The unlucky farmer never knew how he got out of the cave; only, as he came to himself, he remembered having seen the Gott-sei-bei-uns[[1]] in the midst of a terrible confusion and fire-rain in giant form, surrounded by a thousand imps, rise out of the pit, holding in one claw the copper with the gold, in the other the tray.
[[1]] Gott-sei-bei-uns—"God be with us." A name given to the devil; since when he appeared in disguise to deceive people, he is said to have used this hypocritical expression.
Was he or had he been dreaming? No, for had he not the whip in his hand?
But the tremendous weight in his pockets weighed him down. Rejoiced to think of his treasure, he dived into his pockets for the gold—and what did he find?
For every piece of gold a pebble, as large again, and not one piece of gold!
He stared at the stones, crying and trembling with pain and distress.
Still weeping, he mounted his horse, reached home, sank exhausted, laid himself down in his bed, from which he never rose; and in a fortnight he lay in his grave.
Since then the foul fiend has guarded his treasures in the Gegensteine, and in only one way can the enchantment be broken and the treasure won.
When a maiden, born on the ocean, pure as the dawn, comes here alone at the midnight hour of Halloween, kneels, and with raised hand calls her own name aloud three times, and then entreats the Most High to break the enchantment, and annihilate the monster in the rocks, they shall sink at her prayer, the treasures of gold and gems shall rise to the surface, become the maiden's possession, and the hobgoblin shall vanish for ever.