Note 180.2 — BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST
Reading edition
Von Alpenburg, 262, 365. Many such knives are to be found in peasants’ houses in the Lower Inn valley. In the Netherlands these whirlwinds are held to be “the Travailing Mother,” who seems to be a woman dead in childbirth unconfessed of mortal sin. She cannot be received into heaven. She is equally denied a place in hell, since her sufferings and death have already provided a sufficient penance. Hence she wanders about, seeking an abiding-place (Wolf, Niederl. Sag., 616). Women who die in childbirth are commonly considered very dangerous ghosts. See below, p. 213.