When a child fell
into her power, she killed it, cooked and ate it, and that was a feast
day with her. Witches have red eyes, and cannot see far, but they have
a keen scent, like the beasts, and are aware when human beings draw
near. When Haensel and Grethel came into her neighborhood, she laughed
maliciously, and said mockingly, "I have them; they shall not escape
me again!" Early in the morning, before the children were awake, she
was already up, and when she saw both of them sleeping and looking so
pretty, with their plump red cheeks, she muttered to herself, "That
will be a dainty mouthful!" Then she seized Haensel with her shriveled
hand, carried him into a little stable, and shut him in with a grated
door. He might scream as he liked, that was of no use. Then she went
to Grethel, shook her till she awoke, and cried, "Get up, lazy thing,
fetch some water, and cook something good for thy brother; he is in
the stable outside, and is to be made fat. When he is fat, I will eat
him." Grethel began to weep bitterly, but it was all in vain; she was
forced to do what the wicked witch ordered her.
And now the best food was cooked for poor Haensel, but Grethel got
nothing but crab-shells. Every morning the woman crept to the little
stable, and cried, "Haensel, stretch out thy finger that I may feel if
thou wilt soon be fat." Haensel, however, stretched out a little bone
to her, and the old woman, who had dim eyes, could not see it, and
thought it was Haensel's finger, and was astonished that there was no
way of fattening him.
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