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Index
Fox and His Cousin
Fox and Cat
Pink
Clever Grel
Old Man and His Grandson
Water-Nix
Death of Little Hen
Bror Lustig
Gambling Hansel
Hans in Luck
Hans Married
Gold-Children
Fox and Geese
Poor Man and Rich Man
Singing, Springing Lark
Goose-Girl
Young Giant
Gnome
King of Golden Mountain
Raven
Peasant's Clever Daughter
Old Hildebrand
Three Little Birds
Water of Life
Dr. Know-All
Spirit in Bottle
Devil's Sooty Bror
Bearskin
Willow-Wren and Bear
Sweet Porridge
Wise Folks
Stories about Snakes
Poor Miller's Boy and Cat
Two Travellers
Hans Hedgehog
Shroud
More
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A little brother and sister were once playing by a well, and while
they were thus playing, they both fell in. A water-nix lived down
below, who said, "Now I have got you, now you shall work hard for me!"
and carried them off with her. She gave the girl dirty tangled flax
to spin, and she had to fetch water in a bucket with a hole in it,
and the boy had to hew down a tree with a blunt axe, and they got
nothing to eat but dumplings as hard as stones. Then at last the children became so impatient,
that they waited until
one Sunday, when the nix was at church, and ran away. But when
church was over, the nix saw that the birds were flown, and
followed them with great strides. The children saw her from afar,
and the girl threw a brush behind her which formed an immense hill of
bristles, with thousands and thousands of spikes, over which the
nix was forced to scramble with great difficulty; at last, however,
she got over. When the children saw this, the boy threw behind him a comb which
made a great hill of combs with a thousand times a thousand teeth, but the
nix managed to keep herself steady on them, and at last crossed
over that. Then the girl threw behind her a looking-glass which formed a
hill of mirrors, and was so slippery that it was impossible for the
nix to cross it. Then she thought, "I will go home quickly and
fetch my axe, and cut the hill of glass in half." Long before she
returned, however, and had hewn through the glass, the children had
escaped to a great distance, and the water-nix was obliged to
betake herself to her well again.
Margaret Hunt (London, 1884)
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