EUROPA'S

 FAIRY TALES

 "_Do tell us a fairy tale, ganpa. _"

 "_Well, will you be good and quiet if I do?_"

 "_Of course we will; we are always good when you are telling us fairy tales. _"

 "_Well, here goes. --Once upon a time, though it wasn't in my time, and it wasn't in your time, and it wasn't in anybody else's time, there was a----_"

 "_But that would be no time at all. _"

 "_That's fairy tale time. _"

 * * * * *

[Illustration: _The Marshal tells how he killed the Dragon_]

EUROPA'S

FAIRY BOOK

RESTORED AND RETOLD BY

JOSEPH JACOBS

DONE INTO PICTURES BY

JOHN D. BATTEN

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

The Knickerbocker Press

COPYRIGHT, 1916

BY

JOSEPH JACOBS

 * * * * *

To

PEGGY, AND MADGE, AND PEARL, AND MAGGIE, AND MARGUERITE, AND PEGGOTTY, AND MEG, AND MARJORY, AND DAISY, AND PEGG, AND

MARGARET HAYS

(How many granddaughters does that make?)

MY DEAR LITTLE PEGGY:--

Many, many, many years ago I wrote a book for your Mummey--when shewas my little May--telling the fairy tales which the little boys andgirls of England used to hear from their mummeys, who had heard themfrom their mummeys years and years and years before. My friend Mr. Batten made such pretty pictures for it--but of course you know thebook--it has "Tom, Tit, Tot" and "The little old woman that went tomarket, " and all those tales you like. Now I have been making afairy-tale book for your own self, and here it is. This time I havetold, again the fairy tales that all the mummeys of Europe have beentelling their little Peggys, Oh for ever so many years! They must haveliked them because they have spread from Germany to Russia, from Italyto France, from Holland to Scotland, and from England to Norway, andfrom every country in Europe that you will read about in yourgeography to every other one. Mr. Batten, who made the pictures foryour mummey's book, has made some more for yours--isn't it good ofhim when he has never seen you?

Though this book is your very, very own, you will not mind if otherlittle girls and boys also get copies of it from their mummeys andpapas and ganmas and ganpas, for when you meet some of them you will, all of you, have a number of common friends like "The Cinder-Maid, " or"The Earl of Cattenborough, " or "The Master-Maid, " and you can talk toone another about them so that you are old friends at once. Oh, won'tthat be nice? And when one of these days you go over the Great Sea, inwhatever land you go, you will find girls and boys, as well asgrown-ups, who will know all of these tales, even if they havedifferent names. Won't that be nice too?

And when you tell your new friends here or abroad of these storiesthat you and they will know so well, do not forget to tell them thatyou have a book, all of your very own, which was made up specially foryou of these old, old stories by your old, old

GANPA. 

P. S. --Do you hear me calling as I always do, "Peggy, Peggy"? Then youmust answer as usual, "Ganpa, Ganpa. "

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PREFACE

Ever since--almost exactly a hundred years ago--the Grimms producedtheir Fairy Tale Book, folk-lorists have been engaged in makingsimilar collections for all the other countries of Europe, outsideGermany, till there is scarcely a nook or a corner in the wholecontinent that has not been ransacked for these products of thepopular fancy. The Grimms themselves and most of their followers havepointed out the similarity or, one might even say, the identity ofplot and incident of many of these tales throughout the EuropeanFolk-Lore field. Von Hahn, when collecting the Greek and AlbanianFairy Tales in 1864, brought together these common "formulæ" of theEuropean Folk-Tale. These were supplemented by Mr. S. Baring-Gould in1868, and I myself in 1892 contributed an even fuller list to the_Hand Book of Folk-Lore_. Most, if not all of these formulæ, have beenfound in all the countries of Europe where folk-tales have beencollected. In 1893 Miss M. Roalfe Cox brought together, in a volume ofthe Folk-Lore Society, no less than 345 variants of "Cinderella" andkindred stories showing how widespread this particular formula wasthroughout Europe and how substantially identical the variousincidents as reproduced in each particular country. 

