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The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free

his beard from the line, but all in vain, beard and line were

entangled fast together. There was nothing to do but to bring out

the scissors and cut the beard, whereby a small part of it was

lost. When the dwarf saw that he screamed out: 'Is that civil,

you toadstool, to disfigure a man's face? Was it not enough to

clip off the end of my beard? Now you have cut off the best part

of it. I cannot let myself be seen by my people. I wish you had

been made to run the soles off your shoes!' Then he took out a

sack of pearls which lay in the rushes, and without another word

he dragged it away and disappeared behind a stone.