Inexperienced Use of the Black Book

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In legends about Inexperienced Use of the Black Book, a servant, maid or someone else unexpectedly happens to find and read the Black Book while the owner, often a clergyman, is away, and thus summoning the devil.

The only way to save oneself is to give the devil a task that he can’t solve: to empty a fjord, to untie all knots in a fishing net, to twist a rope of sand, to row against the wind with a boat filled with empty buckets, etc.. The devil is then kept busy until the expert or the owner of the book returns and exorcises the devil away.