The bakery in Schönlaterngasse was well known for its good bread. The master and his helpers started baking in the early morning hours every day so as to have fresh bread and rolls ready for their customers at breakfast time. Even the young housemaid had to start early and fetch water from the well for the bakery, before she started any other housework. One day the maid noticed a terrible smell coming from the well. The smell was so bad that she became too sick to pull the bucket up from the well, she was only able to shout for help before falling unconscious. The baker and his helpers went to see what was going on, but couldn’t see the reason for the smell as it was too repulsive to go any near. Only one of them was brave enough to go near the well and climb down into it, but after a few minutes he had to come out again. The shouting and crying in the bakery had attracted the attention of many people who wanted to know what was going on. The poor baker could only tell them that there was a strange looking creature in the well, which had the head of a cock with a golden crown on it, the body of a toad and the tail of a snake and a terrible stare in his eyes. Nobody knew what to do, except the emperor’s doctor who was a well-educated man and had read of similar creatures in Greek mythology. He proposed that somebody must go down into the well with a mirror to scare the creature so much with its own nasty appearance that it would die of shock due to its own ugliness. But he warned them still to be very careful, because from his knowledge anybody who had seen such a beast before had always died. George, one of the baker’s helpers, who was secretly in love with the maid, volunteered to undertake this risky task to win the master’s approval of their marriage plans. With the master’s agreement the doctor prepared George well; he blindfolded him so that he couldn’t see the creature, sealed his ears with wax so that he couldn’t hear the monster, covered his nose with the maid’s scarf; gave him a mirror and led him to the well, where he fixed a rope round his body to be able to pull him up again. George climbed down into the well, holding the mirror in front of himself to protect him in his fight with the beast. Down in the well the basilisk looked into the mirror and saw for the first time just how ugly he really was. This experience frightened him so much that he burst with an enormous bang releasing an even more evil smell. The doctor and his helpers pulled George quickly up. Even though he was ill for some time he survived the dangerous adventure because of the doctor’s wise precautions and care. After that the well was filled with stones to prevent people from using its contaminated waters.

Only the painting on the house wall reminds us of the brave young man who killed the monster with a mirror.

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