ous tale, and he no sooner heard it than he hastened to the
stable and there found nothing, for his ass and his nine dollars were
alike vanished.

But the miller was rightly served, for he had cheated in his time many
poor people, therefore Rubezahl punished in this manner the injustice
of which he had been guilty.

* * * * *

In the year 1512 a man of noble family, who was a very tyrant and
oppressor, had commanded one of his vassals or peasants to carry home
with his horses and cart an oak of extraordinary magnitude, and
threatened to visit him with the heaviest disgrace and punishment if
he neglected to fulfil his desires. The peasant saw that it was
impossible for him to execute the command of his lord, and fled to the
woods with great sorrow and lamentation.

There he was accosted by Rubezahl, who appeared to him like a man, and
inquired of him the cause of his so great sorrow and affliction. Upon
this the peasant related to him all the circumstances of the case.
When Rubezahl heard it he bade him be of good cheer and care not, but
go home to his house again, as he himself would soon transport the
oak, as his lord required, into his courtyard.

Scarcely had the peasant got well home again before Rubezahl took the
monstrous oak-tree, with its thick and sturdy boughs, and hurled it
into the courtyard of the nobleman, and with its huge stem, and its
many thick branches, so choked and blocked up the entrance that no one
could get either in or out. And because the oak proved harder than
their iron tools, and could in no manner or wise, and with no power
which they could apply to it, be hewn or cut in pieces, the nobleman
was compelled to break through the walls in another part of the
courtyard, and have a new doorway made, which was only done with great
labour and expense.

* * * * *

Once upon a time Rubezahl made, from what materials is not known, a
quantity of pigs, which he drove to the neighbouring market and sold
to a peasant, with a caution that the purchaser should not drive them
through any water.

Now, what happened? Why these same swine having chanced to get sadly
covered with mire, what must the peasant do, but drive them to the
river, which they had no sooner entered than the pigs suddenly became
wisps of straw, and were carried away by the stream. The purchaser
was, moreover, obliged to put up with the loss, for he could neither
find