The Mythology & Folklore Database
The innkeeper got wind of this, and one evening he said, "My good friend, you are now well rested. Be so good as to be on your way early in the morning. Here is the bill for what you owe me."
This brought both chills and fever to journeyman, who asked the innkeeper if he at least could not wait until tomorrow to be paid. "Tomorrow," he said, "is one more day."
"Good," said the innkeeper, "but be careful that you don't end up in the Black Tower Inn. Around here that's where folks stay who eat and drink more than their purses will cover."
As soon as the innkeeper had left, the journeyman threw himself onto his bed, but fear and worry kept him awake the entire night. Then suddenly a black figure approached his bed, and the journeyman recognized him as the devil for sure.
He said, "Fear not, my dear companion, if you'll provide the sausage, I'll bring the drinks. Lend me a hand, and I'll help you out of your predicament."
"Doing what?" asked the journeyman.
"Just stay here in this inn for seven years," said the devil. "I'll keep you out of debt and provide you with everything you need. Afterward you'll be even better off, and you'll have money like the leaves on trees. In return for this you must neither wash yourself, nor comb your hair, nor cut your hair or nails."
"That job is worth the pay," thought the journeyman, and he entered the agreement without further hesitation.
When the innkeeper appeared the next morning, the journeyman paid him every last penny that was due, and he still had a good surplus for future bills.
The journeyman stayed at the inn for years and days, spending money as though it were sand on the beach. But he became as wild as the night, and no one wanted to look at him. One fine morning a merchant who lived nearby came to the inn. He had three strikingly beautiful daughters. He had come to tell his sorrows to the innkeeper, for he had badly miscalculated in a business deal and did not know how he was going to get out of the difficulty.
"Listen," said the innkeeper. "There's help for you here. A strange fellow has been living upstairs in my rented room for more than six years now. He lets himself go completely, and looks as bad as sin, but he has money like hay, and is a free-spender. Give him a try. Anyway, I've long noticed that he often stares at your house. Who knows, perhaps he's got his eye on one of your daughters.
This advice made good sense to the merchant. He went upstairs to the journeyman, and the two of them soon struck a deal. The journeyman would pay the merchant's debts, and the merchant would give one of his daughters to the journeyman in marriage.
However, when they went to the three daughters, and the father explained the situation to them, the oldest one ran away, crying out, "Phooey, father! What sort of a monster is this that you've brought home? I'd sooner jump into water than to marry him."
The second daughter did no better. She cried out, "Phooey, father! What sort of a creature is this that you've brought home? I'd sooner hang myself than to marry him."
But the third and youngest daughter said, "He must be a good man, father, if he wants to rescue you. I'll take him."
She turned her eyes to the floor and did not look at him, but he took a great liking to her, and the wedding was set.
The seven years that the devil had demanded were now past. On the morning of the wedding day a splendid coach, sparkling with gold and precious stones, drove up to the merchant's house. Out jumped the journeyman, who had now become a fine young nobleman.
The bride breathed a sigh of relief, and there was endless rejoicing. The wedding party went to the church in a long procession, for the merchant and the innkeeper had invited all their relatives.
Only the happy bride's two older sisters did not participate. They angrily took their own lives, the one at the end of a rope, the other in water. And as the bridegroom was leaving the church, he saw the devil again, the first time in seven years. He was sitting on a roof, laughing with satisfaction, and saying:
Partner, I did better than you,
You got one, and I got two.