Near the Kotnik farm under Plešivec on the forest borders between the lands Štajerka and Koroška was the place where the Forest man used to live. He had a monkey structure, furry arms, face and a white moustache. He walked in the eternal light on the hillside of the valley and yelled constantly: ‘’Hojoj, hojoj!’’ If anyone answered him or copied him he had the right to eat every woman who was outdoor alone after the evening bell-ringing.

But he did not have the right to a woman who was holding a male child in her arms. One evening the farmhand of Petrič was on his way to the mill. The Forest man was yelling and the farmhand answered back. In the evening when the Petrič family members were sitting at the table, someone knocked on the window and threw a woman’s leg into the house followed by a yell: ‘’What you helped get you will also help eat’’.Two young men were carrying a sack of wool. In the forest they saw the Forest man. They were frightened and did not know what to do. They threw the wool out of the bag and climbed inside to hide. Only their heads were outside the bag. The Forest man got to them and looked surprised at the bag and the heads, wondering where the legs were. He tossed the bag to the side and then to the other side and shook his head and yelled: ‘’Hoh hojoj! I recall the fields three times, I recall the forest three times, but an animal with two heads and no legs I have never seen. The father is too young, I have to ask the grandfather what this could be!’’ He walked off into the dark forest, and the two young men left the wool on the floor and ran away.

The Forest man met a young man. He asked him if he was human. Very frightened the boy replied: ‘’I am not!’’ The Forest man went with him and told him that he would like to see a human. A woman came towards them. The young man was afraid to tell him that the woman was human. Fortunately they went in the direction where they met an old solider. This time the young man admitted that the solider was human. The Forest man said to the solider: ‘’If you are human than let’s go!’’ The young man ran in fear. The solider shot the Forest man, which of course didn’t hurt him. Then he came at him with a big sword and the Forest man ran away. He caught up with the young man and said: ‘’The human was like the devil. First he spat in my face and then he pulled out a red tongue and hit me badly.«

The Forest man was harassing the women of Plešivčnik. Old Plešivčnik set out a pair of boots for him in the forest, but put glue on the inside. The Forest man found the boots and put them on as he wanted to be equal to the humans. But as he was not used to walking in boots Plešivčnik and his farmhands caught up with him and caught him. Plešivčnik kept the Forest man as a farmhand and was quite happy with him. As he was very strong, he did the work of ten other farmhands. But he was not only a good worker; he was also a very good advisor. He told his master everything, if there will be drought next year or too much rain. In the year when hunger hit the land he was yelling: ‘’Hoj! Hoj! Little harvest, a lot of corpses!’’ He also predicted bad weather, storms and hale and how to protect oneself from harm. The farmer was therefore happy to have the Forest man at his house and took good care of him.

Because the forest man was not used to walking in boots, the farmer gave him a horse so he could ride. He accompanied Plešivčnik everywhere, also on every journey he made to Plešivec where this church key-keeper had the right to hand out foods and drinks after the mass at the church of St. Ursula. On such occasions the Forest man was always warning his master: ‘’Let us ride slowly here, as there is water directly under the earth and there we can ride faster because there is no water under the earth.«

One time on their way to Plešivec he asked the farmer if he can get off his horse and lift up a large rock. The farmer said yes as he assumed the Forest man wants to show his strength. The Forest man lifted the rock and disappeared in a hole underneath it. When he was already in the cave he turned towards the stunned farmer holding the huge rock above his head with a thumb and said: ‘’You had a bird but you did not know how to use him. If you asked him much he would have told you much, but you didn’t so he didn’t tell you anything. If you asked him he would have told you the biggest secret in the world and you would find out why there is a cross in the walnut shell in the middle of the core.«

The Forest man also thanked his master for treating him fairly and promised to show his gratitude by never again bothering the Plešivčnik people. And the Forest man was a man of his word.

Vinko Moderndorfer, Koroške narodne pripovedke.