登陆注册
4713500000198

第198章

"No," said the old woman, "unless a man were to love you so much that you were more to him than his father or mother; and if all his thoughts and all his love were fixed upon you, and the priest placed his right hand in yours, and he promised to be true to you here and hereafter, then his soul would glide into your body and you would obtain a share in the future happiness of mankind. He would give a soul to you and retain his own as well; but this can never happen.

Your fish's tail, which amongst us is considered so beautiful, is thought on earth to be quite ugly; they do not know any better, and they think it necessary to have two stout props, which they call legs, in order to be handsome."

Then the little mermaid sighed, and looked sorrowfully at her fish's tail. "Let us be happy," said the old lady, "and dart and spring about during the three hundred years that we have to live, which is really quite long enough; after that we can rest ourselves all the better. This evening we are going to have a court ball."

It is one of those splendid sights which we can never see on earth. The walls and the ceiling of the large ball-room were of thick, but transparent crystal. May hundreds of colossal shells, some of a deep red, others of a grass green, stood on each side in rows, with blue fire in them, which lighted up the whole saloon, and shone through the walls, so that the sea was also illuminated. Innumerable fishes, great and small, swam past the crystal walls; on some of them the scales glowed with a purple brilliancy, and on others they shone like silver and gold. Through the halls flowed a broad stream, and in it danced the mermen and the mermaids to the music of their own sweet singing. No one on earth has such a lovely voice as theirs.

The little mermaid sang more sweetly than them all. The whole court applauded her with hands and tails; and for a moment her heart felt quite gay, for she knew she had the loveliest voice of any on earth or in the sea. But she soon thought again of the world above her, for she could not forget the charming prince, nor her sorrow that she had not an immortal soul like his; therefore she crept away silently out of her father's palace, and while everything within was gladness and song, she sat in her own little garden sorrowful and alone. Then she heard the bugle sounding through the water, and thought- "He is certainly sailing above, he on whom my wishes depend, and in whose hands I should like to place the happiness of my life. I will venture all for him, and to win an immortal soul, while my sisters are dancing in my father's palace, I will go to the sea witch, of whom I have always been so much afraid, but she can give me counsel and help."

And then the little mermaid went out from her garden, and took the road to the foaming whirlpools, behind which the sorceress lived.

She had never been that way before: neither flowers nor grass grew there; nothing but bare, gray, sandy ground stretched out to the whirlpool, where the water, like foaming mill-wheels, whirled round everything that it seized, and cast it into the fathomless deep.

Through the midst of these crushing whirlpools the little mermaid was obliged to pass, to reach the dominions of the sea witch; and also for a long distance the only road lay right across a quantity of warm, bubbling mire, called by the witch her turfmoor. Beyond this stood her house, in the centre of a strange forest, in which all the trees and flowers were polypi, half animals and half plants; they looked like serpents with a hundred heads growing out of the ground. The branches were long slimy arms, with fingers like flexible worms, moving limb after limb from the root to the top. All that could be reached in the sea they seized upon, and held fast, so that it never escaped from their clutches. The little mermaid was so alarmed at what she saw, that she stood still, and her heart beat with fear, and she was very nearly turning back; but she thought of the prince, and of the human soul for which she longed, and her courage returned. She fastened her long flowing hair round her head, so that the polypi might not seize hold of it. She laid her hands together across her bosom, and then she darted forward as a fish shoots through the water, between the supple arms and fingers of the ugly polypi, which were stretched out on each side of her. She saw that each held in its grasp something it had seized with its numerous little arms, as if they were iron bands. The white skeletons of human beings who had perished at sea, and had sunk down into the deep waters, skeletons of land animals, oars, rudders, and chests of ships were lying tightly grasped by their clinging arms; even a little mermaid, whom they had caught and strangled; and this seemed the most shocking of all to the little princess.

She now came to a space of marshy ground in the wood, where large, fat water-snakes were rolling in the mire, and showing their ugly, drab-colored bodies. In the midst of this spot stood a house, built with the bones of shipwrecked human beings. There sat the sea witch, allowing a toad to eat from her mouth, just as people sometimes feed a canary with a piece of sugar. She called the ugly water-snakes her little chickens, and allowed them to crawl all over her bosom.

"I know what you want," said the sea witch; "it is very stupid of you, but you shall have your way, and it will bring you to sorrow, my pretty princess. You want to get rid of your fish's tail, and to have two supports instead of it, like human beings on earth, so that the young prince may fall in love with you, and that you may have an immortal soul." And then the witch laughed so loud and disgustingly, that the toad and the snakes fell to the ground, and lay there wriggling about. "You are but just in time," said the witch;

同类推荐
  • 康平县乡土志

    康平县乡土志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大方广佛华严经普贤菩萨行愿品

    大方广佛华严经普贤菩萨行愿品

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 还山遗稿

    还山遗稿

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Prime Minister

    The Prime Minister

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 沙弥尼律仪要略

    沙弥尼律仪要略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 这便是最好的结局

    这便是最好的结局

    2020年9月的那个夏天,两条平行线从这里开始相交……我们的故事却未开始
  • 海贼之恶灵船长

    海贼之恶灵船长

    到了海贼王的世界里,没点金手指怎么活得下去?意外和一个复仇之灵签订契约,成为了唯一的恶灵骑士…不对,在这个到处都是海的世界里,请叫我恶灵船长!
  • 金刚顶胜初瑜伽经中略出大乐金刚萨埵念诵仪

    金刚顶胜初瑜伽经中略出大乐金刚萨埵念诵仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 原来碗筷也顽皮

