Stranica 131 [131]
OCR
THE WHITE SNAKE. 95 ) delivered us." He rode on, and after a while he heard a small voice come up from the sand underneath his horse’s feet. He listened, and understood how an ant-king was complaining, “ If only these men would keep off, with their great awkward beasts ! here comes this stupid horse treading down my people with his hard hoofs!” The man then turned his horse to the side-path, and the ant-king called out to him, “ We will remember and reward thee !” The path led him through a wood, and there he saw a father-raven and mother-raven standing by their nest and throwing their young ones out. “ Off with you! young gallows-birds!” cried they; " we cannot stuff you any more; you are big enough to fend for yourselves!” The poor young ravens lay on the ground, . fluttering, and beating the air with their pinions, and crying, “We are poor helpless things, we cannot fend for ourselves, we cannot even fly! we can only die of hunger!” ; Then the kind young man dismounted, killed his horse , with his dagger, and left it to the young ravens for food. They came hopping up, feasted away at it, and cried, ! “We will remember and reward thee! ” | , So now he had to use his own legs, and when he had . gone a long way he came to a great town. ‘There was much . noise and thronging in the streets, and there came a man on _ a horse, who proclaimed, “That the King’s daughter seeks a husband, but he who . wishes to marry her must perform a difficult task, and if he . cannot carry it through successfully, he must lose his life.” : Many had already tried, but had lost their lives, in vain. . The young man, when he saw the Kings daughter, was so , dazzled by her great beauty, that he forgot all danger, went to , the King and offered himself as a wooer. | Then he was led to the sea-side, and a gold ring was _ thrown into the water before his eyes. Then the King told . him that he must fetch the ring up again from the bottom of . the sea, saying, : “If you come back without it, you shall be put under the waves again and again until you are drowned.” | Every one pitied the handsome young man, but they went,
