บทที่ บทที่ 93 · The Spirit in the Bottle

. The Spirit in the Bottle

There was once a poor woodcutter who toiled from early morning till

late night. When at last he had laid by some money he said to his boy,

“You are my only child, I will spend the money which I have earned with

the sweat of my brow on your education; if you learn some honest trade

you can support me in my old age, when my limbs have grown stiff and I

am obliged to stay at home.” Then the boy went to a High School and

learned diligently so that his masters praised him, and he remained

there a long time. When he had worked through two classes, but was

still not yet perfect in everything, the little pittance which the

father had earned was all spent, and the boy was obliged to return home

to him. “Ah,” said the father, sorrowfully, “I can give you no more,

and in these hard times I cannot earn a farthing more than will suffice

for our daily bread.” “Dear father,” answered the son, “don’t trouble

yourself about it, if it is God’s will, it will turn to my advantage I

shall soon accustom myself to it.” When the father wanted to go into

the forest to earn money by helping to pile and stack wood and also

chop it, the son said, “I will go with you and help you.” “Nay, my

son,” said the father, “that would be hard for you; you are not

accustomed to rough work, and will not be able to bear it, besides I

have only one axe and no money left wherewith to buy another.” “Just go

to the neighbour,” answered the son, “he will lend you his axe until I

have earned one for myself.” The father then borrowed an axe of the

neighbour, and next morning at break of day they went out into the

forest together. The son helped his father and was quite merry and

brisk about it. But when the sun was right over their heads, the father

said, “We will rest, and have our dinner, and then we shall work as

well again.” The son took his bread in his hands, and said, “Just you

rest, father, I am not tired; I will walk up and down a little in the

forest, and look for birds’ nests.” “Oh, you fool,” said the father,

“why should you want to run about there? Afterwards you will be tired,

and no longer able to raise your arm; stay here, and sit down beside

me.” The son, however, went into the forest, ate his bread, was very

merry and peered in among the green branches to see if he could

discover a bird’s nest anywhere. So he went up and down to see if he

could find a bird’s nest until at last he came to a great

dangerous-looking oak, which certainly was already many hundred years

old, and which five men could not have spanned. He stood still and

looked at it, and thought, “Many a bird must have built its nest in

that.” Then all at once it seemed to him that he heard a voice. He

listened and became aware that someone was crying in a very smothered

voice, “Let me out, let me out!” He looked around, but could discover

nothing; nevertheless, he fancied that the voice came out of the

ground. Then he cried, “Where art thou?” The voice answered, “I am down

here amongst the roots of the oak-tree. Let me out! Let me out!” The

scholar began to loosen the earth under the tree, and search among the

roots, until at last he found a glass bottle in a little hollow. He

lifted it up and held it against the light, and then saw a creature

shaped like a frog, springing up and down in it. “Let me out! Let me

out!” it cried anew, and the scholar thinking no evil, drew the cork

out of the bottle. Immediately a spirit ascended from it, and began to

grow, and grew so fast that in a very few moments he stood before the

scholar, a terrible fellow as big as half the tree by which he was

standing. “Knowest thou,” he cried in an awful voice, “what thy wages

are for having let me out?” “No,” replied the scholar fearlessly, “how

should I know that?” “Then I will tell thee,” cried the spirit; “I must

strangle thee for it.” “Thou shouldst have told me that sooner,” said

the scholar, “for I should then have left thee shut up, but my head

shall stand fast for all thou canst do; more persons than one must be

consulted about that.” “More persons here, more persons there,” said

the spirit. “Thou shalt have the wages thou hast earned. Dost thou

think that I was shut up there for such a long time as a favour. No, it

was a punishment for me. I am the mighty Mercurius. Whoso releases me,

him must I strangle.” “Softly,” answered the scholar, “not so fast. I

must first know that thou really wert shut up in that little bottle,

and that thou art the right spirit. If, indeed, thou canst get in

again, I will believe and then thou mayst do as thou wilt with me.” The

spirit said haughtily, “that is a very trifling feat,” drew himself

together, and made himself as small and slender as he had been at

first, so that he crept through the same opening, and right through the

neck of the bottle in again. Scarcely was he within than the scholar

thrust the cork he had drawn back into the bottle, and threw it among

the roots of the oak into its old place, and the spirit was betrayed.

And now the scolar was about to return to his father, but the spirit

cried very piteously, “Ah, do let me out! ah, do let me out!” “No,”

answered the scholar, “not a second time! He who has once tried to take

my life shall not be set free by me, now that I have caught him again.”

