Note 1 — The Water Nymph.1
Willard Henry Myers translation
The water nymphs are noted musicians; their music usually being in a plaintive strain and expressing a longing to be released on the day of judgment. Sometimes, but not so often, they appear in the folk-lore as the capricious rulers of the streams which they inhabit. It is believed, in certain regions that one should not grind grain on the night before Christmas, for at that time the nymphs are out in all the streams, and if they find a mill going they stop it, break it, or grind at such a furious rate that the millstones burst. ↑