o the coffin, a great black cat,
which was supposed to be the Old Boy himself, carried him away.

* * * * *

The story of "The Coiners of Leal" relates to the ruins of an old
castle, which was said to be haunted by a hell-hound.[59] One night a
young nobleman set out to explore it, and was warned off by a tall man
in black clothes, but, on advancing, sank into the vaults, where he
found a number of men coining gold and silver. They bound him by an oath
of secrecy as to their proceedings, warning him that if he broke it,
their master, the dog, would fetch him, and make him coin gold and
silver for ever with them; and he received a sackful of treasure to
remind him of his oath. Some years after, he drank too much at a feast,
told his story, and immediately disappeared, and was never seen again.

[Footnote 59: The Manx story will occur to the reader. Compare also the
story of the "Courageous Barn-keeper" in the following section of our
work.]

THE BEWITCHED HORSE.

A farmer's old horse had died, so he skinned it, and threw it behind the
threshing-floor, intending to bury it next day. He saw a great toad
creep under it as he went away. At night he went into the barn to sleep,
and hearing a noise outside, kept watch for thieves; but, to his horror,
he saw the door slowly open, and his dead horse enter. The horse came in
snuffling and snorting, and broke down several of the posts that
supported the loft where his master had been sleeping; but the farmer
contrived to scramble into the rafters. At last the cock crew, when the
horse fell down like a lump of meat, and the farmer too lost his hold
and fell upon him. Next morning the farmer buried the horse, and stamped
three times with his left heel on the grave; so the horse remained
quiet.

But it was a sorcerer who had a grudge against the farmer who had sent
the toad into the carcass of the horse.

SECTION IX

_HIDDEN TREASURES_

In Esthonia, as elsewhere, we meet with many stories of hidden
treasures, frequently in connection with devils, and hence we place this
section next to the Devil-stories. The stories of "The Courageous
Barn-keeper" and of the "Gallows Dwarfs" are curious and interesting;
those which follow are given here only in abstract. In all countries
which have been devastated by war, traditions of hidden treasure are
common. I remember once reading a story in a newspaper (but I do not
know if the report