“No,” they replied, “only for one quarter of an hour each evening can we lay aside our swan’s skins and have during that time our human form; after that, we are once more turned into swans.”

The little sister wept and said, “Can you not be set free?”

“Alas, no,” they answered, “the conditions are too hard! For six years thou mayst neither speak nor laugh, and in that time thou must sew together six little shirts of starwort for us. And if one single word falls from thy lips, all thy work will be lost.” And when the brothers had said this, the quarter of an hour was over, and they flew out of the window again as swans.