Northern mythology

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24:8 NETHERLANDISH TRADITIONS.
The aunt, to whom he had recommended his niece,
busied herself much with pohtics, and was an enthusiastic
partisan of Duke Adolf. She had just been conversing
with several other women concerning him, and had in the
course of her haranguing become so excited, that she appeared
more like a furious female devil
than a respectable
Christian woman, when Mariken entered the room. It
was grown too late for the good lass to think of returning
home, she had therefore followed her nucleus injunction,
and now greeted her aunt in these gentle and courteous
terms "
: Dear aunt ! may our Lord sweeten all your suffering,
and protect those whom you love against every
evil." But the aunt turning her head, assailed her with
these unchristianlike words :
" Ha ha ! welcome devil, how
goes it in hell ?''
Mariken, though horrified at the dreadful
expressions, quietly deposited her purchases in a corner,
and modestly requested a night^s lodging. But for her
petition the aunt had no ears ; for she was sunk too deep
in politics. The poor girl again and more earnestly besought
her, but to as little purpose as before : she went
on raving "
: What ! thou drivest the devil into my head
but I will bind him, I will swathe and lace him on a pillow
like a child : I hardly know whether I am standing
on my head or my feet,"—and much more in the same
strain. Vexed and saddened, IMariken packed her purchases
together, resolving to pass the night under the blue
vault of heaven rather than at her aunt^s, and said :
" I
will now ask nothing more from any living soul, even
should the real devil himself come to me." She then left
the house of her aunt and the city of Nymwegen, and
walked on and on, in the hope of reaching home.
But when alone in the open country, and overpowered
by fatigue and hunger, she could proceed no further, she
abandoned herself to despair, and weeping bitterly exclaimed
:
" Oh lielp me, help me, me unhappy maiden,