C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

The Lake of the Demons

By Myths and Folk-Lore of the Aryan Peoples

IN Catalonia there is a lofty mountain named Cavagum, at the foot of which runs a river with golden sands, in the vicinity of which there are likewise mines of silver. This mountain is steep, and almost inaccessible. On its top, which is always covered with ice and snow, is a black and bottomless lake, into which if a stone be thrown, a tempest suddenly rises; and near this lake, though invisible to men, is the porch of the Palace of Demons. In a town adjacent to this mountain, named Junchera, lived one Peter de Cabinam. Being one day teased with the fretfulness of his young daughter, he in his impatience suddenly wished that the Devil might take her; when she was immediately borne away by the spirits. About seven years afterwards, an inhabitant of the same city, passing by the mountain, met a man who complained bitterly of the burden he was constantly forced to bear. Upon inquiring the cause of his complaining, as he did not seem to carry any load, the man related that he had been unwarily devoted to the spirits by an execration, and that they now employed him constantly as a vehicle of burden. As a proof of his assertion, he added that the daughter of his fellow-citizen was detained by the spirits, but that they were willing to restore her if her father would come and demand her on the mountain. Peter de Cabinam, on being informed of this, ascended the mountain to the lake, and in the name of God demanded his daughter; when a tall, thin, withered figure, with wandering eyes, and almost bereft of reason, was wafted to him in a blast of wind.

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