In the midst of the bright landscape opposite Schloss Ballenstedt rise the two huge boulders called the Gegensteine, which mark the eastern termination of the Devil's Wall.
The taste and passion for the wonderful and mysterious are too strong in the human mind to permit of these majestic rocks being without their Sage.
In the time long ago, when all this district was covered with dense forests, swamps, and morasses, where now ripen the golden corn, fruits, and every blessing that crowns the husbandman's toil, and wild beasts preyed on the around-lying mountains, evil spirits practised their devices in the Gegensteine.
In the distance one could see during the night, especially at midnight, now fiery balls, now flames of fire rising in the air, and could hear death cries, or the most delightful tones, which the evil spirits employed to decoy unwary mortals to destruction.
Many who ridiculed the idea of danger, paying no heed to friendly warnings, forced their way through thorns and thickets to behold the mystery, and returned no more.
They were carried by demons through the air, and one heard their moanings of despair without the power to save them.
Only he who was consecrated to God could approach the Gegensteine unharmed.
One morning a farmer rode before sunrise from Ballenstedt to Quedlinburg, to offer prayers and obtain absolution in the convent church, only just founded by the Kaiserin Matilda—for in Ballenstedt there was neither church nor pater.
Lost in devotional thoughts, hence without fear, he rode quietly along; an irresistible languor seized him and he fell asleep.
The nag, feeling no longer the hand guiding the reins, turned aside to seek for himself a fresh breakfast, stood still, and began to graze.