Ghost story
The cursing lady of the Ervita bog lake
In the Ervita bog there was once a large lake, slowly overgrowing, where village children went to pick cranberries. One day a group of boys and girls saw a beautiful woman in white sitting in a birch that leant over the shore. She beckoned them to come to her. The children were too frightened to move, and when she saw they would not come she began cursing them in the foulest words. Then she leapt shrieking into the water, so that clumps of moss flew skywards, and singing could be heard from under the water for a while. For a long time no child dared go berrying there. Ervita is a village in Järva parish, by a bog.
Open it on the map See the spot on the old maps and as it is today
Eesti keeles
Ervita rabas oli kunagi suur umbjärv, mis aina kinni kasvas, ja külalapsed käisid seal jõhvikal. Ühel päeval nägi salk poisse ja tüdrukuid kaldal viltu kasvava kase otsas ilusat valgetes riietes naist, kes neid käega enda juurde kutsus. Lapsed olid nii ehmunud, et ei julgenud liigutadagi. Kui naine taipas, et nad ei tule, hakkas ta neid kõige roppude sõnadega sõimama. Siis hüppas ta kiljudes järve, nii et samblatükid taeva poole lendasid, ja veel tükk aega kostis vee alt laulu. Kaua ei julgenud lapsed sinna marjule minna. Ervita on küla Järva vallas raba ääres.
Source: M. J. Eisen, 'Näki raamat' (no. 8, recorded by O. Hintzenberg from Jüri Kelner of Merja) ↗