John's Day, about the hour of noon, she eats a roll of bread.[252]
Another German story tells of a lady who resided at Danzig and was so
rich and so blest with all that life can give that she wished to live
always. So when she came to her latter end, she did not really die but
only looked like dead, and very soon they found her in a hollow of a
pillar in the church, half standing and half sitting, motionless. She
stirred never a limb, but they saw quite plainly that she was alive, and
she sits there down to this blessed day. Every New Year's Day the
sacristan comes and puts a morsel of the holy bread in her mouth, and
that is all she has to live on. Long, long has she rued her fatal wish
who set this transient life above the eternal joys of heaven.[253] A
third German story tells of a noble damsel who cherished the same
foolish wish for immortality. So they put her in a basket and hung her
up in a church, and there she hangs and never dies, though many a year
has come and gone since they put her there. But every year on a certain
day they give her a roll, and she eats it and cries out, "For ever! for
ever! for ever!" And when she has so cried she falls silent again till
the same time next year, and so it will go on for ever and for
ever.[254] A fourth story, taken down near Oldenburg in Holstein, tells
of a jolly dame that ate and drank and lived right merrily and had all
that heart could desire, and she wished to live always.
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