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was once travelling through a dark, dense forest. At night he lost his way; he wandered about for a long time, and at last, unable to see in the darkness above and around, he fell into a bog and there helplessly remained. He began already to despair of his life, when suddenly an evil spirit, in human shape, appeared to him.

"Fear not," said the evil spirit to the merchant, "I will help you out of this bog and show you the right way, on condition that you give me something that is in your home which you know not and which you have not seen."

The merchant reflected a little; at last he accepted the proposal, not knowing that during his absence a beautiful boy had been born to him in his house. The evil spirit took the merchant out of the bog and showed him the way home. He made him sign a bond of the