“My sister, little Marlinchen,”
Then Marlinchen laid her head on her knees and wept without ceasing, but the man said, “I am going out, I must see the bird quite close.” “Oh, don’t go,” said the woman, “I feel as if the whole house were shaking and on fire.” But the man went out and looked at the bird:
“Gathered together all my bones,
Tied them in a silken handkerchief,
Laid them beneath the juniper tree,
Kywitt, kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!”
On this the bird let the golden chain fall, and it fell exactly round the man’s neck, and so exactly round it that it fitted beautifully. Then he went in and said, “Just look what a fine bird that is, and what a handsome gold chain he has given me, and how pretty he is!” But the woman was terrified, and fell down on the floor in the room, and her cap fell off her head. Then sang the bird once more,
“My mother she killed me.”
“Would that I were a thousand feet beneath the earth so as not to hear that!”
“My father he ate me,”
Then the woman fell down again as if dead.
“My sister, little Marlinchen,”
“Ah,” said Marlinchen, “I too will go out and see if the bird will give me anything,” and she went out.