An old, quiet man regularly came to an alp in the Glarus region. He collected stones to carry them away in a sack. The shepherds knew that he was a Venetian, and that these eccentric people did not need their finds for paving. So one evening, when he was sitting around the fire with the shepherds, they asked him to tell them how to find the ore. The old man was at first reluctant to talk about it. Only when the shepherds promised to feed him for free as long as he stayed up there, did he give them a sign to sit closer. You must not talk about such things aloud. “And you must not tell anything about it on your life and soul!” the old man warned. The Glarus men swore it solemnly, and they all leaned forward and pricked up their ears as the Venetian began:

«Not everyone is suited to seek out the ores in the mountains. It takes special people for this, people who know that there are four kinds of spirits. One rules the sky, another the hell, a third the earth and nature, and the last one rules the people. The spirit over the earth reveals all the beauties of nature and especially the ores. The spirit over the people, however, knows that people only become wicked if they get too many ores. Therefore, he covers them up so that they are invisible to the people. Only a few can discover the blindness of this spirit, and the spirit of nature must show it to them himself.” The cunning Venetian did not reveal any more, and the good Alpine farmers knew almost as little as before.

Source: K. Freuler, H. Thürer, Glarner Sagen, Glarus 1953