There were once a little brother and a little sister who loved each other dearly. Their mother had died, and their stepmother was unkind, secretly seeking to harm them.
One day, while playing a counting-out game with other children in the meadow near their house, they chanted:
"Eneke Beneke, let me live,
And I to thee my bird will give.
The little bird, it straw shall seek,
The straw I'll give to the cow to eat.
The pretty cow shall give me milk,
The milk I'll to the baker take.
The baker he shall bake a cake,
The cake I'll give unto the cat.
The cat shall catch some mice for that,
The mice I'll hang up in the smoke,
And then you'll see the snow."
The child upon whom the word "snow" fell had to run and be chased. Watching their joy from the window, the stepmother grew angry. Skilled in witchcraft, she bewitched the siblings, turning the brother into a fish and the sister into a lamb.
The fish swam sadly in the pond, and the lamb wandered the meadow, miserable and unable to eat. Time passed until visitors came to the castle. Seeing an opportunity, the stepmother ordered the cook to kill the lamb for the feast.
The cook fetched the lamb, tied its feet, and began whetting his knife. He then noticed a little fish swimming backwards and forwards in the water by the sink, looking up at him. It was the brother, who had followed.
The lamb cried out:
"Ah, brother, in the pond so deep,
How sad is my poor heart!
Even now the cook he whets his knife
To take away my tender life."
The fish replied:
"Ah, little sister, up on high,
How sad is my poor heart
While in this pond I lie."
Hearing the lamb speak such sad words, the cook was terrified. Realizing this was no ordinary lamb but likely bewitched, he said, "Be easy, I will not kill thee." He prepared another sheep for the guests and took the lambkin to a kind peasant woman, telling her all he had seen and heard.
This woman had once been the little sister's foster-mother. Suspecting the truth, she took the lamb to a wise woman. The wise woman pronounced a blessing over them, and they regained their human forms. She then took them to a little hut in a great forest, where they lived alone, contented and happy.