Northern mythology

NETHERLANDISH TRADITIONS. 271
announced to her the danger in which the knight was
placed; whereupon Gertrud^ who had in the mean time
become abbess of her cloister^ immediately on rising assembled
all her nuns, accompanied by whom she proceeded
to the convent gate, just as the devil was passing with his
prey. Approaching the knight she presented to him a
cup of w ine, which she exhorted him to empty to the protection
of St. John. The knight did so, and had scarcely
swallowed the last drop, when the covenant, torn in pieces,
fell at his feet, accompanied by a hideous howl of the foul
fiend.
Hence St. Gertrud is represented holding in one hand
a crosier, and in the other a cup, and from this event
originates the custom of drinking to Sinte Geerteminne.
THE LILY.
There was once in days of yore a conjurer who cut
people's heads off and set them on again. One day, when
he was practising his art, a travelling journeyman entered
the room as a spectator. On the table before the conjurer
there stood a large glass filled with distilled water, out of
which grew a white lily every time the conjurer cut a head
off, which he called the lily of life. When the conjurer
had cut a head off, the traveller quickly stept up to the
table, and with a sharp knife severed the stalk of the lilv;,
without being observed by any one; so that when the
conjurer would replace the head, the operation failed,
whereupon he was seized and burnt for a murderer.
This took place, as I have often heard my father relate,
in the year 1528, and that anterior to the French Revolution
the judicial acts concerning it were still to be seen,
THE FEATHER HEART.
In a family of iny acquaintance the following story has
often been related to me.