Once there were seven Swabians together, the first was Herr Schulz, the second was Jackli, the third was Marli, the fourth was Jergli, the fifth was Michal, the sixth was Hans, the seventh was Veitli; they all had They intended to traverse the world, to seek adventures and to accomplish great deeds, but so that they could also go armed and safe, they considered it good that they had only one spear made, but it was quite strong and long. All seven of them grabbed this spear together, the boldest and manliest went in front, that had to be Herr Schulz, and then the others followed one after the other and Veitli was last.
Now it happened, when they had walked a long way one day in the hay month, and still had a good distance to the village, where they had to stay the night, that in the twilight in a meadow not far from flew past them behind a shrub and growled hostilely. Herr Schulz was so frightened that he almost dropped the spear and he broke out in a sweat all over his body. "Listen, listen," he called to his companions, "God, I hear a drum!" Jackli, who was holding the spear behind him and whose nose I don't know what kind of smell caught his breath, said, "There is no doubt that something is there , because I can taste the powder and the fuse.” With these words, Herr Schulz started to flee and jumped over a fence in a hurry, because he just jumped onto the tines of a rake that had been left there from making the hay , so the stalk went into his face and gave him an unwashed smack. "Oh, well, oh well," shouted Herr Schulz, "take me prisoner, I surrender, I surrender!" The other six also hopped over one another and shouted, "If you surrender, I surrender too If you give yourself, I give myself too." Finally, as there was no enemy who wanted to bind them and carry them forward, they realized that they had been deceived: and that the story would not get out to the people, and they would not be fooled and mocked they swore among themselves to remain silent until one of them unexpectedly opened his mouth.
Then they moved on. But the second danger they experienced cannot be compared with the first. After a few days she carried her way through a fallow field, there sat a hare in the sun and slept, stretched out its ears, and its large glassy eyes stood up rigidly. Then they were all terrified at the sight of the cruel and wild beast, and took counsel as to what the least dangerous thing to do would be. Because if they wanted to flee, it was to be feared that the monster would follow them and devour them all skin and hair. So they said, "We have to fight a big and dangerous fight, freshly ventured is half won!" All seven of them grabbed the spear, Herr Schulz in front and Veitli in the back. Herr Schulz still wanted to stop the spear, but Veitli had become quite courageous behind, wanted to break free and called out
"Blow in the name of all Swabians,
otherwise I wish that you would slacken.”
But Hans knew how to hit him and spoke
"By the element, you're good at chatting,
always bite the letcht when chasing the dragon."
Michael called
"There won't be a hair's breadth
that's how it is with the devil."
Then it was Jergli's turn to speak
"If he doesn't eat it, it's okay, mother
or the devil's stepbrother."
Marli had a good thought and said to Veitli
"Go, Veitli, go, go ahead,
I want to stand back in front of you."
But Veitli didn't listen and Jackli said
"the Schulz, he must be the first,
for he alone deserves the honor.”
Then Herr Schulz took heart and spoke solemnly
"then go heartily into the quarrel,
this is how you recognize brave people.”
Then they all went towards the dragon. Herr Schulz blessed himself and called on God for help: but as all this did not help and he was getting closer and closer to the enemy, he cried out in great fear, "How! whoop! hau! hauhau!” At this the rabbit woke up, got frightened and quickly jumped away. When Herr Schulz saw him fleeing from the field, he cried out with joy
"Potz, Veitli, lie, lie, what is that?
the monster eats a hat.”
But the Swabian League kept looking for adventure and came to the Moselle, a mossy, still and deep water, over which there are not many bridges, but in several places you have to be crossed in ships. Because the seven Swabians were unaware of this, they called out to a man who was doing his work across the water, How could one get across? The man didn't understand what they wanted because of the distance and because of their language, and asked in his Trier dialect "what? What?” Herr Schulz said he couldn't say anything other than “wade, wade through the water” and, because he was the foremost, started to set off and go into the Moselle. It wasn't long before he sank into the mud and the driving deep waves, but the wind blew his hat over to the opposite bank, and a frog sat down and croaked, "Wat, wat, wat." The six others heard it on the other side and said, "Our companion, Herr Schulz, is calling us, can he wade across, why not us too?" So they all jumped together in a hurry into the water and drowned, so that one frog killed six of them, and no one from the Swabian League came back home.