Northern mythology

NETHERLANDISH TRADITIONS. 213
working late at night, he would cry out to them :
" The
night is for rae, the day for you^ !" In wealthy houses
he would appear in the form of an acquaintance and sit
with the family at table; and when all were enjoying
themselves in peace and contentment, would suddenly
vanish, laughing at his host. He would frequently mingle
with card-players, lose much money, and refuse to pay.
If then a quarrel ensued, he would call his fellow-gamesters
out, to settle the dispute out of doors, when generally
one would lose his life.
What chiefly made my late father believe that the destruction
of souls was one of the Long Wapper's principal
objects, was the following occurrence : A man, whose wife
was in labour, going out late one night to fetch a midwife,
encountered so many difficulties in his way that it would
be no easy task to recount them.
In the mean time the
poor woman was left alone in her sufferings, and the child
would inevitably have diedf without baptism, had the man
—who was my own uncle—not extricated himself by
timely recourse to prayer.
But the best preservative against the Long Wapper was
an image of the Virgin, for that he could never pass.
Since
that time such images have been set up at the corners of
all the streets, which is the principal reason why he left
Antwerp. He now haunts the sea-coast.
In the foregoing account of the Long Wapper we have
mentioned that no one ever ventured to speak ill of him,
or even to whisper the most innocent suppositions concerning
him ; for no one could be certain that he was not
speaking with him himself. In general it did not turn
out well for those who said anything about him ; for when
they went out at night they might be sure of being, in
*
The cry of the Wild Huntsman.