Lost in perplexity, he followed his way to all the different
haunts he had frequented with his herds, but no traces of them were to
be discovered; at last he hastily bent his steps to Sittendorf, which
lay beneath.
The persons whom he met on his way to the village were all strangers to
him; they were differently dressed, and did not precisely speak the
language of his acquaintance; and on inquiring after his goats, all
stared and touched their chins. At last he mechanically did the same,
but what was his surprise when he found his beard lengthened at least a
foot; on which he began to conclude that he and those around him were
all under the influence of magic or enchantment. Yet the mountain he had
descended was certainly the Kyffhaeusen--the cottages, too, with their
gardens and enclosures, were all quite familiar to him--and he heard
some boys reply to the passing questions of a traveller, that it was
Sittendorf.
His doubt and perplexity now increased every moment, and he quickened
his steps towards his own dwelling; he hardly knew it, it was so much
decayed; and before the door lay a strange goatherd's boy, with a dog
apparently at the last extreme of age, that snarled when he spoke to
him.
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