The black dog on the money chest

Many, many years ago there lived in the Sauer valley above the Felsmuehle near Echternach a very wicked and much feared man, who for his filthy avarice and his immeasurable treasure was called the Kronenburg by the people.

Far from the company of men he lived alone in the Lann, in a poor rock grotto kept permanently shut by a heavy iron-bound door. People said he had signed his soul over to Satan in order to possess a great deal of gold and silver.

In the deep underground vault he kept his treasure hidden and feasted his eyes on the sight of his ill-gotten goods.

After the usurer of the Lann had plied his shameful trade for years and filled the whole Sauer valley with misfortune, heaven’s terrible vengeance broke over him.

During a fearful thunderstorm a mighty bolt came down out of a dark cloud, split the cave and buried the monster’s dwelling in the depths of the earth; and the usurer, sitting on his money chest, was turned into a great black dog.

And so he appears every twenty-five years until the end of time. Whoever hits the moment and throws a blessed rosary on the black four-legged owner of the chest, banishing him with it, will redeem the Kronenburg and become the owner of the money.

An old man of Echternach still living had, as a boy of twelve with a comrade, the rare good fortune to see the enchanted chest while roaming in the devil’s notch. But they had no blessed rosary; and when they rushed home to fetch one, on their return everything had vanished.

At the end of the last century, as an old woman told it, she went walking below the Lann with other schoolgirls to pick strawberries. She came upon the Deiwelsschoart, of which she had heard so much.

But inside it the finest berries beckoned so temptingly that she squeezed a little way in, and behold, suddenly she stood in the enchanted vault. A cry of horror escaped her, at which her companions hurried up in dismay, but saw nothing more, for everything had gone.