In a village of the Ernz Valley, several farmers were playing cards one Sunday. The church bells rang for vespers, but the players did not move. The hostess scolded them for their irreverence. One of the men actually got up to go to church, but the others mocked him so harshly that, angered, he cried out loudly:
“Well then, I’ll keep playing as long as I can — and may the Devil take whoever stops first!”

The others agreed and were just about to start another round when they suddenly saw a stranger behind them, dressed in a green hunter’s outfit. The stranger asked to join their game, and they allowed him to. Soon the play grew heated; the stranger lost enormous sums, and piles of gold already covered the table.

Night fell — they kept playing. Morning dawned — they were still playing, bound by their dreadful oath. The innkeeper’s wife, noticing the guests’ growing unease, watched the stranger closely. But how she trembled when she saw that his right foot was the hoof of a horse!

At once she hurried to the priest and begged for help, convinced that her guests were in the Devil’s power. The priest, a wise man, went to the inn and, after observing the stranger and hearing about the rash oath, asked to join the game. It was granted to him, though the stranger resisted fiercely.

After playing a few rounds, the priest suddenly seized one of the stranger’s gold coins, made the sign of a blessing over it — and the coin turned into a shard of pottery. He threw it onto the rest of the pile, and behold! all the gold turned to shards as well.

The priest declared the stranger a deceiver, unworthy to play any longer, and commanded him to lay down his cards. Then the holy man stood and cried with a loud voice:
“Vade retro, Satanas!” (“Get thee behind me, Satan!”)

And instantly the supposed hunter shot through the open window, leaving behind an unbearable stench of sulfur. The players, cured of their addiction, became devout Christians.

J. B. Klein, parish priest, after a manuscript by N. Steffen.