Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/421

 of the room the beggar had entered, and locked it. The whole house was aroused, and the thief was secured and hung.

We must not forget Tom Ingoldsby’s rendering of a similar legend:— “Open, lock, To the Dead Man’s knock! Fly, bolt, and bar, and band! Nor move, nor swerve, Joint, muscle, or nerve, At the spell of the Dead Man’s hand! Sleep, all who sleep!—Wake, all who wake! But be as the dead for the Dead Man’s sake!

“Now lock, nor bolt, nor bar avails, Nor stout oak panel thick-studded with nails. Heavy and harsh the hinges creak, Though they had been oil’d in the course of the week. The door opens wide as wide may be, And there they stand, That murderous band, Lit by the light of the , By one!—by two!—by three!” But, instead of pursuing the fable through its further ramifications, let us apply the schamir of comparative mythology to the myth itself, and see whether before it the bolts do not give way, and the great doors of the cavern of mysteries expand, and discover to us the origin of the superstitious belief in this sea-prince’s