The venturesome girls had just completed half the voyage when, one evening, their ship suddenly came to a halt in the midst of the world ocean, although the combined effort of the heavenly bodies had only just fanned the cosmic winds, and all sails were set fully into the light-winds of the stars.

It seemed as if their craft was held irresistibly to the ground with mighty anchors.
Whichever way the girls tried to refloat their ship, nothing brought success - she stayed in the same place.

Finally Mani jumped overboard to find out what might hold the ship back.
As she dived down under the waves, she noticed in the rising moonlight nine beautiful girls so lovely as she had never seen before.

Clinging to the ship's rudder they swayed with laughter in the rolling sea, thus impeding the ship. As Mani swam towards them, they merrily came to meet her and invited her to come with them to their water castle at the bottom of the sea.

Enchanted by the natural charm of the mermaids, Mani only too willingly accepted their invitation and dived together with them into the unfathomable depth.

The girls took her into their midst and escorted her to their home far below the waves of the sea.
There they treated their guest to delicious dishes and exquisite drinks.
In the richly decorated hall Mani felt so well as never before in her life.

The crystal palace had nine large unfathomable rooms, each of them having a twinkling firmament of its own.

The rooms were not separated - although they were certainly quite different from each other in many ways; playfully they opened into each other so that it seemed to Mani again she was sitting in one single huge crystal hall of ninefold splendour.

After the meal the mermaids offered their visitor a beaker of goldbrown liquid.

And as Mani drew from the rimed cup, the world changed.
She noticed a feeling of unbounded bliss which gradually filled all of her being.
But around her too everything looked different - so much brighter.

The mermaids in particular were now surrounded by a bright golden sea of light.
The brilliance of this glorious light emanated from the girls themselves, and soon it filled the whole palace.