The Wish Horse
1) During the French time, about 1807 or so, the widow M. from Rauschen (who still lived at the time) went into the Gausup Gorge together with the current publican M. from the same village, who already was a handsome boy at this time. They did this because a heavy storm was raging, and she wanted to see if a ship was going to beach itself. The poor boy became deathly tired from the constant back-and-forth running, and was reduced to fervently wishing that he would find a horse to ride somewhere. Then he saw one grazing in front of him. While the woman had already pressed on, he tried to climb up on it. But soon he raced after her using his own feet, for the horse did not have a head.
2) The publican G. from Lapehnen, who now has been dead for six years, had a sick wife back home and wanted to go to Königsberg on the next day in order to visit the doctor. But before that, he intended to visit his father-in-law in Waldhausen. When he was lying in bed, he was unable to clear his mind. He had neither rest nor peace, rose up again, and embarked on his journey.
He already saw a small light burning in Pobethen, and thought that day must soon arrive. But his path was still very long, and when he approached Goythenen, he wished in his mind: “If only I had a horse! I would only want to ride it to Waldhausen, and bring it back to the same spot tomorrow.” As he was musing this, a horse stood before him on the pasture through which his path led. He immediately fashioned a bridle and mounted it.
And the horse immediately moved at a good speed, and he curved around the pond as he wanted to move along a straight path through the forest. But when he reached the trees, the horse began to grow noticeably beneath him. His distance to the ground increased further and further, and the branches of the highest trees, which had been far above him before, now touched his head in passing.
In fear for his life, he reached for the branches in order to pull himself down. But the horse raced at such a great speed that they had already passed when he wanted to grab them. It was now impossible to control the horse as well, and thus he quickly looked around and threw himself to the ground. Then it seemed as if the forest was full of birds — such was the singing, the sounds, the fluttering, and the rustling. But the horse rushed into the undergrowth, and it rushed and raced and neighed when it passed out of his sight. Exhausted, the farmer slunk to Waldhausen, and found that everyone there was still in deep slumber.
G. often told this story. He also stated his regrets that he did not have bark fiber for fashioning his bridle, or, failing this, that he did not make reef knots into it. For either of these prevent horses from running away.
3) Another farmer had indeed once put a bridle fashioned out of bark fiber on such a horse, and kept it for many years. But when he once herded his horses in the Jürge (the Forest of Warnicken), he once had to run after an escaped foal. During this time, the herder boys loosened the bark fiber bridle of the horse, whereupon it ran away.
4) Something similar to what G. had encountered happened to a certain K. from Dirschkeim. He, too, wished for a horse, found it, and mounted it. But the horse grew within the forest near Katzheim in such a manner that he climbed off with the assistance of the tree trunks that passed by.
5) A farmer from Hubnicken likewise wished for a horse. He immediately found it, but had to let it go because it grew in size beneath him. But he thought to himself: “If I could only find it one more time!” With this thought in mind, he went to the same spot the next day. The horse was standing there once more. He hurriedly put a bridle made out of bark fiber on it, and it had to go with him. He harnessed it before the biggest wagons all by itself, and it pulled them away with the speed of the wind. He gave it hay: It ate nothing, not even bread. In this manner it served him for eight days. But then it vanished, and no matter how much he wished for it, he did not encounter it again.
6) A farmer from Gr. Kuren had done military exercises in Königsberg, and was on the way back to his home. Near Ladtkeim, he wished that he had a horse he could ride. Soon he found one. While he immediately saw that something about it was not right, he nevertheless reached around its neck with both arms and wanted to swing himself up. He was an incredibly large and strong man who had also gotten into all sorts of tussles under the Old Fritz and knew that he could rely on the strength of his arms. But the horse threw him off so far and with such force that he fell to the ground stunned, and did not recover for a long time.
Note: The “Wish Horse”, as we have called it, is without fail a disguise of the nixie. See Grimm’s “Mythology” p. 458. For this reason it only shows itself in those gorges which lead towards the Baltic Sea.
The fishermen of the Sambia peninsula always use the masculine form when referring to the Baltic Sea. “He rains hay”, they say when the cumulus clouds rise from the ocean and herald an approaching storm. When the mirror-flat surface of the sea vanishes and foaming white waves appear in the distance, they say: “He bares his teeth!” Soon the waves rise high, and, while they try to push bathing people over, they also pull the sand away beneath their feet: “He is devious!” The roaring of the raging waters resembles the death rattle of the drowning: “He bellows!” Finally, if the high tide lasts for a long time, the worried fisher remarks: “He still must have kept someone!” For the sea cannot stand corpses, and won’t stop raging until they have been thrown ashore.
All these phrases remind us of the nixie. He often appears with a wild, disheveled head, and storms rise up when he emerges from the sea. He bares his green teeth, and roars with a dull shout similar to a drowning man. He pulls humans into the waves with deceit and force and then kills them. But then his bloodlust is satiated, and he throws the corpse out.