“Some say that she goes to Blakulla; but you must not believe them!”
“What is Blakulla? The rendezvous of witches?”
“Yes, the black mountain where those wicked women take the little children whom they steal while they are asleep, and whom they carry to Satan on the horse Skjults, who looks like a flying cow. Then Satan takes and marks them by biting them, either on the forehead or the little fingers, and they keep that mark all their lives. But I know very well why they say that of my aunt Karine.”
“And why?”
“Because a long time ago, before I was born, it seems that she brought a little child to the house, whose fingers had been bitten by the devil. My father would not look at him at first, but in a little while he began to love him, and he says that my aunt is a good Christian, and that all people say of her is false. The pastor finds nothing to blame in her, and he says, since she needs to run about in her sleep, she must be allowed to do so. Besides, she has declared herself, that she would die, and that great misfortunes would happen, if she should be shut up. That is why she goes where she wishes; and my father says it is better not to know where she goes, because she has secrets that she could not help, perhaps, disclosing, if she should be followed and watched.”
“And did no accident ever happen to her while she is walking thus sound asleep?”
“Never; and perhaps she is not really asleep when she walks,—how does any one know? It is certain, anyhow, that we are sometimes three days and three nights without knowing whether she will return, but she always comes back, some time or other; and then, when she has slept and dreamed, she is no longer ill, and she prophesies things that always happen. Stay, this morning—But my father forbade me to repeat it!”
“If you tell me, Olof, it is as if you told these stones.”
“Do you swear on the Bible not to repeat it?”
“I swear on whatever you choose.”