Wonderful salamanders
glitter and sport in the flames; lean and malicious gnomes dwell deep
within the earth; spirits, belonging to the air, wander through the
forests; and a vast family of water spirits live in the lakes and
streams and brooks. In resounding domes of crystal, through which the
sky looks in with its sun and stars, these latter spirits find their
beautiful abode; lofty trees of coral, with blue and crimson fruits,
gleam in the gardens; they wander over the pure sand of the sea, and
among lovely variegated shells, and amid all exquisite treasures of
the old world, which the present is no longer worthy to enjoy; all
these the floods have covered with their secret veils of silver, and
the noble monuments sparkle below, stately and solemn, and bedewed by
the loving waters which allure from them many a beautiful moss-flower
and entwining cluster of sea-grass. Those, however, who dwell there,
are very fair and lovely to behold, and for the most part are more
beautiful than human beings. Many a fisherman has been so fortunate
as to surprise some tender mermaid, as she rose above the waters and
sang. He would then tell afar of her beauty, and such wonderful beings
have been given the name of Undines. You, moreover, are now actually
beholding an Undine."
The knight tried to persuade himself that his beautiful wife was
under the spell of one of her strange humors and that she was taking
pleasure in teasing him with one of her extravagant inventions.
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