Tradition: Czech Mythology
Alternative Names: The Weihizer
Category: Ghost
The Myth
The Weihizer is the ghost of a wealthy but dishonest innkeeper who once lived in Neukirchen in the Bohemian Forest. He cheated his customers by pouring only as much drink as he could fit his unusually long thumb into the jug. Through this trick, he accumulated an enormous fortune. One day, he challenged his servant Girgel to cut as much straw from dawn until dusk as the innkeeper possessed money. If Girgel succeeded, he would receive ten guilders; if he failed, he would have to pay the innkeeper the same amount. Girgel worked tirelessly and produced a huge pile of straw, but the innkeeper’s mountain of money was even larger. The poor servant lost his ten guilders, which the wealthy man simply tossed onto his enormous pile of silver.
The innkeeper was said to possess supernatural abilities, including the power to be in two places at once. When the hay was being brought in, he could be seen in the meadow and inside the barn simultaneously. As he grew old, he tried to ease his conscience for the harm he had inflicted on the poor. He ordered a gigantic bell to be cast, so wide that eight couples could dance beneath it. Yet the bell could not save him, because not a single honest penny had been used to pay for it.
After his death, the innkeeper could not rest in his grave. As punishment for his dishonesty, he was condemned to raise mysterious fires and sit on the cellar stairs. Before the Angelus bell rang, he was forbidden to harm anyone. Afterward, however, his ghost tormented those who came to fetch beer. The beer would not flow from the barrel because the innkeeper sat upon it, holding his purse. At night, cattle often cried out in terror, and farmhands who rushed outside discovered the stable doors standing open while the cows trembled and staggered around the yard.
One night, a travelling priest stopped at the inn, but nobody dared fetch him beer from the cellar. The priest descended himself to banish the ghost, making the sign of the cross three times. The ritual failed, and the Weihizer leapt from the barrel and struck the priest on the head with his purse, knocking him down. Desperate to rid themselves of the troublesome spirit, the people summoned the Bishop of Regensburg. The bishop finally took the ghost away to the wilderness of Switzerland, ending its haunting of the inn.
Sources
“Der Weihizer.” In Hans Watzlik, Böhmerwald-Sagen. Budweis: Böhmerwalder Dorfbücher, 1921, Heft 5. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/tschechien/watzlik/weihizer.html