The Fireman Pigerpütz

At the foot of the Ischürgant mountain, near Imsh, stands a stone

hut, called the Hirnhutte, because it had been erected by a former

wood merchant whose name was Hirn, as a resting-place for his woodmen

when he was felling timber on the banks of the torrent Pigersbach.

This place is regarded with horror on account of a terrible shade

which wanders from the Pigersbach upwards through an immense forest of

gigantic oaks, and then passes over Strad up to the dense forest of

firs which lies beyond.

This apparition, which is generally called the Pigerpütz, appears as a

headless black form, or tears through the air in the shape of a flame

which is sometimes larger and sometimes smaller, sometimes lighter

and sometimes darker, and which often has been seen to rise above the

ground expanding as it goes to the height of sixty feet and more.

In the year 1849 it happened that four peasants set out during the

night from Imst to Tarenz, and as they walked along the Pigersbach

which flowed on their right through mossy plains, they saw a brilliant

flame floating across their path. “There goes the Pigerpütz,” said one

of the men, and the others who were a little hot from the wine which

they had taken at Imst, began to laugh and sneer at him; but they had

scarcely done so ere the flame rushed upon them, and as they saw this

the three tipsy men ran off as fast as their legs could carry them, but

the one who had first seen and spoken of the Pigerpütz stood firmly on

the spot. He was the peasant banker of Tarenz, who is still alive and

recounts his adventure thus:--

“I stood firm and let him approach, and, by my soul, he really came on

and grew to the size of a haystack as he approached. Then I said to

him: ‘I shall never help you; for if you had led a better life, and not

committed so many crimes, you would not now be obliged to wander about

in this form. Now off with you!’ And then, by my soul, he really fled

away over the Pigersbach.”