As she left the house, she was not a little surprised to see around the house, not a copse of young trees, but a number of tall pine trees and noble oaks, but she thought it possible she might have left by another door than that by which she had entered. When she at last reached her village, new surprises were in store for her. Of all the good people whom she met on her way or whom she saw standing in the doors of their houses, she could not recognize a single one; she had to look a long time before she found her own house, and when she reached it at last, it was inhabited by strange people, who in spite of her protestations, pushed her out and treated her as mad. Then followed a lawsuit, the result of which was to prove, that instead of sleeping an hour or so on that bench, as she believed, she had been asleep there a hundred years. Thus the young saplings had had time to grow up into large trees and her house to change masters. The strangers who were now living in it and who had turned her out so {389}unceremoniously, were nothing less than her great grandchildren. I hope, however, the matter was settled amicably. The Germans have, with that perseverance which characterizes the nation, preserved all that could be preserved of their ancient gods as well as of their former heroes; they do not like to lose anything, only they did not embalm their favorites, but used enchantment. Let us, however, notice at once for the honor of the gods, that they were never condemned to sleep indefinitely. Not one of them is found among the great Sleepers, such as Charlemagne, Witikind, Frederick I., William Tell, or the peasant woman, from the neighborhood of Mayence. It is true, they were exiled to certain remote districts, which they were not allowed to leave, but they could at least move about and continue their former mode of life there, after a fashion. It is not so very long since certain charcoal burners protested that they had seen Asa-Thor, for want of giants to combat, hurl his hammer against the tallest trees, which he broke and uprooted. They had also seen the enchanted hunt of Diana, whose deep-mouthed dogs bark at night and disturb the slumbers of honest people in {390}Bohemian villages. Who has not heard of the intrigues of old Venus, not with her former, classic lover, the god Mars, but with the good knight Tannhäuser? If we are to believe Heinrich Heine, even Jupiter has been recently discovered again in one of the Norwegian islands. [Illustration: 410] It would be the height of imprudence, of course, to undertake an account of the discovery, after such a master. I shall, therefore, be content to present a mere summary of this remarkable tradition. There is an island in the Northern seas, which is bordered by icebergs and arid mountains: the valleys are dim and dark with heavy mists, the mountain tops are covered with snow for nine months of the year.