St. Peter had
compassion on him and said, “Lord and master, if it please thee, cure
his torments that he may be able to win his own bread.” The Lord said
kindly, “Smith, lend me thy forge, and put on some coals for me, and
then I will make this ailing old man young again.” The smith was quite
willing, and St. Peter blew the bellows, and when the coal fire
sparkled up large and high our Lord took the little old man, pushed him
in the forge in the midst of the red-hot fire, so that he glowed like a
rose-bush, and praised God with a loud voice. After that the Lord went
to the quenching tub, put the glowing little man into it so that the
water closed over him, and after he had carefully cooled him, gave him
his blessing, when behold the little man sprang nimbly out, looking
fresh, straight, healthy, and as if he were but twenty. The smith, who
had watched everything closely and attentively, invited them all to
supper. He, however, had an old half-blind crooked, mother-in-law who
went to the youth, and with great earnestness asked if the fire had
burnt him much. He answered that he had never felt more comfortable,
and that he had sat in the red heat as if he had been in cool dew. The
youth’s words echoed in the ears of the old woman all night long, and
early next morning, when the Lord had gone on his way again and had
heartily thanked the smith, the latter thought he might make his old
mother-in-law young again likewise, as he had watched everything so
carefully, and it lay in the province of his trade. So he called to ask
her if she, too, would like to go bounding about like a girl of
eighteen. She said, “With all my heart, as the youth has come out of it
so well.” So the smith made a great fire, and thrust the old woman into
it, and she writhed about this way and that, and uttered terrible cries
of murder. “Sit still; why art thou screaming and jumping about so?”
cried he, and as he spoke he blew the bellows again until all her rags
were burnt. The old woman cried without ceasing, and the smith thought
to himself, “I have not quite the right art,” and took her out and
threw her into the cooling-tub. Then she screamed so loudly that the
smith’s wife upstairs and her daughter-in-law heard, and they both ran
downstairs, and saw the old woman lying in a heap in the quenching-tub,
howling and screaming, with her face wrinkled and shrivelled and all
out of shape. Thereupon the two, who were both with child, were so
terrified that that very night two boys were born who were not made
like men but apes, and they ran into the woods, and from them sprang
the race of apes. 148 The Lord’s Animals and the Devil’s

The Lord God had created all animals, and had chosen out the wolf to be
his dog, but he had forgotten the goat. Then the Devil made ready and
began to create also, and created goats with fine long tails. Now when
they went to pasture, they generally remained caught in the hedges by
their tails, then the Devil had to go there and disentangle them, with
a great deal of trouble. This enraged him at last, and he went and bit
off the tail of every goat, as may be seen to this day by the stump. Then he let them go to pasture alone, but it came to pass that the Lord
God perceived how at one time they gnawed away at a fruitful tree, at
another injured the noble vines, or destroyed other tender plants. This
distressed him, so that in his goodness and mercy he summoned his
wolves, who soon tore in pieces the goats that went there. When the
devil observed this, he went before the Lord and said, “Thy creatures
have destroyed mine.” The Lord answered, “Why didst thou create things
to do harm?” The Devil said, “I was compelled to do it: inasmuch as my
thoughts run on evil, what I create can have no other nature, and thou
must pay me heavy damages.” “I will pay thee as soon as the oak leaves
fall; come then, thy money will then be ready counted out.” When the
oak-leaves had fallen, the Devil came and demanded what was due to him. But the Lord said, “In the church of Constantinople stands a tall
oak-tree which still has all its leaves.” With raging and curses, the
Devil departed, and went to seek the oak, wandered in the wilderness
for six months before he found it, and when he returned, all the oaks
had in the meantime covered themselves again with green leaves. Then he
had to forfeit his indemnity, and in his rage he put out the eyes of
all the remaining goats, and put his own in instead. This is why all goats have devil’s eyes, and their tails bitten off,
and why he likes to assume their shape. 149 The Beam

There was once an enchanter who was standing in the midst of a great
crowd of people performing his wonders. He had a cock brought in, which
lifted a heavy beam and carried it as if it were as light as a feather. But a girl was present who had just found a bit of four-leaved clover,
and had thus become so wise that no deception could stand out against
her, and she saw that the beam was nothing but a straw. So she cried,
“You people, do you not see that it is a straw that the cock is
carrying, and no beam?” Immediately the enchantment vanished, and the
people saw what it was, and drove the magician away in shame and
disgrace. He, however, full of inward anger, said, “I will soon revenge
myself.”

After some time the girl’s wedding-day came, and she was decked out,
and went in a great procession over the fields to the place where the
church was. All at once she came to a stream which was very much
swollen, and there was no bridge and no plank to cross it. Then the
bride nimbly took her clothes up, and wanted to wade through it. And
just as she was thus standing in the water, a man, and it was the
enchanter, cried mockingly close beside her, “Aha! Where are thine eyes
that thou takest that for water?” Then her eyes were opened, and she
saw that she was standing with her clothes lifted up in the middle of a
field that was blue with the flowers of blue flax. Then all the people
saw it likewise, and chased her away with ridicule and laughter. 150 The Old Beggar-Woman

There was once an old woman, but thou hast surely seen an old woman go
a-begging before now? This woman begged likewise, and when she got
anything she said, “May God reward you.” The beggar-woman came to a
door, and there by the fire a friendly rogue of a boy was standing
warming himself. The boy said kindly to the poor old woman as she was
standing shivering thus by the door, “Come, old mother, and warm
yourself.” She came in, but stood too near the fire, so that her old
rags began to burn, and she was not aware of it. The boy stood and saw
that, but he ought to have put the flames out. Is it not true that he
ought to have put them out? And if he had not any water, then should he
have wept all the water in his body out of his eyes, and that would
have supplied two pretty streams with which to extinguish them.