Northern mythology

NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 47
probably be of good to us. To-morrow is Sunday : put
then the child into a basket and take it to the holy mother
Mary of Boken, lay the basket before her^ and rock the
child in it for some time : that will^ perhaps_, be of service.^^
The peasant willingly followed her advice, on the
following morning put his
basket in order_, laid fresh hay
in it together with some bedding, placed his Kielkropp in
it, and went his way. When on the bridge that crosses a
water near Boken, he heard, just as he reached the middle,
a voice behind him, crying :
'^ Where now, Kielkropp ? ^'
^^
which the child in the panier answered by : I ^m going
to be rocked, that I may thrive ^^^ On hearing the child
begin to speak the man was greatly terrified, but instantly
recovering himself, he dashed the basket, Kielkropp and
all, into the water, saying "
: If thou canst speak, thou
monster, then go to where thou hast learned.^^ At once a
loud cry was heard from under the bridge, as when many
people call out together, at which the mau was not a little
frightened, and made all possible haste home, without
once looking behind him, where he told his wife in what
manner he had got rid of the Kielkropp.
THE UNDERGROUND FOLK EMIGRATE.
The grandfather of a watchmaker still living in Hohn,
was when a boy one day tending cows in a neighbouring
field, and to protect himself from the rain, had thrown his
father's large coat over his shoulders. While standing
under a tree, he found himself on a
sudden surrounded
by a multitude of imderground folk, holding each other's
hand, and thus forming a circle about him. They told
him they were about leaving the neighbourhood, and that
he should go with them. To his question : Why they
were going ? they answered, that they could not endure
the ringing of the bells in the village ^. But the young
^ See vol. ii. p. 151. 2 gee vol. ii. pp. 154, 155.