“If thou wilt set me free,” said the spirit, “I will give thee so much

that thou wilt have plenty all the days of thy life.” “No,” answered

the boy, “thou wouldst cheat me as thou didst the first time.” “Thou

art playing away with thy own good luck,” said the spirit; “I will do

thee no harm but will reward thee richly.” The scholar thought, “I will

venture it, perhaps he will keep his word, and anyhow he shall not get

the better of me.” Then he took out the cork, and the spirit rose up

from the bottle as he had done before, stretched himself out and became

as big as a giant. “Now thou shalt have thy reward,” said he, and

handed the scholar a little bag just like a plaster, and said, “If thou

spreadest one end of this over a wound it will heal, and if thou

rubbest steel or iron with the other end it will be changed into

silver.” “I must just try that,” said the scholar, and went to a tree,

tore off the bark with his axe, and rubbed it with one end of the

plaster. It immediately closed together and was healed. “Now, it is all

right,” he said to the spirit, “and we can part.” The spirit thanked

him for his release, and the boy thanked the spirit for his present,

and went back to his father.

“Where hast thou been racing about?” said the father; “why hast thou

forgotten thy work? I said at once that thou wouldst never get on with

anything.” “Be easy, father, I will make it up.” “Make it up indeed,”

said the father angrily, “there’s no art in that.” “Take care, father,

I will soon hew that tree there, so that it will split.” Then he took

his plaster, rubbed the axe with it, and dealt a mighty blow, but as

the iron had changed into silver, the edge turned; “Hollo, father, just

look what a bad axe you’ve given me, it has become quite crooked.” The

father was shocked and said, “Ah, what hast thou done? now I shall have

to pay for that, and have not the wherewithal, and that is all the good

I have got by thy work.” “Don’t get angry,” said the son, “I will soon

pay for the axe.” “Oh, thou blockhead,” cried the father, “wherewith

wilt thou pay for it? Thou hast nothing but what I give thee. These are

students’ tricks that are sticking in thy head, but thou hast no idea

of wood-cutting.” After a while the scholar said, “Father, I can really

work no more, we had better take a holiday.” “Eh, what!” answered he,

“Dost thou think I will sit with my hands lying in my lap like thee? I

must go on working, but thou mayst take thyself off home.” “Father, I

am here in this wood for the first time, I don’t know my way alone. Do

go with me.” As his anger had now abated, the father at last let

himself be persuaded and went home with him. Then he said to the son,

“Go and sell thy damaged axe, and see what thou canst get for it, and I

must earn the difference, in order to pay the neighbour.” The son took

the axe, and carried it into town to a goldsmith, who tested it, laid

it in the scales, and said, “It is worth four hundred thalers, I have

not so much as that by me.” The son said, “Give me what thou hast, I

will lend you the rest.” The goldsmith gave him three hundred thalers,

and remained a hundred in his debt. The son thereupon went home and

said, “Father, I have got the money, go and ask the neighbour what he

wants for the axe.” “I know that already,” answered the old man, “one

thaler, six groschen.” “Then give him two thalers, twelve groschen,

that is double and enough; see, I have money in plenty,” and he gave

the father a hundred thalers, and said, “You shall never know want,

live as comfortably as you like.” “Good heavens!” said the father, “how

hast thou come by these riches?” The scholar then told how all had come

to pass, and how he, trusting in his luck, had made such a good hit.

But with the money that was left, he went back to the High School and

went on learning more, and as he could heal all wounds with his

plaster, he became the most famous doctor in the whole world.

100 The Devil’s Sooty Brother

A disbanded soldier had nothing to live on, and did not know how to get

on. So he went out into the forest and when he had walked for a short

time, he met a little man who was, however, the Devil. The little man

said to him, “What ails you, you seem so very sorrowful?” Then the

soldier said, “I am hungry, but have no money.” The Devil said, “If you

will hire yourself to me, and be my serving-man, you shall have enough

for all your life. You shall serve me for seven years, and after that

you shall again be free. But one thing I must tell you, and that is,

you must not wash, comb, or trim yourself, or cut your hair or nails,

or wipe the water from your eyes.” The soldier said, “All right, if

there is no help for it,” and went off with the little man, who

straightway led him down into hell. Then he told him what he had to do.

