cannot give me back my lamb I shall take the bride instead; my lamb or the bride!"
The bride and bridegroom wept most bitterly, but their tears could not move the heart of the wicked sparrow. He insisted on having his lamb or the bride. Then the sparrow threatened them and used such language as children should never hear, and grown people never repeat, until the bridegroom's family decided, in order to avoid any further difficulty with the sparrow, to give him the bride. And they did so.
The sparrow took the bride and went away, up hill and down dale, until one day he met a man riding on a donkey and singing gaily to the accompaniment of his tambourine. The sparrow stopped the man and said:
"Friend, may you have prosperity! I want your tambourine!" And the man answered:
"My tambourine is too precious to be given away like that!" So the sparrow said:
"Take this beautiful bride and give me the tambourine instead," and the man took the bride in exchange for the tambourine. Then the sparrow, with his newly acquired tambourine, went up hill and down dale until he came to the banks of a river where there were willow trees. And he flew to the topmost branch of a willow tree and playing his tambourine began to sing:
"Oh! what a clever bird am I!
I gave away the thorn and I took the bread,
I gave away the bread and I took the lamb,
I gave away the lamb and I took the bride,
I gave away the bride and I took this beautiful tambourine —
Oh, what a clever bird am I!"
And all of a sudden this wicked sparrow lost his balance, fell into the river and was seen no more.
Three apples fell from heaven; one for the story-teller; one for him to whom you have just listened; and one for him who has just spent his breath.
