On a group of islands between Kembs and Niffer, where ordinarily only reeds, low brush, and willow-herb grow, one sees, in Advent around the midnight hour, a slender church rise up, adorned with towers and domes, which the people call the Ghost Church or the Mist Church. It does not seem to stand on solid ground, for its towers move gently now here, now there, like two white transparent veils. People say that this church, in which a great multitude had sought safety and refuge, was swallowed by the surging waters of the Rhine, and that the sound of its bell may still now and then be heard, like faint ghostly tones.
As the result of a wager, two bold young men once undertook to pay a visit to the Ghost Church on a bright moonlit night in December. But scarcely had they landed on the island when a sharp gust of wind swept into the building, and it scattered like a mere apparition of mist.
Another Rhine island is called “’s Jumpferegeflecht.” It is said that proud maidens who grew old handing out refusals and remained unmarried are, after death, banished to this island and must weave baskets from the willows growing there in abundance until Judgment Day.
