Oldal 276 [276]
220 GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES.
‘You are the fairest now of all.”
Then her envious heart had peace, as much as an envious
heart can have.
The dwarfs, when they came home in the evening, found
Snow-white lying on the ground, and there came no breath
out of her mouth, and she was dead. ‘They lifted her up,
sought if anything poisonous was to be found, cut her laces,
combed her hair, washed her with water and wine, but all was
of no avail, the poor child was dead, and remained dead.
Then they laid her on a bier, and sat all seven of them round
it, and wept and lamented three whole days. And then they
would have buried her, but that she looked still as if she were
living, with her beautiful blooming cheeks. So they said,
“We cannot hide her away in the black ground.” And
they had made a coffin of clear glass, so as to be looked into
from all sides, and they laid her in it, and wrote in golden
letters upon it her name, and that she was a king’s daughter.
Then they set the coffin out upon the mountain, and one of
them always remained by it to watch. And the birds came
too, and mourned for Snow-white, first an owl, then a raven,
and lastly, a dove.
Now, for a long while Snow-white lay in the coffin and
never changed, but looked as if she were asleep, for she was
still as white as snow, as red as blood, and her hair was as
black as ebony. It happened, however, that one day a king’s
son rode through the wood and up to the dwarfs’ house, which
was near it. He saw on the mountain the coffin, and beau¬
tiful Snow-white within it, and he read what was written in
golden letters upon it. ‘Then he said to the dwarfs,
“Let me have the coffin, and I will give you whatever you
like to ask for it.”
. But the dwarfs told him that they could not part with it
for all the gold in the world. But he said,
"TIT beseech you to give it me, for I cannot live without
looking upon Snow-white ; if you consent I will bring you to
great honour, and care for you as if you were my brethren.”
When he so spoke the good little dwarfs had pity upon
him and gave him the coffin, and the king’s son called his
servants and bid them carry it away on their shoulders. Now
it happened that as they were going along they stumbled over