Beware of the Witch!
It�s only few days to Weihnachten (Christmas ) & against my long tradition since long to not buy christmas presents, except for children who are close to me - & yes for my old parents � this time I did a bit more - maybe too much, because when in the evening I looked on my bank account there were only 40 Euros left this month, while I had thought there must be still some hundred left � ooh! � There where some debit withdrawals I hadn�t expected Ok � I have dispo of 1100 Euro (I didn�t wanted it higher, when the bank once offered it) & I rarely overdraw. � It�s better to spend only money you have, not lent money, where you have to pay interests for. So before I noticed my poor state of my bank account I went shopping to spend about another 100 �s , to buy that great tipi-like lamp covered with thin goat leather I had seen these days & by the way some fine painted glasses with candles within, where if you light them the pictures on the glass glow mysteriously from within � on such occasions I always buy more than I had intended. See:
Mine looked similar, but with another pattern on it On my way to the shopping mall there was a family behind me with some small children - I overheard a childvoice behind me saying: �Ich habe Angst, da� ein Wolf aus dem Himmel kommt und mich fri�t� ("I'm afraid that a wolf comes out of the sky and devours me." I looked behind me to see who had spoken, but couldn�t make out in the first - - A minute later I heard the same voice again: �I�m afraid, that a witch comes out from behind a bush..� � this time looking back, before it has finished & saw it was a little girl saying this with gay cheerfulness � � heard her sister also saying what she was afraid of & I noticed that it was a competition of 2 sisters of what they were afraid of (�Ich habe Angst, dass..�) � the younger sister couldn�t make much points while saying �I�m afraid that a sign looks at me..� � the other then: �I�m afraid, that a cat scratches me� � But when one of them said: �I�m afraid, that I�ll be run over by a car..� � on this the mother intervened, saying.: �you should watch the street when you cross it ..� � This was the only time the mother intervened, - she didn�t care about the fears of wolves coming out of clouds, witches from behind bushes & attacking cats, but it will take still a long time until the little girls will find out, what the real dangers in life are I remember in my early childhood � we lived in a small village on the countryside then � that when I heard the spooky hoo hoo of the doves � I was convinced, that it was a wicked witch that had her hideaway somewhere on the end of the village � I also was convinced that ditches on the sides of the streets were dangerious & could somehow swallow you, especially in combination with ravens � so when one farmer in the neighbourhood had some turkeys strolling free on his farm yard � I was convinced that these were the evil ravens, that would pull you into the ditches & devour you there. � Why did I know that? � Because of an old nursery rhyme grownups sang while bouncing a small child on their knees � letting it with every verse of the rhyme more to the ground, while letting it softly drop at the last line.
& this rhyme telling about the terrible dangers lurking in ditches by the ravens waiting there was: Hoppe, hoppe Reiter � Wenn er f�llt dann schreit er � f�llt er in den Graben, fressen ihn die Raben � f�llt er in den Sumpf, dann macht der Reiter Plumps!
Here the translation to English (in German of course it rhymes):
Hop, hop rider (cavalier) If he falls he cries � If he falls into the ditch He will be eaten by the ravens - If he falls into a swamp then the rider makes �Splash�
Do you see the terrible truths hidden in these prophetic words to a child of 3 or 4?
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