Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/366

338 year hence; then he will be able to take whatever he may desire. The opening fell on the old man when they finished singing in the church of the Passion, and he died soon after this.

In both the above tales it does not come to an attempt at liberation. The manner of the liberation is defined in a tale from the district of Beroun, cf. Amort, p. 36, where the motive of the Passion is also preserved. At Passiontide a beautiful young lady showed to a youth from a farm a treasure and says that he can accept what he can carry away, but must not dare to look back on the way home. Otherwise the treasure would disappear and she would be made unlucky for fifty years. The nearer the youth got to the house, the bigger and bigger was the noise he heard behind him, desperate weeping and cries for help. When he got to the side-door to his house, he turned round, wishing to step over the prop. There followed a huge report and violent weeping moved away from him. All the pockets in which he had stowed treasures took fire.

The prohibition to turn round is common and is illustrated from German sources, but one might add the classic Orpheus and Eurydike, and the Biblical story of Lot's wife.

The tale of the Enchanted Lady in the Schatzberg at Jihlau introduces as a condition of the liberation of the Enchanted Lady transportation over the castle moor. Cf. Pátek, PoveštiPověsti [sic] z Jihlavy a Okolí, p. 20 n. The terrifying of the liberator by various chimeras hinders the rescue. The lady laments, and says she must suffer till the Judgment Day. Various German parallels are given.

The motive of carrying and of a huge weight appears also in a notable tale from Hungarian Hradishte. Cf. Vernaleken, Mythen, p. 124. A white lady appeared to two men who were looking for a treasure and told them that they will not find a treasure, unless they lie down on the ground, etc. But they could not endure that test. Various German parallels are quoted. Three white ladies appear in the ruins of Herstein, according to a tale from Domažlicko. Cf. Světozor, ii. 1868, p. 102. These are the spirits of the daughters of John of Herstein, whom he, to protect them from the enemy Bavarian, immured with the treasure and who perished of hunger, when their father was killed. Their spirits guard their father's treasure.