Page:Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (Volume 3).djvu/55

Rh swarms of little children rising up from the waves, and sporting in an whatin what [sic] appeared their native element. Many of them were crowned with chaplets of rushes and water lilies; others were fantisticallyfantastically [sic] ornamented with coral in various devices; and others again were sounding conchs and shells, making a wondrous, but not unpleasing melody, that caused the shores to re-echo. Among these infant forms, were also seen others, of beautiful females, emerging from the dark crystal waves, as the moon bursts forth through a sable cloud, whose edges then suddenly glitter with fleecy silver. The little creatures frolicked around the beauties of the water, bounding from one to the other, with loud cries of joy, and caressing them with eager delight; and, upon perceiving the stranger, all hastened to salute her, surrounding the vessel in a tumultuous, joyous manner, like a troop of bacchantes.

The vessel, in the meanwhile, forcing its way through this crowd, entered the channel of a small stream which grew narrower and nar-