Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/160



PON the summit of the oftimes, yet but indifferently, sung Giant Mountains, the Parnassus of Silesia, there dwelt in peaceful union with Apollo and his nine muses, the renowned mountain spirit Rübezahl, who, without doubt, has conferred upon these mountains more celebrity than all the Silesian poets put together.

This prince of gnomes, it is true, possessed but a small territory on the surface of the earth, its extent measuring in circumference only a few miles, shut in by a chain of hills: and even this small domain had to be shared by two other mighty monarchs, who did not condescend to own his sovereignty. A few fathoms, however, under ground, he reigned sole master, no one there being able to trench upon his dominion, which extended eight hundred and sixty miles into the depths of the earth, even to its very centre.

It sometimes pleased this subterranean prince to traverse his wide-spread domain in the dark abyss, that he might behold the inexhaustible treasure chambers of rocks and strata, observe how his subjects gnomes were getting on, and give them something to do; at times employing them in making dykes to stem the fire stream which flowed in the interior of the earth, or in bathing in metallic vapour the sterile stone, until it became transformed into noble ore. Then, freeing himself from the cares of his underworld government, at other times he would ascend, for relaxation, to his frontier castle, and there dwell on the Giant Mountains, and amuse himself with making sport of the children of men: like a mischievous merrymaker, who, in order to laugh, terrifies his neighbour to death.

For Rübezahl, it must be known, resembles a man of powerful genius, and is capricious, stormy, and singular; rude, rough, proud, vain, and changeable; to-day one of the warmest of friends, to-morrow cold and reserved. Sometimes good natured, noble, and feeling, but by and by contradicting himself: wise and foolish, soft one minute and hard in another, like an egg which falls into boiling water; roguish and honest, obstinate and yielding;—just according to the mood of his inward humour at the time when he happens to come across some person or thing.

In ancient times, before the posterity of Japheth had penetrated