Page:Grimm's household tales, volume 2 (1884).djvu/481

Rh At midnight there was a knock at the door; the woman opened it, and a dead man was standing there with bare head, no eyes, and with a wound in his body.

There was once a Princess who was so clean that there certainly could not be a cleaner person in the world. She could not endure to have the smallest speck of dirt or stain upon her. But in spite of all her cleanliness it came to pass that a louse was once found on her head. Every one exclaimed, "This is a miracle; the louse must not be killed, it must be fed up with milk." So it was taken away with the greatest care. The good food made it grow, and it grew much bigger than any louse had ever yet been, nay, at last, it was as big as a calf. When it died, the Princess had its skin taken off, dressed, and prepared, and a dress for herself made out of it. When a wooer came she set him to guess what animal's skin she was wearing as a dress. As however, none of them were so fortunate as to be able to do this, they all had to depart one after the other. At length one came who after all did penetrate the mystery. There can be no doubt that this is from a story which is allied to the Italian one, The Flea, in the Pentamerone, 1. 5.

Strong Hans goes to the Devil in hell, and wants to serve him, and sees the pans in which souls are imprisoned standing beside the fire. Full of pity, he lifts up the lids and sets the souls free, on which the Devil at once drives him away. Compare No. 52, Deutsche Sagen.

This story is generally told like the French version in Perrault, but there is a very good and characteristic one in Transylvania (See Der Federkönig No. 13, in Haltrich's MS. Collection). The idea also occurs in an Austrian popular song, see Schottky and Ziska, p. 12:

Hop, hop, Heserlmann, Unsre Katz hat Schtiferln an,