The Burial Gown

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Geographic Coordinates: 52° 3' 27.00" N, 11° 57' 6.00" E

Two sisters once lived in a village near Leitzkau. They lived in poverty, for they were spinning flax for other people for pay. They had done this for many years, and turned old and gray over time. But they had not been completely honest at their trade, for whenever they had the opportunity to surreptitiously take some of the flax for themselves that had been given to them for spinning, they did so. From the flax they had accumulated in this manner, they spun the finest yarn, and had linen woven out of it that was fine to a degree that no one else in the village had anything comparable.

One day, one of these sisters died. Her burial gown was made out of this linen. She was buried three days after her death. However, the dead woman found no rest in the grave. Every day, around the time when darkness began to fall, the door to the chamber in which her sister was sitting and spinning opened, and then that sister saw her dead sibling stepping into the chamber dressed in her white burial gown and walking restlessly back and forth. After a while, she vanished again. Finally, the living sister was unable to endure this. She went to the pastor and lamented her distress. The pastor said that he would attempt to bring eternal rest to the dead woman.

Near the hour of dusk, the pastor indeed visited the old spinning woman. He had brought his Bible with him. And it did not take long until the door quietly opened and the dead woman in her white burial gown entered. But the priest stepped towards her with the Bible in his hand, and spoke to her: “Errant ghost, what do you want?”

Then the dead woman answered with a quiet voice: “I want my honest gown.”

The pastor asked the same question three times, and three times the dead woman answered with the same words, whereupon she mutely went out of the door again.

But now the sister confessed everything to the pastor about how she had taken some of the flax, and that the burial gown had been made out of the yarn that had been spun from the flax. Thus, there was nothing else to do but to open the grave and dress the dead woman with an honest gown. As soon as this had occurred, the dead woman was finally able to rest in her grave.

By Fr. Adler senior.

Source: Veckenstedt - Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 1. Band, p. 312