Northern mythology

NETHERLANDISH TRADITIONS.
Ji/0
his pocket, tlie fingers of wliich, after having rubbed them
with an ointment, he lighted, and they all burned except
one. Again they held this finger to the fire, but still it
would not burn, at which they appeared much surprised,
and one said "
: There must surely be some one in the
house who is not yet asleep.'^ They then hung the hand
with its four burning fingers by the chimney, and went
out to call their associates. But the maid followed them
instantly and made the door fast, then ran up-stairs, where
the landlord slept, that she might wake him, but was
unable, notwithstanding all her shaking and calling.
In the mean time the thieves had returned and were
endeavouring to enter the house by a window^ but the
maid cast them down from the ladder. They then took
a difi'erent course, and would have forced an entrance, had
it not occurred to the maid that the burning fingers might
probably be the cause of her master^s profound sleep. Impressed
with this idea she ran to the kitchen, and blew
them out, when the master and his men-servants instantly
awoke, and soon drove away the robbers.
In the village of Alveringen there formerly lived a
sorceress,
who had a thief s finger, over which nine masses
had been read.
For being acquainted with the sacristan,
she had wrapt it in a cloth and laid it on the altar, telling
him it was a relic. With this finger she performed wonderful
things. When she had lighted it—for such fingers
burn like a candle—every one in the house where she
might be was put to sleep. She would then steal money
and everything else that she fancied, until she was at
last
detected, and the stolen property found in her possession.
THE MAGIC SWORD.
Mynheer Hincke Van Wurben had a magic sword that