"Look!" whispered one. "What is that scowling at us from the rocks below?"
There, stealing along the river-bed, they saw a hideous little black dwarf.
"Who are you, and what do you want?" asked the Rhine-daughters.
"I am Alberich," answered the dwarf as he tried to climb up on the slippery rocks. "I came from the kingdom of the Nibelungs, down under the earth."
"What!" said the Rhine-daughters. "Surely you do not live down in the dark earth where there is no sunshine?"
"Yes," answered Alberich. "But I have come up to frolic in the sunshine with you"; and he held out his ugly, misshapen little hands to take the hands of the Rhine-daughters.
They only laughed at him and darted away to a higher rock.
Alberich hurried after them.
He blinked and scowled in the sunshine, because his eyes were not used to the light.
The maidens laughed and shouted in their play.