The Piller-see

Where the lovely Piller-See now lies, with its green rippling waters

about one and a half miles long by three-quarters wide, close to the

village of St. Ulrich, there used to stand one of the most beautiful

and most fertile Alps of the whole Tyrol, belonging formerly to several

peasants, who pastured large herds of animals upon it. They were rich

in cows, and grass, and had their beautiful Alp besides to depend upon;

so they were the happiest and wealthiest peasants in all the world. But

instead of being grateful to Heaven for all its blessings, they became

vain, thinking only of amusement and dancing, and every Sunday and

fête-day they passed in all sorts of frivolous pleasures. The Alp soon

assumed the appearance of a heathen garden, and all those who paid no

regard to the opinion of the world flocked there to enjoy their guilty

pleasure.

The dissolute villagers wanting one day to play at their favourite

game of nine-pins, and having neither balls nor pins, seized upon

the beautiful alpine which they found in a farm close by, ready for

the morrow’s market, and turned it to the purposes of their game;

but suddenly the shed in which they were amusing themselves began to

give way, and all the surrounding ground, together with the adjacent

mountains, sank beneath their feet. Upon whatever spot they trod the

earth slipped from under them, and out of the earth water sprang, and

every one of them was drowned in the new-formed lake. Only a musician

who had been forced against his will to climb the Alp and play to them

was saved, for, sitting on his chair, he was driven to the borders of

the lake by the swelling current.

This lake is now called the “Piller-See,” which in certain places is

fathomless. One day some people tried to measure its depth, when they

heard a hollow voice proceeding from the bottom of the See, calling

out:--

“If you fathom me, I swallow you.”[4]

[4] Ergründest Du mich,

So verschling’ ich Dich.

This, like many other of the Tyrolian lakes, is supposed to have

the power of dragging into its fathomless depths all those who are

unfortunate enough to fall asleep on its fatal shores.