Page:The brown fairy book.djvu/268

 he knew it, he was there, and found the Sister of the Sun dying of grief. He knelt down by her side, and pulling out a pin he stuck it into the palm of her hand, so that a drop of blood gushed out. This he sucked, as he had been told to do by the old woman, and immediately the princess came to herself, and flung her arms round his neck. Then she told him all her story, and what had happened since the ship had sailed away without him. ‘But the worst misfortune of all,’ she added, ‘was a battle which my father lost because you had vanished with his magic sword; and out of his whole army hardly one man was left.’

‘Show me the battle-field,’ said he. And she took him to a wild heath, where the dead were lying as they fell, waiting for burial. One by one he touched them with the end of his staff, till at length they all stood before him. Throughout the kingdom there was nothing but joy; and this time the wedding was really celebrated. And the bridal pair lived happily in the castle on the Bauka till they died.

[Lappländische Mährchen.]