64
Legends of Rubezahl.
it into his head to make a progress through this vast domain to view those exhaustless treasure-chambers of his, the veins and beds of rich ore that lay, one above another, in all directions; and to inspect the operations of his subject gnomes, as they stop or regulate, with strong dykes or embankments, the fierce fire-torrents that ever and anon burst forth in the bowels of the earth, and rush tumultuous through its cavernous recesses; or, with precious metal-fraught vapours, fecundate the previously sterile rocks, and convert them into glowing piles of ore. At other times, relaxing from regal cares, he ascends to our nether world, and strolling about the Riesengeberg, attired in some mundane guise, disports himself with mankind, playing them all sorts of tricks, more or less mischievous, according to the humour he is in; occasionally doing somebody a good turn, but much oftener teazing poor folks to death, while he all the while is laughing ready to split his sides at their discomfiture.
For his Lordship’s temper, you must know, is as variable as the wind: now well, now ill humoured; gentle, boisterous; bearish, polite; haughty, unassuming; generous and refined, mean and doltish; wise as Solomon, stupid as an ass; soft as an egg before boiling, and then, in the twinkling of an eye, harder than the egg boiled to its hardest; obstinate as an oak, pliant as a willow; to-day your best friend,
