That choked my breath.
“This song is founded upon a popular German story, to be found in the Kinder-und Haus-Märchen of the distinguished brothers Grimm, under the title of Van den Machandel-Boom, and in the English selection from that work (entitled German Popular Stories), under the title of The Juniper Tree.—The wife of a rich man, whilst standing under a juniper tree, wishes for a little child as white as snow and as red as blood; and, on another occasion, expresses a wish to be buried under the juniper when dead. Soon after, a little boy as white as snow and as red as blood is born: the mother dies of joy at beholding it, and is buried according to her wish. The husband marries again, and has a daughter. The second wife, becoming jealous of the boy, murders him, and serves him up at table for the unconscious father to eat. The father finishes the whole dish, and throws the bones under the table. The little girl, who is made the innocent assistant in her mother’s villany, picks them up, ties them in a silk handkerchief, and buries them under the juniper tree. The tree begins to move its branches mysteriously, and then a kind of cloud rises from it, a fire appears in the cloud, and out of the fire comes a beautiful bird, which flies about singing the following song:—
“‘Min Moder de mi slacht’t
Min Vader de me att,
Min Swester de Marleenken
Söcht alle mine Beeniken,
Un bindt sie in een syden Dook,
Legts unner den Machandelboom;
Kywitt, Kywitt! ach watt en schön Vagel ben ich!’”
Hayward’s Prose Translation of Faust,