"Because I wish to go to them."--Upon this he lifted his staff and walked on, murmuring, "holy Fintan, pray for us!"
Hadumoth also, steadily walked on again. She had noticed from the height, that the Rhine was flowing onwards in large circuits; so she cut across the mountains, thus to get the start on the Huns. Two days she thus wandered on, sleeping one night in the open air, on the mossy ground, and scarcely meeting a human being all the time. She had to cross however many a wild ravine, and swift-flowing mountain torrent, as well as mighty old pine-trees, which the storm had uprooted. On the same place where they had once stretched their tops towards the sky, they now lay to rot and decay; emitting a weird, greyish light at night; but in spite of all terrors and difficulties, she never once lost her courage.
At last the mountains became less steep, flattening down into an elevated plain, over which the rough winds could sweep at their leisure; and in the crevices of which the snow was still lying;--yet she walked on.
The last piece of bread had been eaten, when from another hill, she again caught sight of the Rhine. So she now turned, to walk towards it, until she came to a narrow chasm, in the depth of which, a foaming mountain-torrent dashed along. A dense mass of brambles and other thorny bushes, grew on the sides of the steep descent, but Hadumoth bravely made for herself a passage through them; though this cost her no small amount of pain and weariness. The sun was high in the heavens, and the thorns ever and anon, caught hold of her dress; but whenever her feet grew weary and unwilling to proceed, she said, "Audifax!" and lifted them up again.
At last she had come to the bottom, and was standing at the foot of dark rocky walls, through which the waters had made a passage; falling down in a bright, sparkling cascade. The old-looking stones, on which a reddish moss was growing, glistened and shone like burnished gold through the glittering waves, which rose up against them; alternately covering them up, until they arrested their mad course, a few steps lower down, in a dark-green, transparent little pond, like to a life-wearied man, going to rest, and looking back in quiet contemplation, on the frolics and extravagances of his past life. Luxurious, broad-leaved plants grew around it, on which the spray lay like sparkling dew-drops, whilst blue-winged dragon-flies, hovered above them, as if they were the spirits of dead flowers.
Dreamily the melodious rustling of the waters crept into the heart of the hungry child. With that brook she must go on, to the Rhine. Everything was wild and entangled, as if never a human being had broken in upon that solitude ... and now a dry, green little nook looked invitingly over at Hadumoth; and she followed the invitation, and laid herself down. The air was so cool and fresh, and the brook rustled and murmured on, until it had lulled her to sleep. With her head resting on her outstretched right arm, she lay there; a smile playing on her tired countenance. She was dreaming. Of whom?--The blue dragonflies betrayed nothing ...
A slight sprinkling of water awoke her from her dreams, and when she slowly opened her eyes, a man with a long beard, dressed in a coarse linen suit, and with legs bared to the knees, stood before her. Some fishing-tackle, a net and a wooden tub, in which blue-spotted trout were swimming, lay in the grass, beside him. He had thus stood for a considerable time, watching the little sleeper, and doubting whether she were a human child, he sprinkled some water on her, to wake her.
"Where am I? asked Hadumoth, fearlessly.
"At the waterfall of Wieladingen," replied the fisherman, "and this water, which contains plenty of fine salmon, is called the Murg, and goes into the Rhine. But whence dost thou come, little maiden? Hast thou dropt from the sky?"
"I come from far away, and where I live, the hills are quite different from here. With us, they grow quite straight out of the plain; each one standing alone,--and the salmon swim about in the lake, and are much bigger. Hegau, our land is called."