" Just at this moment the elfin hill opened, and an old elfin maiden, hollow behind,1 came tripping out; she was the old elf king's housekeeper, and a distant relative of the family; therefore she wore an amber heart on the middle of her forehead.
Cannot you give this little maiden something which will make her as strong as twelve men, to overcome the Snow Queen?
When the mother had drunk out of the bottle, and was gone to sleep, the little robber-maiden went to the reindeer, and said, "I should like very much to tickle your neck a few times more with my knife, for it makes you look so funny; but never mind,—I will untie your cord, and set you free, so that you may run away to Lapland; but you must make good use of your legs, and carry this little maiden to the castle of the Snow Queen, where her play-fellow is.
"I have long been wishing for a dear little maiden like you," said the old woman, "and now you must stay with me, and see how happily we shall live together.
Believe me, it is a long time for a young maiden.
"I will fly to those royal birds," he exclaimed, "and they will kill me, because I am so ugly, and dare to approach them; but it does not matter: better be killed by them than pecked by the ducks, beaten by the hens, pushed about by the maiden who feeds the poultry, or starved with hunger in the winter.
" "No, those are frogs," said the little maiden; "but I think we shall soon hear her now:" and presently the nightingale began to sing.
The little maiden was to be my sister.
The dust lies several feet deep on the broken pavement; and the little maiden, now the daughter of the imperial palace, often sits there on her stool when the evening bells ring.
The old sober maiden, who had for years and years moved quietly round and round in a dull circle, was now, in death, rattled over stock and stone on the public highway.
The deer that had come down to the river to quench her thirst, sprang by with a startled bound, for in her hand the maiden bore a lighted lamp.
He was the wicked brother of the beautiful maiden.
He advanced towards her, for he had never seen a more beautiful maiden.
She was a good old maiden lady!
"Once in my youthful hours, when gay and free, A maiden loved me; and her gentle kiss, Rich in its tender love and purity, Taught me, alas!
He fixed his coal-black eyes upon her so earnestly that she cast down her own, and then became aware that her fish's tail was gone, and that she had as pretty a pair of white legs and tiny feet as any little maiden could have; but she had no clothes, so she wrapped herself in her long, thick hair.
She is the loveliest maiden on the whole earth.
Within the flower, upon the green velvet stamens, sat a very delicate and graceful little maiden.
I was frightened, to be sure, while I lay tied up in the sack, and the wind whistled in my ears when you threw me into the river from the bridge, and I sank to the bottom immediately; but I did not hurt myself, for I fell upon beautifully soft grass which grows down there; and in a moment, the sack opened, and the sweetest little maiden came towards me.