    原来碗筷也顽皮

    罗家七女—罗天婉“我诅咒你的肚子里的孩子,让她看着自己的亲人一个一个的死在自己的面前让她尝尽背叛和无助,最后痛苦的结束一切”……多年后她是一个吸血鬼,让罗冉这个罗家真正的继承人没有父母的陪伴还害他失去了自己的亲生爸爸,可他依旧那样照顾她。情节虚构,请勿模仿!
  • 王牌乖妃

    王牌乖妃

    前世,他用生命换她重生。今生,就让她还他一世柔情。而那些像毒蛇狠毒般置她与地狱的人,她会狠狠把他们踩在脚底下,在他们张开毒牙咬向她时,毫不留情的扼断他们的喉咙。一世重来,她小心翼翼,如惊梦初醒,走的步步惊心,唯有他,是她唯一的心软。幡然悔悟的她说,“聂从寒,浣儿此生宁负天下不负你。”
  • 凤府选婿

    凤府选婿

    什么?与学长阳台接吻,竟然摔回古代?好吧!横竖都是活,那她继续玩强的生存吧!活一次也不容易,据说古代流行三妻四妾。那。。。那她一女多夫可不可以啊!某女一脸色相贪婪的问老天。有句话怎么说来着,努力就是一定有收获,事实证明这句话是真理,通过吭蒙拐骗色诱俱全,加上软磨硬泡带粘性,美男是一定逃不掉的。。。不管你是王室贵族,还是江湖杀手,管你是黑白两道,或是武林剑客,她通杀。吃干抹尽的下场一般很惨,当九个出色男人摸上她家时,只有一个要求,负责。可怜的她只有泪流满面,乖乖将九男送入后宫,今后,慢慢侍奉。。
  • 怎样一眼把人看透

    怎样一眼把人看透

    从别人的举手投足之间看透其心意,从别人的小习惯、小细节中识别其才干和为人,从眼神和话语中判断出隐含的动机。本书教会你如何看人、识人,还告诉你如何随机应变,相机行事,让有才能的人为你所用,并可轻松绕过人生路上的陷阱。
  • 绝世炼药师:素手撩仙尊

    绝世炼药师:素手撩仙尊

    昨夜星辰昨夜风,画楼西畔桂堂东。身无彩凤双飞翼,心有灵犀一点通。他,一个大陆超级最强者,九重天上的仙谪,傲世绝尘,却屡屡为了追妻遭到嫌弃;她,一个最强外来女特工,天才少女,古灵精怪,心思缜密,却每每遇到他,遭刺激,遭诱拐,遭捕猎;他跨越三世来宠她,想把她宠上天,她每每逃离温柔乡之余还给他引来一大堆麻烦。他追她逃,他找她藏,他囚禁她叛离,再这样下去可能真的保不住他下半生的幸福.......某仙尊表示亚历山大!!!
  • 老残游记

    老残游记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 步步生魅

    步步生魅

    【半价文】他,邪肆狂放,妖异惑人,初见时,轻勾手指,将她从死亡的边缘拉了上来,却在她决心追随的时候,一翻手又将她推入万丈深渊。他,明明对她动心动情,却一次次将她越推越远,直到她再披嫁衣,成为他人妇时,他才惊觉,原来他所追求的一切,竟然抵不过她唇边那醉人一笑。他眼神如风,身形似箭,势要将心爱的女人追回。哼,嫁人又如何,我若想要,哪怕你嫁十次八次,最后一次,也最终是嫁我!一次次的失望,让脱离枷锁的她,选择了温柔男子为伴。本以为那丝丝的柔情,会让她平淡的日子多一些幸福,可为什么那样的缠绵温柔却给了她锥心一刀……大厅中,喜色漫天,礼官正朗声颂道:“……夫妻对拜!”大床上,血染锦被,产婆焦急的对一旁丫头大喊“快叫大夫,夫人难产!”这天,她不顾大腹便便,快马加鞭地赶回家中,亲眼目睹了夫君另纳新妇;这天她九死一生为他诞下香火;却由妻成妾,她心若寒冰,双眸似刀,“从此之后,一刀两断!你给予我的羞辱,必将十倍奉还!”三年后,她一身紫袍男袍置身朝堂,纤手弄权,翻云覆雨,她双眸含剑,剑剑刺他心窝,条条皆罪,罪罪株他九族,包括……皇族!http://m.wkkk.net/px/m.wkkk.net请亲们帮我弟弟06号选手投票吧,只需要输入姓名,身份证号和手机号码,就可以投一票,当然不会扣手机费用,每个ip每天只能投一票,当然亲们每天投票更好,花雨谢谢大家了。宋非:喜欢的亲们曾经我用镜头记录世界的美丽现在我用声音拉近你我的距离、感受生命的美好!穿越后宫之唯吾独尊:《宫廷计》http://m.wkkk.net/好消息:潇湘导购页面:http://m.wkkk.net/亲们通过这个页面购买淘宝产品,价格不变,但可以给亲们的潇湘账户上增加积分,可以换成潇湘币看vip文,嘻嘻,喜欢网购的亲们快去试试吧,花雨已经买了一件,一百多块的东西,送俺一万多潇湘币,爽死了。◆◆◆◆推荐《引凤阁》精彩好文◆◆◆◆【极媚九小姐】沐榕雪潇ttp://m.wkkk.net/info/m.wkkk.net【夜欢】素素雪【花妆】夜纤雪【傲风】风行烈【邪瞳】北棠【步轻尘】李筝【狂状元】雁无痕【简随云】草木多多【朕本红妆】央央【扶摇皇后】天下归元【军火皇后】潇湘冬儿【步步生魅】漫天花雨【爆君的独宠】秋如意【绝滟女帝师】枫飘雪【冷酷总裁的前妻】静海深蓝