There are three main motives that recur in many legends: The first is the steadfast belief that in the past life was better because of the milder climate. The second is that there are hidden treasures in the interior of the mountains. Lastly, one hears of the existence of two alpine passes to the Valais. There are also explanations of how the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountains were created. One story tells that in the past a family of giants lived on Wengernalp, one of the stops on the way up to the Jungfraujoch. The father, his two sons and his daughter got more and more evil as the years went by. Once, a poor man came by and asked the giant for a glass of milk. But the giant shouted at him and told him that they did not have any extra milk, so he should drink water. But the poor man was actually a mountain spirit. Before he simply vanished before the eyes of the giants, he cursed them. So, the evil giants started growing, and they got bigger and bigger and turned into rock and ice. The father turned into Eiger, the sons into the white and black Mönch, and the daughter into Jungfrau. Now you know how these world-famous summits were created! There are also legends that had an educational value, for example the legend of the old hook man.
It was meant to protect the children from falling into the mountain streams or down the steep rocks and dying. The legend tells that there is a terrible old hook man, who has a long stick with a sharp curved hooknose like a vulture's beak. The old hook man loves human meat, and in particular toddlers' meat. He never stops or rests and always watches the embankments of the rivers and streams or the edges of rock walls. When a child comes too close to the embankment or a precipice, the old hook man catches the child with his terrible hook, eats the child raw and gives the little bones to the fish, or he barbecues the child high in the mountains. The screaming birds then fight over the leftovers. On the left of the path you can see a steep rock wall. If you climb up there, you will reach an alpine or summer pasture where a dairyman and his young helper look after the cattle and used to make cheese. The pasture is called "Busenalp". And this is the legend about it: The high alpine pasture "Busen" on the slopes of Tschingelgrat has always had a bad reputation. Once it was owned by an evil woman from Stechelberg, and she had already lost three husbands. Everybody was convinced that she had received her first husband from Heaven, the second one from Earth and the third one from the devil, and that she had upset them so badly that they had all died. It had already happened several times that herdsmen had died on the day the cattle were driven down from the mountains in autumn. Soon this became common knowledge, and for many years, nobody wanted to be a herdsman on that alpine pasture. It would not have taken much longer for the pastures to turn into a useless wilderness, when a young courageous man appeared from another valley. He went to see the evil woman and offered his services. All well-meant warnings the people gave him were nothing but smoke and mirrors to him. He had made up his mind, and soon started his work as a herdsman on Busenalp. He and his helper were in good spirits when they drove the cattle up the mountains. The pastures were very succulent that summer, no animals died, and the cattle fattened up well, because the herdsman and his helper treated the animals very well. The few weeks of the beautiful summer weather passed all too quickly, and all of a sudden the evening before the cattle had to be driven down the mountains had arrived. Because of the many preparations the herdsman and his helper finished late, and they didn't have time to get afraid or worried. Because the alpine herdsman knew the fate of many of his predecessors, he decided to take a sturdy, tough fir stick with him to bed. He was not afraid of death or hell, and he was prepared to even confront the devil if he had to.
Indeed - in the evil midnight hour he was woken up by horrible spluttering and hissing. A cat as black as coal that was much bigger than a normal cat tried to squeeze through between the shingles and the beams. It growled and looked at the young herdsman with evil glowing eyes. He kept his senses together, grabbed the stick and shouted: "If you're real, I recommend you step aside, if you're something else, then be prepared, I will hit you on the head!" When the black bastard tried grabbing his neck with its front paws, he hit it with his stick so badly that you could hear the bones crack. It yelped and meowed loudly, then it disappeared.
As if nothing had happened, the herdsman and his helper got up in the early morning and drove the cattle down into the valley. The young man was very surprised when he found out that since the night before, his employer had been lying on her bed of leaves with broken bones. The witch had killed all her herdsmen the night before the cattle had to be driven down so that she wouldn't have to pay their summer wages. Fortunately, she was tied to her bed for the rest of her life. Now follow the path down to the river. The little wooden shed below the path is part of a public fireplace. Follow the river downwards on the left. But watch out for the old hook man! Soon, you will reach the old sawmill!
