rumpelstilzchen

• If she had said, "Rumpelstilzchen, rumpelstilzchen," or any other cabalistic thing the witches in our fairy tales used to say, I should not have been surprised; and I tried to smile as pleasantly as I knew how, for fear she would think me bad tempered, and so change my every word into frogs and toads, instead of diamonds and rubies After a particularly scintillating burst of silence the Sultana offered me some buyo_, or betel-nut, to chew, and on my refusing it, placidly put a large hunk into her own mouth, and chewed it until the red juice stained her lips as if she were suffering from a hemorrhage The dais on which she lounged was as large as a small room, and was raised about three feet from the ground, it being covered with pillows and hand-woven mats of straw and bamboo. —  A Woman's Journey through the Philippines On a Cable Ship that Linked Together the Strange Lands Seen En Route
• "Rumpelstilzchen, rumpelstilzchen," or any other cabalistic thing the witches in our fairy tales used to say, I should not have been surprised; and I tried to smile as pleasantly as I knew how, for fear she would think me bad tempered, and so change my every word into frogs and toads, instead of diamonds and rubies. —  A Woman's Journey through the Philippines On a Cable Ship that Linked Together the Strange Lands Seen En Route

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