, yet lay in great pain among
the rushes, groaning and wailing most piteously. Some
persons, who were passing by, hearing him, dragged him
out, and inquired how he came there, when he related to
them all that had befallen him. They then laid him on
a wagon and conveyed him to
Utrecht, where he related
his story to the burgomaster, John Culemburg, at which
that magistrate greatly marvelled. The widow being
afterwards seized, made a full confession and received the
punishment she merited.
THE LONG WAPPER OF ANTWERP K
My late father, says the veracious narrator, as well as
my ancient aunt and all my acquaintances, have in my
younger days talked to me a thousand times about the
Long Wapper, and of the numerous tricks which that extraordinary
being played to the inhabitants of the good
city of Antwerp.
His tricks were not always malicious, but consisted frequently
in rogueries and the like ;
yet something always
lay at
the bottom of them that was not altogether right,
and regarding which one might entertain unfavourable
thoughts. It is, too, a well-known fact that he has car-
^ Partly from * Wodana,' p. 11.