The weeping willow and the condition

In the twenties or thirties there lived at Luxembourg an innkeeper and carrier who had curious experiences to go through. Things were not right in his house; people still tell all kinds of adventurous stories that are said to have happened there.

Thus it happened repeatedly that the child in the parlour suddenly disappeared unnoticed from its cradle, and that after long and fruitless searching it was at last found again in the roof gutter.

When the innkeeper’s eldest daughter had died and lay on the bier, the wax candles all at once began to flicker and gutter. The people keeping the wake in the room saw above the body the shape of a great bird resembling an eagle; it fluttered with outspread wings above the dead girl’s head; the shape was clearly visible to everyone present, until all at once the strong beat of its wings put out every candle.

The household staff had a great deal to put up with as well. The servant, who slept in a room next to the stables, was regularly lifted out of bed at night by a small, bearded, kobold-like fellow, and found himself in the morning lying exhausted beside the bedframe on the straw sack.

Since the whole household was wasting away under this uncanny business, the innkeeper turned to a pious and God-fearing member of a religious order called Father Gabriel, and asked him for advice and help.

The father asked to be allowed to sleep the following night in the servant’s bed, and this was granted him.

When he rose the next morning and stepped into the family parlour, everyone saw with horror that his black hair had turned snow white overnight.

Asked how he had fared, he answered that all was well again now; they should cut down the weeping willow in the yard, for a treasure lay buried beneath it.

They should not forget, however, to let the craftsmen earn something every year.

Whether a treasure was really found at the place indicated never became known. But it is said that the innkeeper let a great deal of money go to the craftsmen every year, by having the most varied repairs carried out on his buildings.

Indeed, it is even told that when there was no repair at all to be made, he had the garden wall pulled down and built up again, purely in order to fulfil the condition.