Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/154



UBEZAHL has not always been disposed so nobly to indemnify those whom his perverse humour had led him to injure; often has he tormented poor mortals for the mere amusement of tormenting them, little heeding whether his victim were a worthy man or a knave, and making them no compensation at all. A frequent joke with him has ever been to join some solitary traveller, attired as a simple countryman, and under pretence of showing him a shorter road, to lead him half a dozen miles out of his way; then, having brought him to the brink of a precipice, or up to his knees in a quagmire, to vanish with a shout of scornful laughter. At other times, he has terrified out of their wits the poor countrywomen on their way to and from market, by suddenly appearing before them in the shape of some unknown monster of frightful aspect. The leopard-like animal that, ’tis said, has sometimes shown itself in these mountains, and which the country people have called the Rysow, is merely one of the forms under which Rubezahl