Oldal 222 [222]
178 GRIMM S FAIRY TALES.
wood, and I came at last to a house in which there was no
living soul, but by the wall was a bird in a cage, who cried,
" Turn back, turn back, thou pretty bride,
Within this house thou must not bide,
For evil things do here betide.’
“And then again it said it. Sweetheart, the dream is not
ended. ‘Then I went through all the rooms, and they were all
empty, and it was so lonely and wretched. At last I went
down into the cellar, and there sat an old old woman, nodding
her head. I asked her if my bridegroom lived in that house, and
she answered, ‘ Ah, poor child, you have come into a place of
cut-throats ; your bridegroom does live here, but he will kill
you and cut you in pieces, and then cook and eat you.’
Sweetheart, the dream is not ended. But the old woman hid
me behind a great cask, and no sooner had she done so than
the robbers came home, dragging with them a young woman,
and they gave her to drink wine thrice, white, red, and yellow.
Sweetheart, the dream is not yet ended. And then they killed
her, and cut her in pieces. Sweetheart, my dream is not yet
ended. And one of the robbers saw a gold ring on the finger
of the young woman, and as it was difficult to get off, he took
an axe and chopped off the finger, which jumped upwards,
and then fell behind the great cask on my lap. And here 15
the finger with the ring!”
At these words she drew it forth, and showed it to the
company.
The robber, who during the story had grown deadly white,
sprang up, and would have escaped, but the folks held him
fast, and delivered him up to justice. And he and his whole
gang were, for their evil deeds, condemned and executed.