The Cat-hags of Gries

Cats generally take a large share in anything appertaining to

witchcraft, and as single apparitions, out of the company of some

hag, they are scarcely, if ever, to be seen; though Peter, one of the

servants at the farm of Simel, near the village of Gries, once had the

misfortune to meet them.

The farmer was an excellent manager, and never allowed any of his

servants to be out in the evening after the Angelus had sounded. But

Peter had been a volunteer, during the revolution of 1848, and, as

such, he considered himself entitled to take more liberty than the

others, and to go after hours and pay a visit to his love. One evening,

just as he had arranged to carry out this plan, the farmer, who was

a member of the parish administration, said, after supper, to his

servants, “Now you all go to bed; at two o’clock to-morrow morning I

shall call you, for it has been decided by the Council that we must go

oftener on patrol round about, to keep on the look out for the Welsh

republicans, which are expected in the country, and to shoot them down

wherever they appear, for the sake of preserving order and peace.”

This command anything but pleased Peter, who, however, apparently

obeyed, and went to bed; but soon afterwards he got up very quietly,

and thought to himself, “Long before the clock strikes two I shall be

back;” and then he crept silently through the stables, and hurried

towards the Berghof farm, on the mountain where his sweetheart lived,

to bid her good-bye for ever, should it be necessary, in case he fell

in the war against the Welsh rebels.

He remained till one o’clock at the Berghof, and then he set off home,

running as fast as ever he could, and he had arrived already within

a distance of two or three hundred feet of the Simel farm, when,

just over his head, he caught the sound of suppressed whispering. He

looked about, and lo! all about him, the air and ground was full of

cats, of all colours and shapes, black, white and tricoloured, which

sprang upon him from every direction. Frightened out of his wits, poor

Peter began to pray and cross himself, when all at once the tribe of

cats disappeared; but this release did not last long, for when he

had reached the farm, he found the cats sitting in a swarm round the

entrance-door, and they stopped him from getting in, and against this

no praying, no cross-making could avail, for the cats set up such a

terrific noise, that the poor bewildered fellow lost his senses of

hearing and seeing. He made up his mind, however, to get into the farm

at any risk, and, springing through the cats, he gained the little door

by which he had gone out; but the door was closed, so he was forced

to knock at the great entrance, where he was received by the farmer

himself, who, after giving him a good scolding, concluded his sermon

in these words:--“There is nothing so fine spun but that it comes

always to the sun.”[2]

[2] “Es ist nichts so fein gesponnen,

Es kommt immer an die Sonnen.”