And he grew brave and bold,
and then he was above all things. And when she told him that if he
should marry another he would surely die, it was as nothing to him.
Then returning, the first thing his father said was, "My son, I have
provided a wife for you, and the wedding must be at once." And he said,
"It is well. Let it be so." Then the bride came. For four days they
held the wedding dance; four days they feasted. But on the last day he
said, "This is the end of it all," and he laid him down on a white
bear-skin, and a great sickness came upon him, and when they brought
the bride to him he was dead.
Truly the father knew what ailed him, and more withal, of which he said
nothing. But he liked the place no longer, and he and his went away
therefrom, and scattered far and wide.
This strange story recalls the Undine of La Motte Fouque. There is in
it an element of mystery and destiny, equal in every way to anything in
German literature. The family secret, touched on but never explained,
which ends in such a death, is, speaking from an artistic point of
view, very skillfully managed. It must be borne in mind that in this,
as in most of these tales, there are associations and chords which make
as gold to an Indian that which is only copper, or at best silver, to
the civilized reader of my translations.
There is a characteristic feature of this story superior to anything in
Undine.
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