ht a ferryman beheld on the bank of the Saale a tall, stately lady
with a crowd of weeping children. She demanded to be ferried across, and
the children dragged a plough into the boat, crying bitterly. As a reward
for the ferrying, Perchta, mending her plough, pointed to the chips. The
man grumblingly took three, and in the morning they had turned to
gold-pieces.{58}

Holda, whose name means "the kindly one," is the most friendly of the
_Frauen_. In Saxony she brings rewards for diligent spinsters, and on
every New Year's Eve, between nine and ten o'clock, she drives in a
carriage full of presents through villages where respect has been shown
to her. At the crack of her whip the people come out to receive her
gifts. In Hesse and Thuringia she is imagined as a beautiful woman clad
in white with long golden hair, and, when it snows hard, people say,
"Frau Holle is shaking her featherbed."{59}

|243| More of a bugbear on the whole is Berchte or Perchte (the name is
variously spelt). She is particularly connected with the Eve of the
Epiphany, and it is possible that her name comes from the old German
_giper(c)hta Na(c)ht_, the bright or shining night, referring to the
manifestation of Christ's glory.{60} In Carinthia the Epiphany is still
called _Berchtentag_.{61}

Berchte is sometimes a bogey to frighten children. In the mountains round
Traunstein children are told on Epiphany Eve that if they are naughty she
will come and cut their stomachs open.{62} In Upper Austria the girls
must finish their spinning by Christmas; if Frau Berch finds flax still
on their distaffs she will be angered and send them bad luck.{63}

In the Orlagau (between the Saale and the Orle) on the night before
Twelfth Day, Perchta examines the spinning-rooms and brings the spinners
empty reels with directions to spin them full within a very brief time;
if this is not done she punishes them by tangling and befouling the flax.
She also cuts open the body of any one who has not eaten _zemmede_
(fasting fare made of flour and milk and water) that day, takes out any
other food he has had, fills the empty space with straw and bricks, and
sews him up again.{64} And yet, as we have seen, she has a kindly
side--at any rate she rewards those who serve her--and in Styria at
Christmas she even plays the part of Santa Klaus, hearing children repeat
their prayers and rewarding them with nuts and apples.{65}

There is a charming Tyrolese story about her. At midni