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The tenth story tells of how Eulenspiegel became a page and his master taught him to shit on the weed called "Henep" and what he mistook for it.

Soon afterwards, Eulenspiegel went to a courtier at a castle and gave himself out to be a page. Almost immediately he had to follow his master on a ride through the countryside. By the way there was a stand of hemp (Ed: which in German is Hanf); in Saxony where Eulenspiegel came from they called it "henep." So the knight said to Eulenspiegel, who was carrying his lance, "See yonder weed? It's called 'henep.'" Eulenspiegel replied saying he could see it, of course. Then the knight said: "Whenever you come past it, shit a big pile on it. For with that weed it is that they bind over and hang robbers and those who make their living out of the saddle without serving any master. They do that with the string they spin from this weed." Eulenspiegel said, "why, gladly, I shall do that."

The knight (or courtier) rode in and out of many towns with Eulenspiegel and helped rob, steal and snatch as was his habit.

One day it happened that they were at home and idle. When it became time for lunch Eulenspiegel went into the kitchen. There the cook said to him: "Boy, go into the cellar, there's an earthenware pot in which there's 'senep' (as they would call it in Saxony), bring it to me. Eulenspiegel said yes but had never in his life seen 'senep' or 'senf' (Ed: which is German for mustard). And when he found the pot with the senf in the cellar, he thought to himself what the cook may want it for. "I think he wants to bind me with it." And he kept thinking: "My master has told me, where I find such a weed, that I should shit on it." So he crouched over the pot of mustard, shat it full, stirred it and took it to the cook.

So what happened? The cook paid no attention; he just hurriedly put the mustard in a dish and had it taken to the table. The courtier and his guests dipped their food in the mustard... it tasted vile! So they called the cook and asked him what he'd done with the mustard. The cook tasted it too, spat it out and said: "The senf tastes as if someone had shitted in it!" And then Eulenspiegel began to laugh. "What are you laughing at," his master demanded to know. "Do you think we can't tell what it tastes like? If you don't believe it, come and taste the senf for yourself!" Eulenspiegel said: "I'm not eating that stuff. Don't you know what you bade me on the road by the field? That I should shit on the weed wherever I saw it because with that they hang and strangle robbers. When the cook sent me down to the cellar I did as you had bidden I do." Then the courtier exclaimed: "You cursed knave, this will be your undoing! The weed which I showed you is called Henep or Hanf; what the cook told you to fetch is called Senep or Senf. You did it out of malice!" And he grabbed a big cudgel and went to beat him up with it. But Eulenspiegel was quite agile, ran away from the castle and never showed himself there again.


English translation created for E2 from the original by Hermann Bote at the German project Gutenberg.

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