Ma la stanchezza era tale, che presa una bracciata di fieno per ciascuno e una coperta, si buttarono a terra e cominciarono a dormire. Giunta la mezzanotte, avvertono che la porta si apre e sentono entrare un gruppo di gente che fa rumore; gridano, piangono ed emettono suoni che non sembrano neppur essere di cristiani; e per di più s’accorgono che questa gente adopera i loro ferri per tagliare la scala di legno; e dopo poco le finestre e le porte cadono a pezzi, e tutto crolla finché alla fine rimane soltanto il tetto. Dopo questi fatti la paura ha incominciato a prender l’animo degli uomini e quando il più coraggioso della squadra ha tentato di alzarsi, s’é sentito in dosso due mani fredde che gli impedivano di muoversi. Ma lui non convinto, ha fatto per scagliare uno scarpone contro quello che non vedeva: ma in quel momento stesso un manrovescio lo colpiva sui denti. Allora sbalordito e pieno di paura, anche quello che era ritenuto il più coraggioso di tutti, si è stretto vicino ai suoi compagni spaventato. Fra baccano e rumori, la notte non passava più.
Quando è venuto il giorno, tutto s’è quietato e gli uomini più morti che vivi, si sono alzati: con grande meraviglia hanno constatato che le scale, le porte e le finestre e i loro ferri erano tutti al loro posto. Gli uomini ripresero i loro arnesi e, usciti dalla casa, si sono messi a correre giù per il prato, finché hanno avuto fiato. Quando furono ben lontani, si voltarono per dare ancora un’occhiata a quella casa, ma con grande stupore s’accorsero che era sparita: al suo posto era rimasto un gran mucchio di spini. Ancor oggi quelli che passano da queste parti vedono in mezzo al prato il cespuglio di spini e con terrore pensano alla casa degli spiriti.
ENG | At the top of the mountain there was a house that stood in the middle of a meadow. Although it was a beautiful house, no one wanted to live in it because it was already taken: it was the house of the Spirits. One winter, a team of men who were collecting tree trunks in that place, decided to go to sleep in that very house, after a long and hard day of work. When they opened the door, they saw rats running away under the porch, toads jumping from all sides and spiders as big as a hand's fist hanging on the wall. Leaving their tools, ropes, axes and hoes on the ground, the men, who had no fear whatsoever, climbed up the stairs. Once they reached the upper floor they saw bats flying across the room, with owls and crows making noises. However, they were so tired that they each took an armful of hay and a blanket, then they laid on the floor and went to sleep.
When midnight came, they heard the door opening, and a group of people coming in, making lots of noise, shouting, crying and making all sorts of clattering. The men found out that these people were using their irons to cut down the wooden staircase, and after a while the windows and the doors of the house fell to pieces. Everything collapsed, until at last only the roof remained. After these events, fear began to take hold of the men's souls, and when the bravest of the team tried to get up, he felt two cold hands on his shoulders preventing him from moving. That wasn’t enough to stop him, so he hurled one of his boots at what he could not see. At that very moment a hand slapped him right in his face. Then, stunned and full of fear, even the one who was thought to be the bravest of all, clung close to his frightened companions. Amidst the chaos and noise, the night went on and on.
Finally, once the day came, everything was quieter and the men, deader than alive, got up. They couldn’t believe their eyes when they found out that the stairs, the doors, the windows and all of their tools were in place. The men took up their tools and left the house, running down the lawn as fast as they could. When they were far from the building, they turned to have another look at it, but to their astonishment they found that it had disappeared. In its place was left only a bush of thorns. Even to this day, those who wander trough the area can only see the thorn bush in the middle of the meadow and think with a sense of terror about the house of the Spirits.