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At length an aged woman said: "For more than twelve years he has dwelt under the Sachsenburg, but you will not get so far to-day." Where is Velter Meier?" 66 God be merciful to him," answered an old crone, leaning on her crutches, for more than fifteen years he has lain in that house, which he will never leave." Shuddering, he now recognised a neighbour, though, as it seemed to him, grown suddenly old; but he had lost all desire to make further inquiries. There now pressed forward through the inquisitive crowd, a young comely woman with a boy in her arms about a year old, and a little fellow of four years holding by her hand; they were all three the image of his wife. What is your name?" asked he with astonishment. “Maria.” “And your father's?" "God be merciful to him, Peter Claus. It is now twenty years and more that we searched for him a whole day and night upon the Kyffhäuser, the herd having come back without him. I was then seven years old."

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No longer could the goatherd dissemble: "I am Peter Claus," he exclaimed, "and no other," taking the boy out of his daughter's arms. Every one stood as if petrified, until first one voice and then another exclaimed: "Yes, that is Peter Claus! Welcome, neighbour, welcome after twenty years!"

THE DWELLER IN THE ILSENSTEIN.

HAST thou never seen the beautiful maiden sitting on the Ilsenstein? Every morning with the first beams of the sun, she opens the rock and goes down to the Ilse to bathe in its clear cold waters. True, the power of seeing her is not granted to every one, but those who have seen her, praise her beauty and benevolence. She often dispenses the treasures contained in the Ilsenstein; and many families owe their prosperity to the lovely maiden.

Once, very early in the morning, a charcoal-burner, proceeding to the forest, saw the maiden sitting on the Ilsenstein. He greeted her in a friendly tone, and she beckoned to him to follow her. He went, and they soon stood before

the great rock. She knocked thrice, and the Ilsenstein opened. She entered, and brought him back his wallet filled, but strictly enjoined him not to open it till he reached his hut. He took it with thanks. As he proceeded, he was struck by the weight of the wallet, and would gladly have seen what it contained. At length, when he came to the bridge across the Ilse, he could no longer withstand his curiosity. He opened it, and saw in it acorns and fir-cones. Indignant he shook the cones and acorns from the bridge down into the swollen stream, when he instantly heard a loud jingling as the acorns and cones touched the stones of the Ilse, and found to his dismay that he had shaken out gold. He then very prudently wrapped up the little remnant that he found in the corners of the wallet, and carried them carefully home; and even this was enough to enable him to purchase a small house and garden.

But who is this maiden? Listen to what our fathers and mothers have told us. At the Deluge, when the waters of the North Sea overflowed the valleys and plains of Lower Saxony, a youth and a maiden, who had been long attached to each other, fled from the North country towards the Harz mountains, in the hope of saving their lives. As the waters rose they also mounted higher and higher, continually approaching the Brocken, which in the distance appeared to offer them a safe retreat. At length they stood upon a vast rock, which reared its head far above the raging waters. From this spot they saw the whole surrounding country covered by the flood, and houses, and animals, and men had disappeared. Here they stood alone and gazed on the foaming waves, which dashed against the foot of the rock.

The waters rose still higher, and already they thought of fleeing farther over a yet uncovered ridge of rock, and climbing to the summit of the Brocken, which appeared like a large island rising above the billowy sea.

At this moment the rock on which they stood trembled under their feet and split asunder, threatening every instant to separate the lovers. On the left side towards the Brocken stood the maiden, on the right the youth; their hands were firmly clasped in each other's; the precipice inclined right and left outwards; the maiden and the youth sank into the flood.

The maiden was called Ilse, and she gave her name to the beautiful Ilsenthal, to the river which flows through it, and to the Ilsenstein, in which she still dwells.

THE ROSSTRAPPE; OR, HORSE'S FOOT-MARK.

THE Rosstrappe, or Horse's Foot-mark, is the name of a rock in the lofty projection of the Harz behind Thale, with an oval cavity bearing some resemblance to the impression of a gigantic horse's hoof, which many passengers ascend, on account of the beautiful romantic Swiss-like view from its summit.

Popular tradition gives the following account of the cavity.

More than a thousand years ago, before the robberknights had erected the surrounding castles of Hoymburg, Leuenburg, Steckelnburg, and Winzenburg, the whole country round the Harz was inhabited by giants, who were heathens and sorcerers. They knew no other pleasure than murder, rapine, and violence. If in want of weapons, they tore up the nearest sexagenarian oak, and fought with it. Whatever stood in their way they beat down with their clubs, and the women who pleased them they carried off by force, to be either their servants or wives.

