Ghost story
The dancing maidens of Vana-Põltsamaa's threshing barn
The thresher of Vana-Põltsamaa manor lay on top of his barn stove one night when three beautiful girls came in and began to dance. At the third cockcrow they went out and vanished like smoke, and they returned every night. A wise man told him to throw a three-edged needle threaded with straw at one of them. When it struck, she stopped and cried: "Why do you kill me? I have been killed already!" They were, she said, babies secretly strangled by their mothers, who had grown up wandering, unfed, until set free. The thresher let them keep him company. Vana-Põltsamaa's manor park lies by the castle in Põltsamaa.
Open it on the map See the spot on the old maps and as it is today
Eesti keeles
Vana-Põltsamaa mõisa rehepapp lamas öösel ahju peal, kui rehte tuli kolm ilusat neidu ja hakkas tantsima. Kolmanda kukelaulu ajal läksid nad välja ja kadusid nagu suits ning nii tulid nad igal ööl. Tark käskis tal visata ühe neiu pihta kolmetahulise nõela, mille taha oli aetud õlekõrs. Kui nõel tabas, jättis neiu tantsu pooleli ja hüüdis: „Mis sa mind tapad! Mind on ju juba tapetud!” Nad olid, ütles ta, lapsed, kelle emad olid salaja ära poonud, ja nad olid söötmata-jootmata ringi hulkudes suureks kasvanud, kuni vabanevad. Rehepapp lubas neil endale seltsiks käia. Vana-Põltsamaa mõisapark asub Põltsamaa lossi kõrval.
Source: M. J. Eisen, 'Kodukäijad' (no. 35, 'Poodud lapsed', recorded by M. Luu, Kaavere) ↗