ible,
impalpable, incapable of physical exertion, haunting the dwelling
which once was his home, or the spot to which he is drawn by the
memory of some unexpiated crime. It is as a vitalized corpse that he
comes to trouble mankind, often subject to human appetites, constantly
endowed with more than human strength and malignity. His apparel is
generally that of the grave, and he cannot endure to part with it, as
may be seen from the following story--

THE SHROUD.[404]

In a certain village there was a girl who was lazy and slothful,
hated working but would gossip and chatter away like anything.
Well, she took it into her head to invite the other girls to a spinning
party. For in the villages, as every one knows, it is the
lazybones who gives the spinning-feast, and the sweet-toothed
are those who go to it.

Well, on the appointed night she got her spinners together.
They span for her, and she fed them and feasted them. Among
other things they chatted about was this--which of them all was
the boldest?

Says the lazybones (_lezhaka_):

"I'm not afraid of anything!"

"Well then," say the spinners, "if you're not afraid, go
past the graveyard to the church, take down the holy picture
from the door, and bring it here."

"Good, I'll bring it; only each of you must spin me a distaff-ful."

That was just her sort of notion: to do nothing herself, but
to get others to do it for her. Well, she went, took down the
picture, and brought it home with her. Her friends all saw that
sure enough it was the picture from the church. But the picture
had to be taken back again, and it was now the midnight hour.
Who was to take it? At length the lazybones said:

"You girls go on spinning. I'll take it back myself. I'm
not afraid of anything!"

So she went and put the picture back in its place. As she
was passing the graveyard on her return, she saw a corpse in a
white shroud, seated on a tomb. It was a moonlight night;
everything was visible. She went up to the corpse, and drew
away its shroud from it. The corpse held its peace, not uttering
a word; no doubt the time for it to speak had not come yet.
Well, she took the shroud and went home.

"There!" says she, "I've taken back the picture and put
it in its place; and, what's more, here's a shroud I took away
from a corpse."

Some of the girls were horrified; others didn't believe what
she said, and l