Northern mythology

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NETHERLANDISH TRADITIONS. 225
higher than before, as if something were growing on his
head that lifted it u]).
They raised their glasses to their mouths, but no sooner
had the first drop of liquid passed over the lips of the
three maidens, than they seemed at
once to wake from a
dream, and found themselves under the blue sky, in the
dewy grass that grew in the bottom of a great hollow. The
sorcery was at an end. The three maidens were sitting
in a deep cavity on the Kemmelberg, two hours distant
from the city, yet totally ignorant of the place they were
in. It may easily be imagined with what dejection they
looked on one another, in the middle of the night, halfnaked,
and in an unknown place thrown into a pit, from
which nothing could be seen but the stars glittering in
the heavens. Mute astonishment soon, however, gave
place to a general lamentation over their miserable plight.
At length, having found means to escape from the pit,
they wandered bareheaded and barefooted for some time
round the mountain, till at length they perceived a peasant's
cottage, towards which they directed their steps.
They knocked at the door : the cottager rose and asked
what they wanted. They told him their adventure, and
inquired the name of the place where they were. " On
the Kemmelberg,'^ was the answer "
; and as I hear, you
have been in the clutches of the sorceresses, who on the
mountain here make such a hideous noise every night.
Only an hour ago I got up and put my head out of the
window, yet saw nothing but a great light, although I
heard playing, singing and dancing without cessation.
The three girls begged for the loan of clothes, and for
assistance, but the cottager's wife, who in her bed had
''
No, Klaes, give them
heard all that passed, cried out :
no assistance : persons who dare to appear so naked at our
door can be no other than sorceresses, that come to deceive
us and to bewitch our child, for I hear it crying already
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