It is told in the legend, that on one of the last Sundays
before Lent, there was to be a dance at a place called the Vineyard. The
Vineyard was a ballroom situated in one of the inner suburbs of Danzig.
After going to confession and communion that day, a young servant woman
told her mother that she was invited to attend the dance. Despite the
reprimands of her mother, an honest laundress, who warned her not to
desecrate the sabath day by going to such an affair. The young lady
couldn't resist the temptations of going to such a gala, even though it was
a holy day. She arrived at The Vineyard around 8:00pm, but it didnt take
long before the punishment for her sacralidge came. Around midnight, she
saw a handsomely dressed stranger with black hair and eyes that shown
brightly like onyx. The handsome man spotted the young lady and approached
her. In words that seemed to penetrate into the depths of her soul he said
"May I dance with you". She took his arm with pleasure. As they began to
waltz, she noticed how wonderful the man could dance. As they glided across
the dance floor, the couple started dancing faster and faster.
One of the musicians playing in the band was watching
dancing couple carefully. As he watched the two dance across the floor, he
began to notice that the man had strange looking feet. After further
observation, he came to the startling conclusion that the mans feet were
not feet at all. They were shaped like hooves, goats hooves to be exact.
The musician realized that the man wasnt a man at all. Who he was looking
at was none other than Satan himself! He drew his fellow musicians
attention to the couple, and in the very middle of the waltz they were
playing, they stopped and broke into a religous hymn. As they started
playing this hymn, the clock struck twelve. The devil pulled the young lady
close to him and in a dazzling whirl, crossed with her to the other side of
the ballroom. The devil, holding the bedazzled lady, crashed through a
stained glass window out into the night air. All the people at the dance
rushed out into the garden that surounded the Vineyard to find the girl
lying on the grass covered in broken glass. The young lady was dead, and
the devil had vanished.
