The noble animal stood breathless on the brink of the abyss which is called after him the Stag Cliff, and started back in fear and trembling from the black gulf.
And louder and nearer thundered the wild call of the hunters, the hunting horns came fearfully near, and as the hounds would seize their prey, the stag, in deathly terror, made the leap into the frightful deeps.
And there arose a singular light, a dazzling splendour shone around the hunted animal, and unseen hands bore it softly below into the secure valley.
But the hunters, with horse and hound, were driven by magical power to follow the stag.
From the rocky cliff the whole company leaped into the depths, and huge blocks of granite and high pines sank after them and buried their mangled bodies in eternal night.
From that time it has been a haunted spot, full of untold horrors, and the wanderer hastens by in fear when darkness is closing in on the mountains.
And at midnight, when the death-owl hoots and soars over the vale on heavy wing, and the fantastic moonlight transforms the dry trunks of the trees into grey spirits of the night, the giant forms of hunters brush past, and the firs whisper, then roar, and a smothered crash rushes on like the swelling waves of the sea.
The Tanzteich[[1]] bei Zorge.
[[1]] Tanzteich—dance pond.