He was to poke the fire under the kettles wherein the hell-broth was

stewing, keep the house clean, drive all the sweepings behind the

doors, and see that everything was in order, but if he once peeped into

the kettles, it would go ill with him. The soldier said, “Good, I will

take care.” And then the old Devil went out again on his wanderings,

and the soldier entered upon his new duties, made the fire, and swept

the dirt well behind the doors, just as he had been bidden. When the

old Devil came back again, he looked to see if all had been done,

appeared satisfied, and went forth a second time. The soldier now took

a good look on every side; the kettles were standing all round hell

with a mighty fire below them, and inside they were boiling and

sputtering. He would have given anything to look inside them, if the

Devil had not so particularly forbidden him: at last, he could no

longer restrain himself, slightly raised the lid of the first kettle,

and peeped in, and there he saw his former corporal shut in. “Aha, old

bird!” said he, “Do I meet you here? You once had me in your power, now

I have you,” and he quickly let the lid fall, poked the fire, and added

a fresh log. After that, he went to the second kettle, raised its lid

also a little, and peeped in; his former ensign was in that. “Aha, old

bird, so I find you here! you once had me in your power, now I have

you.” He closed the lid again, and fetched yet another log to make it

really hot. Then he wanted to see who might be sitting up in the third

kettle it was actually be but a general. “Aha, old bird, do I meet you

here? Once you had me in your power, now I have you.” And he fetched

the bellows and made hell-fire blaze right under him. So he did his

work seven years in hell, did not wash, comb, or trim himself, or cut

his hair or nails, or wash the water out of his eyes, and the seven

years seemed so short to him that he thought he had only been half a

year. Now when the time had fully gone by, the Devil came and said,

“Well Hans, what have you done?” “I poked the fire under the kettles,

and I have swept all the dirt well behind the doors.”

“But you have peeped into the kettles as well; it is lucky for you that

you added fresh logs to them, or else your life would have been

forfeited; now that your time is up, will you go home again?” “Yes,”

said the soldier, “I should very much like to see what my father is

doing at home.” The Devil said, “In order that you may receive the

wages you have earned, go and fill your knapsack full of the sweepings,

and take it home with you. You must also go unwashed and uncombed, with

long hair on your head and beard, and with uncut nails and dim eyes,

and when you are asked whence you come, you must say, “From hell,” and

when you are asked who you are, you are to say, “The Devil’s sooty

brother, and my King as well.” The soldier held his peace, and did as

the Devil bade him, but he was not at all satisfied with his wages.

Then as soon as he was up in the forest again, he took his knapsack

from his back, to empty it, but on opening it, the sweepings had become

pure gold. “I should never have expected that,” said he, and was well

pleased, and entered the town. The landlord was standing in front of

the inn, and when he saw the soldier approaching, he was terrified,

because Hans looked so horrible, worse than a scare-crow. He called to

him and asked, “Whence comest thou?” “From hell.” “Who art thou?” “The

Devil’s sooty brother, and my King as well.” Then the host would not

let him enter, but when Hans showed him the gold, he came and unlatched

the door himself. Hans then ordered the best room and attendance, ate,

and drank his fill, but neither washed nor combed himself as the Devil

had bidden him, and at last lay down to sleep. But the knapsack full of

gold remained before the eyes of the landlord, and left him no peace,

and during the night he crept in and stole it away. Next morning,

however, when Hans got up and wanted to pay the landlord and travel

further, behold his knapsack was gone! But he soon composed himself and

thought, “Thou hast been unfortunate from no fault of thine own,” and

straightway went back again to hell, complained of his misfortune to

the old Devil, and begged for his help. The Devil said, “Seat yourself,

I will wash, comb, and trim you, cut your hair and nails, and wash your

eyes for you,” and when he had done with him, he gave him the knapsack

back again full of sweepings, and said, “Go and tell the landlord that

he must return you your money, or else I will come and fetch him, and

he shall poke the fire in your place.” Hans went up and said to the

landlord, “Thou hast stolen my money; if thou dost not return it, thou

shalt go down to hell in my place, and wilt look as horrible as I.”

Then the landlord gave him the money, and more besides, only begging

him to keep it secret, and Hans was now a rich man.

He set out on his way home to his father, bought himself a shabby

smock-frock to wear, and strolled about making music, for he had

learned to do that while he was with the Devil in hell. There was

however, an old King in that country, before whom he had to play, and

the King was so delighted with his playing, that he promised him his

eldest daughter in marriage. But when she heard that she was to be

married to a common fellow in a smock-frock, she said, “Rather than do

that, I would go into the deepest water.” Then the King gave him the

youngest, who was quite willing to do it to please her father, and thus

the Devil’s sooty brother got the King’s daughter, and when the aged

King died, the whole kingdom likewise.