we sleep!
What peace! what unanimity!
How different from the lewd fashion
Is all our business, all our recreation!"
_The Complete Angler._

Froken Helga had filled the porcelain pipe with Kanaster one evening,
when she said to her father that he should relate to Herr Hardy what
he knew of Folketro.

"What is Folketro?" asked Hardy.

"It is the belief in supernatural subjects; for instance, the belief
in the merman is a Folketro."

"I know the beautiful old ballad that is sung in Norway of the merman
king rising from the sea in a jewelled dress, where the king's
daughter had come to fish with a line of silk. He sings to her, and,
charmed with his song, she gives him both her hands, and he draws her
under the sea."

"Yes, we all know that ballad," said the Pastor; "it is known to all
Scandinavians. We have, however, in Jutland, a tradition founded upon
it. Two poor people who lived near Aarhus had an only daughter, called
Grethe. One day she was sent to the seashore to fetch sand, when a
Havmand (merman) rose up out in the sea. His beard was greener than
the salt sea, but otherwise his form was fair, and he enticed the girl
to follow him into the sea, by the promise of as much silver as she
could wish for. She went to the bottom of the sea, and was married to
the Havmand ('Hav' is a Danish word for the sea), and had five
children. One day she sat rocking the cradle of her youngest child,
when she heard the church bells ring ashore. She had almost forgotten
what she had learnt of Christian faith, but the longing was so great
to go to church that she wept bitterly. The merman at length allowed
her to go, and she went to church. She had not been there long before
the merman came to the church and called 'Grethe! Grethe!' She heard
him call, but remained; this occurred three times, when the merman was
heard loudly lamenting, as he returned to the sea. Grethe remained
with her parents, and the merman is often heard bitterly grieving the
loss of Grethe."

"The same tradition occurs in many lands," said Hardy.

"Yes, but that is the one we have here in Jutland," replied Pastor
Lindal. "There is a story that comes from the neighbourhood of
Ringkiobing, which may have a similarity with traditions elsewhere
also; but the Jutland story is as follows: For a long time no ship had
been wrecked on the west coast of Jutland, and consequently the
Havmand had been a long time without a victim. So he went on la