Page:Lays and Legends of Germany (1834).djvu/255

 posed mere rubbish, and filled it once more with roots, and journeyed homewards to her dwelling at Kirschdorf.

As soon as she arrived at home, she cleansed the roots she had gathered, from the earth which clung to them, tied them neatly together, and emptied every thing out of the basket; upon doing so, something glittering caught her eye, and induced her to take a more careful examination, to see what it was. What happened? Why, lo! and behold, there she found several ducats sticking to the wickers of the basket, and these were such of the leaves as remained of those which she had so thoughtlessly thrown away on the mountains; fortunately not entirely.

Now she was rejoiced at having preserved these much, and again she was sorely vexed, that she had not taken care of all that the mountain spirit had gathered for her. She hastened back in hopes of finding them, but in vain—they were all vanished.

.—With this legend, likewise from, (s. 248—254,) ends the collection of tales relative to this well-known Spirit of the Hartz Mountains, which has inserted in his curious volume.

The adventures of this Mountain Goblin have proved a faithful theme to the wonder-recording writers of Germany. has related his history in one of the volumes of his inimitable Deutsche Volksmarchen, and a translation of this tale, under the title of ‘Number Nip,’ is included in the work entitled ‘Tales from the German,’ which was published some years since in 2 vols. 12mo., and has been attributed to the author of ‘Vathek.’ Rubezahl figures in the 2nd volume of ‘Volksagen,’ Eisenach, 1795, and a volume