[Illustration: THE PRINCESS ADALGA.] AMONG THE GNOMES An Occult Tale of Adventure in the Untersberg BY FRANZ HARTMANN, M.D. AUTHOR OF “MAGIC BLACK AND WHITE,” “PARACELSUS,” ETC. _ILLUSTRATED_ LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1895 CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. IN THE DRAGON’S DEN 25 III. WITHIN THE UNTERSBERG 64 IV. AMONG THE GNOMES 114 V. AMONG THE GNOMES (_continued_) 137 VI. LUCIFER 168 VII. DIGGING FOR LIGHT 204 VIII. WAR 235 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE THE PRINCESS ADALGA _Frontispiece_ THE HAUNTED CASTLE 1 THE CAVE 25 THE DRAGON’S DEN 27 THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION 52 THE GROTTO OF THE NYMPHS 64 HYPNOTIZED BY A MONKEY 114 THE DISCOVERY OF THE SUN 137 THE PALACE OF THE KING 143 THE TEMPLE OF LUCIFER 168 EDUCATING THE GNOMES 204 FAIRIES AND FLOWERS 235 [Illustration: THE HAUNTED CASTLE] I. INTRODUCTION. Who has ever occupied himself seriously with the investigation of the “night-side of Nature,” or studied the works of Theophrastus Paracelsus, and not become acquainted with the celebrated “Untersberg” (the “mountain of the lower world”) and its mysterious inhabitants, the fairies and gnomes? Like a gigantic outpost of the Austrian Alps, this snow-capped wing of the mountains stands on the frontier of Germany, overlooking the Bavarian plains, dotted with hills, forests, and lakes. Its summit, dwelling above the clouds, dominates the valley through which the Salzach river winds its way to the Inn and the Danube. Seen from the north side, where the city of Salzburg is nestled among the hills, the mountain looks tame enough, rising in undulating forest-covered lines up to a height of some seven thousand feet; but on the south side it exhibits an almost endless variety of perpendicular walls, formed of marble rocks thousands of feet high, and interrupted by deep ravines and chasms, craggy cliffs, spurs, and precipices, over which in the time of spring, when the snow begins to melt, great avalanches come thundering down, and a sharp eye may detect in many an inaccessible spot mysterious caves, that seem to penetrate into the bowels of that mysterious mountain. If you will take the trouble of climbing up to these dizzy heights, you will find yourself in a new world, for there the Untersberg appears not as one single mountain, but as a mountain chain, of which each separate link has its special aspect and character, being separated from its neighbour by deep chasms, through which the mountain streams rush.