The Black Spider (12 page)

“What I know, isn’t much more now, but I will tell you what I do know; perhaps somebody can take a lesson from it in our own day; it really wouldn’t do any harm to quite a lot of folk.

When people knew that the spider had been shut in and that their lives were safe again, it is said that they felt as if they were in heaven and as if the dear God with His blessedness were in the midst of them, and for a long time things went well. They held fast to God and shunned the devil, and the knights who had arrived at the castle as newcomers also stood in awe of God’s hand and treated the people gently and helped them to recover.

But everybody regarded this house with reverence, almost as if it were a church. Admittedly the sight of it made them shudder at first, when they saw the prison of the terrible spider and thought how easily it might break out from there and start the whole wretchedness afresh with the devil’s violence. But they soon saw that God’s strength was greater than the devil’s, and out or gratitude to the mother who had died for them all, they helped the children and worked the farm for them for nothing, until they were able to look after it themselves. The knights were willing to allow them to build a new house so that they need have no fear of the spider, in case this latter might accidentally be set free in a house which was inhabited; and offers of help came from many neighbors who could not get rid of their fear of the monster which had made them tremble so much. But the grandmother would not hear of it. She taught her grandchildren that it was here that the spider had been imprisoned in the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; as long as the three holy names held sway in the house and as long as food and drink were blessed in the three holy names at this table, they would be safe from the spider and the spider would be secure in the hole and no accident could make its imprisonment less secure. As they sat at the table with the spider behind them, they would never forget how necessary God was to them nor how mighty He was; in this way the spider would remind them of God, and in spite of the devil it would be a means to their salvation. But if they forsook God, even if this happened a hundred hours’ walk from there, the spider or the devil himself would be able to find them. The children understood this, remained living in the house, grew up to be godfearing, and the blessing of God was over the house.

The little boy who had been so faithful to the mother, just as his mother had been faithful to him, grew up into a fine man who was beloved of God and men and found favor with the knights. Therefore he was also blessed with worldly goods and never forgot God because of this, he never became grasping in his prosperity; he helped others in their need, just as he wished that he might be helped in the last resort; and where he was too weak to give help himself, he became all the more forceful an intercessor with God and men. He was blessed with a good wife, and between them there was a deep and secure peace, and therefore their children flourished and became virtuous; and both found a quiet death after a long life. His family continued to flourish in the fear of God and in right living.

Truly the blessing of God lay over the whole valley, and there was prosperity in the fields and the cattle-sheds and peace among men. The terrible lesson had gone to people’s hearts, and they held fast to God; whatever they did, they did in His name, and where one man could help another, be did not hesitate to do so. No evil, but only good came to them from the castle. Fewer and fewer knights lived there, for the fighting in heathen parts became ever harder, and every hand that could wield a sword became more and more essential; but those who were in the castle were reminded daily by the great hall of death, where the spider had asserted its power over knights just as elsewhere over peasants, that God rules with the same strength over all who fall away from Him, whether they are knights or peasants.

In this way many years passed in happiness and blessing, and this valley became celebrated above all others. Its houses were impressive, its stocks were large, many a gold coin lay in the coffers, its cattle were the finest over hill and dale, its daughters were renowned up and down the country and its sons welcomed everywhere. But just as the pear-tree which is best nourished and has the strongest growth is the one into which the canker penetrates, consuming it until it withers and dies, so it happens that where God’s stream of blessing flows most richly over men, canker comes into the blessing, puffs the people up and makes them blind, until they forget God because of the blessing, forget Him Who has given the wealth on account of the wealth itself until they become like the Israelites who forgot God, after He had helped them, on account of the golden calf[
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Thus after many generations had passed, pride and arrogance made their home in the valley, brought there and increased by women from other parts. Clothes became more pretentious, jewels could be seen gleaming on them, and indeed pride dared to display itself even on the holy implements themselves, and instead of peo­ple’s hearts being directed in prayer fervently to God, their eyes lingered arrogantly on the golden beads of their rosaries. Thus their public worship became pomp and pride, though their hearts be­ came hardened towards God and man. There was little concern for God’s commandments, and His service and His servants were scorned; for where there is much arrogance or much money the delusion willingly enters which thinks selfish desires to be wisdom and values this worldly wisdom higher than God’s wisdom. Just as the peasants had in earlier days been ill-treated by the knights, now they in their turn became hard towards their servants and ill-treated them, and the less they themselves worked, the more they expected from their servants, and the more work they demanded from farm-hands and maids, the more they treated them like senseless cattle, not thinking that their servants too had souls to be taken care of.

