st going to thank her for her kindness, when the
old man touched her head gently three times with his silver wand. Elsie
felt immediately that she was changed into a bird. Her arms became
wings, and her legs became eagle's legs with long claws, and her nose
became a curved beak, while feathers covered her whole body. Then she
rose up suddenly into the air, and soared away below the clouds like an
eagle hatched from the egg. She flew southwards thus for several days,
and would gladly have rested sometimes when her wings grew weary, but
she felt no hunger. It came to pass one day that she was flying above a
low wood where dogs were barking, which could not harm the bird, for
they had no wings. All at once she felt her feathers pierced through
with a sharp arrow, and she fell to the ground and fainted with terror.

When Elsie awoke from her swoon and opened her eyes wide, she found
herself lying under a bush in her human shape. How she came there, and
all the other strange events which had happened to her, lay behind her
like a dream. Presently a handsome young prince rode up, sprang from his
horse, and gave his hand kindly to Elsie, saying, "By good fortune I
rode here this morning. I have dreamed, dear lady, every night for the
last half-year that I should find you here in the wood. Although I have
ridden this way to no purpose more than a hundred times, my longing and
my hopes were not extinguished. I shot a great eagle to-day, which must
have fallen here, and I went to seek the game, and instead of the eagle
I found--you!" Then he helped Elsie to mount the horse, and rode with
her to the town, where the old king gave her a friendly reception. A few
days afterwards they prepared a splendid wedding; and on the wedding
morning fifty loads of treasure arrived, which had been sent by Elsie's
dear foster-mother. After the old king's death, Elsie became queen, and
in her old age she herself related the adventures of her youth. But
since that time no one has ever seen or heard any more of the Wood of
Tontla.

* * * * *

The King of the Misty Hill (Kreutzwald) is a somewhat similar, but very
inferior story. A girl who is out in a wood all night sees a fire on a
hill, and finds an old man standing by it. He had a long grey beard, and
only one eye, and wore an iron helmet. He threw it on the ground, when
two girls appeared, and the village child stayed with them till morning,
when a young woman ga