The Wichtelcher of the Mersch valley

At the foot of a rock near Schoenfels, at the spot called op Wichtelcheslee, is the rather narrow, now fallen-in entrance to the dwelling of the little folk. It runs deep into the hill, forms a labyrinth of passages and is said to come out on the other side of the hill near Reckange.

Here at Reckange rises the so-called Wichtelcher rock with the Wichtelcher hole, through which one enters a hollow passage. Many a bold lad has followed it a long way without reaching its end. One man once got in supplied with two pounds of tallow candles, but he fared like the others.

In the valley the earth men had dug a well, the Wichtelchespotz, so deep that nobody knew how deep. For three days the surrounding parishes once carted stones into it without being able to fill it.

The place is called in the Hals, a narrow gorge, and a village is said once to have stood there. Old people have seen heaps of stones and grave monuments on the spot.

Old women claimed to have seen the little folk coming down from the Wichtelcher rock. They were one to one and a half feet tall and carried buckets on poles across their shoulders. With these they went to the Eisch to fetch water. They did nobody any harm.

Because people began to spy on them, they came out of their dwelling only at night, to help good, pious and orderly folk with their work. To the wicked they did damage wherever they could, and took their corn from the field.

These little folk, people say, were clever, skilful, industrious and obliging towards good people. They shunned human dwellings and lived sociably among themselves.

That is a remarkable picture. No haunting and no punishment, but a second people living alongside the first, fetching their own water, judging whom they helped and whom they robbed, and withdrawing the moment they were watched.