t the stranger came from
behind the left side of the church. He told the youth he feared he might
not have come; and that the church service was held at Christmas only
once in seven years, at a time when men are all asleep. The stranger
then told the youth that there was a grave mound in a certain meadow on
which grew three junipers, and under the middle one a great treasure was
buried. In order to propitiate the guardians of the treasure, it was
needful to slaughter three black animals, one feathered and two hairy,
and to take care that not a drop of the sacrificial blood was lost, but
all offered to the guardians. A bit of silver was to be scraped from the
youth's buckle that the gleam of the costly silver might lead him to
that which was buried. "Then cut a stick from the juniper three spans
long, turn the point three times toward the grass where you have offered
the blood, and walk nine times round the juniper bush from west to east.
But at every round strike the grass under the bush three times with the
stick, and at every blow say 'Igrek!'[64] At the eighth round you will
perceive a subterranean jingling of money, and after the ninth round you
will see the gleam of silver. Then fall on your knees, bend your face to
the ground, and cry out nine times 'Igrek,' when the treasure will
rise." The seeker must wait patiently till the treasure has risen, and
not allow himself to be frightened by the spectres which would appear,
for they were only soulless phantoms,[65] to try the seeker's courage.
If it failed, he would return home with empty hands. The seeker must go
to the hill on St. John's Eve, when the bonfires were burning and the
people merrymaking. A third of the treasure was to be given to the poor;
the rest belonged to the finder.

The stranger repeated his directions three times word for word that the
youth should not forget them, when the sexton's cock crew and the
stranger vanished suddenly.

Next day the youth obtained a black cock and a black dog from some
neighbours, and next night he caught a mole. On St. John's Eve he took
the three animals, and carried out his instructions at midnight,
slaughtering first the cock, then the mole, and lastly the dog, taking
care that every drop of blood should fall on the appointed spot. But
when he had called "Igrek!" at the conclusion of the ceremony, a
fiery-red cock rose suddenly under the juniper, flapped his wings,
crowed and flew away. A shovelful of silver was th