In the Bohemian forest there lived at that time a giant named Bohdo, of vast stature and strength, and the terror of the whole country; every giant in Bohemia and Franconia crouched before him; but he could not prevail on Emma, the daughter of the king of the Riesengebirge, to return his love. Here neither strength nor stratagem availed him aught; for she stood in compact with a mighty spirit. One day Bohdo caught sight of his beloved as she was hunting on the Schneekoppe, and instantly saddled his horse, which could spring over the plains at the rate of five miles a minute, and swore by all the powers of darkness to obtain Emma this time or perish in the attempt. Quicker

* Or Giant-mountains, a chain of mountains which separate Silesia from Bohemia, the highest of which is the Schneekoppe.

than the hawk flies he darted forward, and had almost overtaken her before she was aware that her enemy was so near. But when she saw him only nine miles behind, and knew him by the gates of a destroyed town, which served him as a shield, she hastily urged on her horse. And it flew, impelled by her spurs, from mountain to mountain, from cliff to cliff, through valleys, morasses and forests, so that the beeches and oaks were scattered like so much stubble by the force of her horse's hoofs. Thus she fled through the country of Thuringia, and came to the mountains of the Harz. From time to time she heard behind her the snorting of Bohdo's horse, and then pushed on her yet unwearied steed to new exertions.

Her horse now stood snorting and panting on the frightful rock which, from the evil one holding his revels there, is called the Devil's Dancing-place. Emma cast a fearful glance around, her horse trembled as it looked into the abyss, for the precipice was perpendicular as a tower, and more than a thousand feet down to the yawning gulf below. She heard the hollow rushing of the water under her feet, which here formed a frightful whirlpool. The opposite rock, on the other side of the precipice, appeared to her even more distant than the abyss, and hardly to afford space enough for one of her horse's fore-feet.

Here she stood, anxious and doubtful. Behind her was an enemy whom she dreaded more than death itself. Before her was the abyss, which opened its jaws towards her. Emma now again heard the snorting of Bohdo's panting horse. In her terror she called upon the spirits of her fathers for help, and without reflection pressed the ell-long spurs into the sides of her steed; and she sprang! sprang across over the abyss, and happily reached the opposite rock; but it struck its hoofs four feet deep into the hard stone, so that the flying sparks illumined the whole country around like lightning. This is the HORSE'S FOOTMARK. Time has made the hollow less, but no rains can entirely efface it.

Emma was saved! but the gold crown which she wore, and which weighed a hundred pounds, fell into the abyss as the horse sprang across it. Bohdo, who saw only Emma

and not the abyss, sprang after the fugitive, and fell with his horse into the vortex of the stream, to which he gave its

name *.

Here, changed into a black dog, he guards the princess's golden crown, that no thirster after gold may raise it up from the foaming gulf. A diver once, induced by large promises, tried to obtain it. He descended into the abyss, found the crown, and raised it so high, that all the assembled people could see the rays of it. Twice it fell from his hands, and the spectators called to him to descend a third time. He did so, and-a stream of blood rose high up in the air. The diver never appeared again.

With fear and horror the traveller now approaches the gulf, which is covered with the darkness of night. The stillness of the grave reigns over the abyss. No birds fly over it, and, in the dead of the night, may often be heard in the distance the hollow dog-like howl of the heathen.

At the present day the whirlpool where the dog guards the golden crown is called the Kreetpfuhl †, and the rock where Emma implored the aid of the spirits of her fathers, the Devil's Dancing-place.

THE DUMMBURG.

WITH dread the wanderer approaches the ruins of the Dummburg. Terror seizes him if night overtakes him in its vicinity; for when the sun goes down and he treads on the site of the castle, he hears from beneath hollow moans and the clank of chains. At midnight he sees in the moonlight the spectres of knights of former days, who ruled the land with an iron sceptre. In solemn procession twelve tall white figures rise from amid the rocky fragments, bearing a large open coffin, which they place on the top of the hill, and then vanish. The skulls also move about, that lie scattered under the rock.

* The Bode, which, with the Emme and the Saale, flows into the Elbe.

†That is, the devil's pool. So Kreetkind, the devil's child, in the dialect of those parts.