Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/156

 148 The king in his trouble had sent one of his servants in quest of the name; and, as luck would have it, the servant heard the song, and ran back to the castle with the good news. When the dwarf came, the king greeted him with the words, "Welcome, Father Winterkolble," and thereupon the outwitted one gave his consent.

In a Lower Austrian variant a king proclaims his wish to marry a girl, no matter how low-born, provided that she has eves and hair jet black. Amongst the crowd that thronged before the king's palace not one could be found who had these charms. But a charcoalburner's daughter, who was possessed of the coveted features, made her way to the castle, where a dwarf met her, and asked what she would give him if she became queen, "I have nothing," she replied. "Then," said he, "thou wilt be queen, but thou must know, at the end of three years, that my name is Kruzimügeli; if not, thou art mine." The maiden found favour in the king's eyes, and happy were the days till, as the three years drew to an end, she found that she had forgotten the dwarf's name, and sadness fell upon her, the cause whereof she hid from the king. On the last day but one of the third year the king's forester went hunting, and saw a dwarf dancing in malicious glee before a fire, and singing:

This he told to the queen, who was well-nigh beside herself for joy; and when the next day the dwarf came, he would give her but three guesses; "and," said he, "if thou dost not guess right, thou art mine." The queen said: "It seems to me it is Steffel." The dwarf leaped for joy, and cried, "Missed!" Then the queen said: "It is Beitle." Again he made a bound, and cried again, "Missed!" Then the queen said, quite carelessly: "Then it is Kruzimügeli." When he heard this, he burst without a word through the wall into the open air, and since then all effort to fill up the hole has been vain.

In another Lower Austrian variant from Modling a witch gives a girl fine dresses for the court ball, bargaining for her first child in