Hans goes thither, and throws a little basket full of black bread in
front of the basket with the bird in it, and the little bird comes out,
and looks up. “Hollo, my son, art thou here?” says the father, and the
son is delighted to see his father, but the master-thief says, “The
devil must have prompted you, or how could you have known your son?”
“Father, let us go,” said the youth.
Then the father and son set out homeward. On the way a carriage comes
driving by. Hereupon the son says to his father, “I will change myself
into a large greyhound, and then you can earn a great deal of money by
me.” Then the gentleman calls from the carriage, “My man, will you sell
your dog?” “Yes,” says the father. “How much do you want for it?”
“Thirty thalers.” “Eh, man, that is a great deal, but as it is such a
very fine dog I will have it.” The gentleman takes it into his
carriage, but when they have driven a little farther the dog springs
out of the carriage through the window, and goes back to his father,
and is no longer a greyhound.
They go home together. Next day there is a fair in the neighboring
town, so the youth says to his father, “I will now change myself into a
beautiful horse, and you can sell me; but when you have sold me, you
must take off my bridle, or I cannot become a man again.” Then the
father goes with the horse to the fair, and the master-thief comes and
buys the horse for a hundred thalers, but the father forgets, and does
not take off the bridle. So the man goes home with the horse, and puts
it in the stable. When the maid crosses the threshold, the horse says,
“Take off my bridle, take off my bridle.” Then the maid stands still,
and says, “What, canst thou speak?” So she goes and takes the bridle
off, and the horse becomes a sparrow, and flies out at the door, and
the wizard becomes a sparrow also, and flies after him. Then they come
together and cast lots, but the master loses, and betakes himself to
the water and is a fish. Then the youth also becomes a fish, and they
cast lots again, and the master loses. So the master changes himself
into a cock, and the youth becomes a fox, and bites the master’s head
off, and he died and has remained dead to this day.
69 Jorinda and Joringel
There was once an old castle in the midst of a large and thick forest,
and in it an old woman who was a witch dwelt all alone. In the day-time
she changed herself into a cat or a screech-owl, but in the evening she
took her proper shape again as a human being. She could lure wild
beasts and birds to her, and then she killed and boiled and roasted
them. If any one came within one hundred paces of the castle he was
obliged to stand still, and could not stir from the place until she
bade him be free. But whenever an innocent maiden came within this
circle, she changed her into a bird, and shut her up in a wicker-work
cage, and carried the cage into a room in the castle. She had about
seven thousand cages of rare birds in the castle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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