ep in the earth, it shines
within like the sunniest day. The most splendid trees and shrubs stand
there, and through the midst of this Paradise flows a brook whose very
mud is pure gold. Here the emperor's rest is not so profound as might
have been expected. A strain of music easily seems to rouse him. A
shepherd having once piped to him, Frederick asked: "Fly the ravens
round the mountain still?" "Yes," replied the shepherd. "Then must I
sleep another hundred years," murmured the emperor. The shepherd was
taken into the armoury, and rewarded with the stand of a hand-basin,
which turned out to be of pure gold. A party of musicians on their way
home from a wedding passed that way, and played a tune "for the old
Emperor Frederick." Thereupon a maiden stepped out, and brought them the
emperor's thanks, presenting each of them with a horse's head by way of
remembrance. All but one threw the gift away in contempt. One, however,
kept his "to have a joke with his old woman," as he phrased it, and
taking it home he put it under the pillow. In the morning, when his wife
turned up the pillow to look at it, instead of a horse's head she
brought forth a lump of gold. Other stories are told of persons who have
penetrated into the emperor's presence and been enriched. A shepherd
found the mountain open on St. John's Day, and entered. He was allowed
to take some of the horse-meal, which when he reached home he found to
be gold. Women have been given knots of flax, of the same metal. A
swineherd, however, who went in, was less lucky. The emperor's
lady-housekeeper made signs to him that he might take some of the
treasure on the table before him; accordingly he stuffed his pockets
full. As he turned to go out she called after him: "Forget not the
best!" She meant a flower which lay on the table; but he heeded not, and
the mountain, slamming behind him, cut off his heel, so that he died in
great pain.[160]

Such are a few of the legends relating to the Kyffhaeuser; but it should
be observed that Frederick Barbarossa's is not the only name given to
the slumbering hero. We have already seen in the last chapter that one
tradition calls him the Marquis John. Another dubs him the Emperor Otto;
and yet in another Dame Holle is identified with his housekeeper. Now
this difference in the traditions about names, while they agree in the
substance of the superstition, indicates that the substance is older and
more important than the names, and that