Folk Tales From Many Lands

Excerpt from Folk Tales From Many LandsLong, long ago, this wild and romantic scene was peopled by the fairies, and on a day there came ten young hunters who had pressed far beyond the haunts of their kind on the tracks of bears, boars, bison, and other wild beasts which roamed the deep recesses of the woods. Ten bold and adventurous brothers they were, and merrily did they Wind their horns, and blithely did they Sing the deeds of brave warriors and bold huntsmen as they forced their way through the forest wilds. Suddenly they came to a glimpse of the open sky, and they saw a sight which stilled their songs and riveted their feet to the ground. Towering above the giant firs were two mountain peaks flushed with the rays of the noonday sun. But fairer than the deep blue of the sky, fairer than the rosy hues of the mountain peaks, were the forms of a host of fairies, the most beautiful that mortal eyes had ever looked upon. They were stand ing on the peaks, tossing diamond balls from one to the other across the deep chasm, and as the sun shone upon the balls it seemed to the brothers that they had never seen rainbow so beautiful as this glittering arch which spanned the abyss. As they stood open-mouthed with delight they beheld an even more wonderful Sight. For suddenly a fairy seated herself upon one of the balls and flew like the wind to the opposite peak. Others followed, and while they sported in this charmingway, they laughed and sang as only fairies can, and the young hunters' hearts leaped within them for joy at this awesome and wonderful sight. Sud denly, however, as with one mind, they caught up their bows, fitted the arrows to the strings, and the ten shafts sped with unerring aim to as many diamond balls.The next moment a ball fell at each of the brothers' feet, but alas the fairies had vanished and the entrancing vision was seen no more.The young men picked up the balls and bestowed them safely in their knapsacks, sighing the while at the foolishness which had led them to sacrifice so delightful a sight. They lingered for awhile in the hope that they might again behold it, but at last, very sad at heart, they turned away.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.