to drink it. Whereupon the damsel said: "My dear lord, drink it upon my
assurance; for it will do you no harm, but will tend to your good." She
added that, if he would drink, he and his family, and all his descendants,
and the whole territory of Oldenburg, would prosper: but that, if he
refused, there would be discord in the race of the Counts of Oldenburg. The
count, as was natural, mistrusted her assurances, and feared to drink out
of the horn: however, he retained it in his hand, and swung it behind his
back. While it was in this position some of the liquid escaped; and where
it fell on the back of the white horse, it took off the hair. When the
damsel saw this, she asked him to restore the horn; but the count, with the
horn in his hand, hastened away from the mountain, and, on looking back,
observed that the damsel had returned into the earth. The count, terrified
at the sight, spurred on his horse, and speedily rejoined his attendants:
he then recounted to them his adventure, and showed them the silver-gilt
horn, which he took with him to Oldenburg. And because this horn was
obtained in so wonderful a manner, it was kept as a precious relic by him
and all his successors in the reigning house of Oldenburg.

The editors state that richly decorated drinking-horn was formerly
preserved, with great care, in the family of Oldenburg; but that, at the
present time [1818], it is at Copenhagen.

The same story is related from Hamelmann's _Oldenburg Chronicle_, by
Büsching, in his _Volksagen_ (Leips. 1820), p. 380., who states that there
is a representation of the horn in p. 20. of the _Chronicle_, as well as in
the title-page of the first volume of the _Wunderhorn_.

Those who are accustomed to the interpretation of mythological fictions
will at once recognise in this story an explanatory legend, invented for
the purpose of giving an interest to a valuable drinking-horn, of ancient