Page:Lays and Legends of Germany (1834).djvu/241

 But they said not a word, and when some of them would fain drink, and enquired whether there was nothing prepared for quenching their thirst; the unknown Rubezahl took a staff, smote the wall with it, and out came a handsome youth, dressed and adorned exactly like a young German, carrying in his hand two golden beakers, on which the name and arms of the Turkish Emperor were inscribed, and with these he went to one of the empty casks, and having drawn them from it, full of good Spanish wine, he placed them on the table for them to taste it.

After this Rubezahl struck the wall on the other side, and out came a lovely girl with a whole basketful of beautiful carved gold and silver drinking vessels, on which were the arms and titles of various princes and nobles, especially of the Kings of France and Spain; and others of distinguished Prelates, which were plainly to be seen upon them. This maiden went to a thick log, drew from it a pleasant and costly Rhenish wine, and handed it to the guests. Over the table there hung a wooden pipe. If any one wished for water, he had only to hold his drinking cup to the pipe, and the water kept running into it, as long as he knocked at the pipe, and yet no one knew whence the water came; for the pipe was suspended by a thread. Besides these, there lay around other casks, from out of which all kinds of Spanish, Hungarian, and other wines, were drawn, and such, too, as the guests had never tasted in their lives before. After this, Rubezahl brought forward fresh delicacies, consisting of rare birds and wondrous fishes, whose like was never found in Silesia. And as the guests now began to grow merry, other spirits made their appearance, habited like musicians, with a troop of merry makers, and they had old fiddles on