Where there is much money and pride, people start building, one farmer vying with another, and just as the knights had used to build earlier, the peasant farmers were now building, and just as the knights had ill-used them in earlier times, now they were merciless to their servants and their cattle, once the craze for building came over them. This change of outlook had also come over this house, although the old wealth had remained. Almost two hundred years had passed since the spider had been made prisoner in the hole. At that time a cunning and overbearing woman was mistress here; she did not come from Lindau, but all the same resembled Christine in many respects. She too came from a distant part and was addicted to vanity and pride, and she had an only son; her husband had died through her domineering spirit. This son was a handsome fellow, good-natured and friendly to man and beast; she in her turn was very fond of him, but she did not let him notice it. She domineered over him at every step he took, and none of his friends would be tolerated by her unless she had first given her approval, and he had long been grown up, but still was not allowed to go with the village youth or to go to a local fair without his mother’s company.

When at last she thought he was old enough, she gave him as a wife one of her relations, a woman after her own heart. Now he had two masters instead of only one, and both were equally proud and arrogant, and because they were like this, they wanted Christen to be like this too, and whenever he was friendly and humble, as suited him so well, he soon learnt who was master. For a long time the old house had been a thorn in their eyes and they were ashamed of it, since the neighbors had new houses although they were scarcely as rich as they were. The legend of the spider and what the grandmother had said was at that time still in everyone’s memory, otherwise the old house would have been torn down long ago, but everybody resisted the two women in this. The latter, however, came more and more to interpret this resistance as envy which begrudged them a new house. In addition, they came to feel more and more uneasy in the old house. Whenever they sat at the table here, they felt either as if the cat were purring complacently behind them or else as if the hole were gradually opening and the spider taking aim at their necks. They lacked the faithful spirit which had closed up the hole, and therefore they were more and more afraid that the hole might open. Consequently they thought they had found a good reason for building a new house, since in the new house they would not have to be afraid of the spider. They wanted to hand over the old house to the servants, who often were an obstacle to their vanity; and in this way they came to their decision.

Christen was very unwilling to do this; he knew what the old grandmother had said and believed that the family blessing was linked to the family house, and he was not afraid of the spider, and when he sat up here at the table, it seemed to him as if he could pray most reverently. He said how he felt, but his womenfolk told him to be quiet, and because he was their servant, he did keep quiet, but he often wept bitterly when they were not there to see him.

Up there, beyond the tree under which we were sitting, a house was to be built, a house the like of which nobody else in the district possessed.

In presumptuous impatience, because they knew nothing about building and could not wait to show off with their new house, they maltreated workmen and animals during the building process and did not even rest on holy feast-days and begrudged the workers their rest even at night; there was no neighbor with whom they were satisfied, however much help he might give them, no neighbor whom they did not wish ill when he went home to look after his own affairs after he had given them free assistance, as was the custom even at that time.

When they started building and drove the first peg into the threshold, smoke rose from the hole like damp straw when it is set alight; at that the workpeople shook their heads with misgiving and said, both secretly and aloud, that the new building would not become old; but the women laughed at this and took no notice of the sign that had been given. When finally the house had been built, they moved in and furnished the house with unheard-of luxury, and for a housewarming gave a party that lasted three days, so that children and grandchildren still talked about it throughout the whole Emmental.

