The Schmelz manikin and the ferryman

More than once someone passing that spot was soundly whipped with rods by the Schmelz manikin, without ever getting a sight of the spirit. That is the first striking thing about this haunting: it is entirely invisible and at the same time wholly physical.

Anyone who is struck by something that is not there needs no story in order to be afraid. The story comes afterwards, to explain what has happened.

Once, deep in the night, the familiar call of a traveller, ferry over, rang across from the Schmelz. The ferryman, who lived on the other bank of the Sauer, quickly cast off his boat to fetch the traveller across.

How astonished he was when, arriving at the far bank, he found no one there. Thinking he had been mistaken, he got back into his boat and rowed to the other side. Scarcely had he stepped out when he heard another ferry over sounding across.

The man thought there might be someone there after all and rowed back again. But as soon as he had set foot on the far bank, blows rained down on him until he could hardly see or hear.

He now had nothing more urgent to do than throw himself into his boat, for he knew by then whom he was dealing with, and he reached the other bank with aching limbs.

Immediately afterwards he heard a hoarse laughter in the nearby hills, as if someone were making fun of him. And then it was all over. It was the Schmelz manikin that had played this trick on our man. No moral, no punishment, no deliverance: only a spirit that sent a ferryman across twice for nothing and then thrashed him for doing it a third time.