Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/235

 Rügen, was ennobled, built and endowed the present church of Rambin, and became the founder of a powerful family. To the altar of Rambin he gave some of the cups and plates of gold made by the underground people, and his own and Elizabeth’s glass shoes which they had worn in the mount. But these were taken away in the time of Charles XII. of Sweden, when the Russians came on the island, and the Cossacks plundered the churches.

In the year 1520, there lived at Basle, in Switzerland, a tailor’s son, named Leonard. He entered a cave which penetrated far into the bowels of the earth, holding a consecrated taper in his hand. He came to an enchanted land, where was a beautiful woman wearing a golden crown, but from her waist downwards she was a serpent. She gave him gold and silver, and entreated him to kiss her three times. He complied twice, but the writhing of her tail so horrified him, that he fled without giving her the third kiss. Afterwards he prowled about the mountains, seeking the entrance to the cave, filled with a craving for the society of the lady, but he never could find it again.