But it is said that all the three days long a strange humming could be heard in the whole house like the purring of a cat that is contented to have its fur stroked. But they could not find the cat from which the purring came, for all they searched everywhere; then many a one felt ill at ease, and in spite of all the munificence he would slip off in the midst of the celebrations. It was only the two women who heard nothing or else took notice of nothing; they thought that now the new house was there they had nothing to lose.

Yes, a blind man does not even see the sun, nor does a deaf man hear thunder. Consequently the women of the house were delighted, grew more presumptuous every day, did not think of the spider, but lived in the new house a luxurious, indolent life, dolling themselves up and overeating; there was nobody like them, they thought, and they did not think of God.

The servants stayed on by themselves in the old house, living as they liked, and when Christen wanted to keep the old house under his surveillance, the women would not tolerate this and railed at him, the mother chiefly out of vanity, the wife mainly out of jealousy. Consequently there was no order down there in the old house and soon no fear of God either, and where there is no master in control, that is what usually happens. If there is no master sitting at the head of the table, no master listening alertly in the house, no master holding the reins both within and outside, then the fellow who behaves most wildly thinks he is the greatest and the man who talks most recklessly thinks he is the best.

That is how things went in the house down below, and all the servants soon resembled a pack of cats when they are at their wildest. Nobody knew anything more about praying, and therefore there was respect neither for God’s will nor God’s gifts. Just as the arrogance of the two mistresses no longer knew any bounds, so the animal insolence of the servants knew no limits. They audaciously spoiled the bread, they threw porridge over the table with spoons at each other’s heads and they even defiled the food in bestial manner in order maliciously to take away the others’ enjoyment of their food. They provoked the neighbors, tormented the cattle, jeered at all divine worship, denied all higher authority and abused in all manner of ways the priest who had spoken to them admonishingly; in short, they no longer had any fear of God or man and behaved more wildly every day. The farm-hands and the maids lived most dissolutely, and yet they tormented one another wherever possible, and when the farm-hands could not think of any new way of tormenting the maids, one of them had the idea of terrifying or taming the maids with the threat of the spider in the bole. He slung spoonfuls of porridge or milk up against the peg and shouted out that the spider inside must be hungry as it had had nothing to eat for so many centuries. At that the maids shrieked aloud and promised everything that they could, and even the other farm-hands felt a shudder of horror.

As the game was repeated without any punishment ensuing, it lost its effect; the maids no longer cried out or made any promises, and the other farm-hands also began the same game. Now this particular fellow began to go at the hole with his knife, swearing the most horrible oaths that he would loosen the peg and see what was inside, for it was time they had something new to see. This aroused new horror, and the fellow who did this was master of them all and could compel them, especially the maids, to do whatever he wanted.

Indeed this man is said to have been a really strange fellow, and nobody knew where he came from. He could behave as gently as a lamb and as fiercely as a wolf; if he were on his own with a woman he was a gentle lamb, but in the company at large he was like a ravening wolf and behaved as if he hated everyone, as if he wanted to outdo them all in wild deeds and words; but men like that are supposed to be just the most attractive ones to women. That is why the maids were shocked at him in public, but are said to have liked him best of all when alone with him. His eyes were uneven, but it was impossible to say what color they were, and the two eyes disliked one another, for they never looked in the same direction, but he knew how to conceal this with long hair over his eyes and by humbly looking down to the ground. His hair was beautifully waved, but it was difficult to say whether it was red or blonde; in the shade it was the most beautiful flaxen hair, but when the sun shone on it, no squirrel’s coat was redder. He tormented the cattle worse than anybody else. The cattle in their turn hated him also. Each of the farm-hands thought that he was his friend, and yet he would set them up one against the other. He was the only one of them who suited the two mistresses, and was the only one who was often in the upper house; then the maids behaved wildly in the house below; as soon as he observed this, he would stick his knife into the peg and begin his threatening, until the maids ate humble pie.