Damages Dream Realm

In a village there was a mill. The miller could no longer get anyone to work for him, because several workers had died in the mill in a mysterious manner.

One day a mill hand came to the miller and asked about work. The miller said that he desperately needed a helper, but he had to tell him that things were not exactly right in his mill. The mill hand was an outgoing fellow, and he asked the master to hire him, saying that he would deal with the spook. The master agreed to this.

That night the mill hand went into the mill, taking a sword with him. At the strike of midnight a wet cat crept through a hole into the mill and sat down next on the stove bench. After it had sat there a while and second cat came, and then a third one, and they took places next to the first cat.

And then a miracle! The more they warmed themselves, the larger they grew.

Then the first cat said, "Shall we? Shall we?"

The next one answered, "Eeow!"

And the third one, "Get him!"

Then all three, each with a powerful leap, jumped at the mill hand, hissing and spitting, and with angry sparks spraying from their eyes.

The mill hand did not stand idly by. With his sword he cut off a leg of the first cat, and it began to cry pitifully. Then all three cats hurriedly slipped out the same hole through which they had entered.

He picked up the leg, and it was a human hand with a gold ring on one finger. He wrapped it in a cloth. The next morning he took it to the master and told him of the adventure that he had withstood. The latter was very pleased to hear this, for he hoped that the spook would no longer be interested in returning.

At breakfast the master said to his mill hand, "My wife is very ill."

The mill hand wanted to see her, claiming that in some regards he knew just as much as a doctor. The miller led him to the room where his wife was lying.

The mill worker said, "Show me your right hand!" The woman showed him her left hand.

The mill worker said again, "No, show me the right one!" but she refused.

Then the mill hand unwrapped the severed hand from the cloth and held it out. The woman began to shake like aspen leaves. Her face became distorted; and with moans and groans she confessed that she was a witch and that she had been the cat. She also named her two accomplices. And then she died a horrible death.

Since then nothing unusual has happened at the mill.