It has occurred to me that it would be of great interest and, forfolk-lore purposes, of no little importance, to bring together thesecommon Folk-Tales of Europe, retold in such a way as to bring out theoriginal form from which all the variants were derived. I am, ofcourse, aware of the difficulty and hazardous nature of such aproceeding; yet it is fundamentally the same as that by which scholarsare accustomed to restore the _Ur_-text from the variants of differentfamilies of MSS. And still more similar to the process by which HigherCritics attempt to restore the original narratives of Holy Writ. Everyone who has had to tell fairy tales to children will appreciate theconservative tendencies of the child mind; every time you vary anincident the children will cry out, "That was not the way you told usbefore. " The Folk-Tale collections can therefore be assumed to retainthe original readings with as much fidelity as most MSS. That therewas such an original rendering eminating from a single folk artist noserious student of Miss Cox's volume can well doubt. When one findspractically the same "tags" of verse in such different dialects asDanish and Romaic, German and Italian, one cannot imagine that thesesprang up independently in Denmark, Greece, Germany, and Florence. Thesame phenomenon is shown in another field of Folk-Lore where, as thelate Mr. Newell showed, the same rhymes are used to brighten up thesame children's games in Barcelona and in Boston; one cannot imaginethem springing up independently in both places. So, too, when the sameincidents of a fairy tale follow in the same artistic concatenation inScotland, and in Sicily, in Brittany, and in Albania, one cannot butassume that the original form of the story was hit upon by onedefinite literary artist among the folk. What I have attempted to doin this book is to restore the original form, which by a sort ofinternational selection has spread throughout all the European folks. 

But while I have attempted thus to restore the original substance ofthe European Folk-Tales, I have ever had in mind that the particularform in which they are to appear is to attract English-speakingchildren. I have, therefore, utilized the experience I had some yearsago in collecting and retelling the Fairy Tales of the EnglishFolk-Lore field (_English Fairy Tales_, _More English Fairy Tales_), in order to tell these new tales in the way which English-speakingchildren have abundantly shown they enjoy. In other words, while theplot and incidents are "common form" throughout Europe, the manner inwhich I have told the stories is, so far as I have been able toimitate it, that of the English story-teller. 

I have indeed been conscious throughout of my audience of little onesand of the reverence due to them. Whenever an original incident, sofar as I could penetrate to it, seemed to me too crudely primitive forthe children of the present day, I have had no scruples in modifyingor mollifying it, drawing attention to such Bowdlerization in thesomewhat elaborate notes at the end of the volume, which I trust willbe found of interest and of use to the serious student of theFolk-Tale. 

It must, of course, be understood that the tales I now give are onlythose found practically identical in all European countries. Besidesthese there are others which are peculiar to each of the countries oronly found in areas covered by cognate languages like the Celtic orthe Scandinavian. Of these I have already covered the English and theCeltic fields, and may, one of these days, extend my collections tothe French and Scandinavian or the Slavonic fields. Meanwhile it maybe assumed that the stories that have pleased all European childrenfor so long a time are, by a sort of international selection, bestfitted to survive, and that the Fairy Tales that follow are thechoicest gems in the Fairy Tale field. I can only express the hopethat I have succeeded in placing them in an appropriate setting. 

It remains only to thank those of my colleagues and friends who haveaided in various ways in the preparation of this volume, though ofcourse their co-operation does not, in the slightest, implyresponsibility for or approval of the method of treatment I haveapplied to the old, old stories. Miss Roalfe Cox was good enough tolook over my reconstruction of "Cinderella" and suggest alterations init. Prof. Crane gave me permission to utilize the version of the"Dancing Water, " in his Italian Popular Tales. Sir James G. Frazerlooked through my restoration of the "Language of Animals, " which wassuggested by him many years ago; and Mr. E. S. Hartland criticized theSwan-Maiden story. I have also to thank my old friend and publisher, Dr. G. H. Putnam, for the personal interest he has taken in theprogress of the book. 

J. J. 

YONKERS, N. Y. 

July, 1915. 

 * * * * *

CONTENTS

 PAGE

PREFACE v

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii

I. --CINDER-MAID 1

II. --ALL CHANGE 13

III. --THE KING OF THE FISHES 19

IV. --SCISSORS 31

V. --BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 34

VI. --REYNARD AND BRUIN 42

VII. --THE DANCING WATER, SINGING APPLE, AND SPEAKING BIRD 51

VIII. --THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS 66

IX. --THE THREE SOLDIERS 72

X. --A DOZEN AT A BLOW 81

XI. --THE EARL OF CATTENBOROUGH 90

XII. --THE SWAN MAIDENS 98

XIII. --ANDROCLES AND THE LION 107

XIV. --DAY DREAMING 110

XV. --KEEP COOL 115

XVI. --THE MASTER THIEF 121

XVII. --THE UNSEEN BRIDEGROOM 129

XVIII. --THE MASTER-MAID 142

XIX. --A VISITOR FROM PARADISE 159

XX. --INSIDE AGAIN 165

XXI. --JOHN THE TRUE 170

XXII. --JOHNNIE AND GRIZZLE 180

XXIII. --THE CLEVER LASS 188

XXIV. --THUMBKIN 194

XXV. --SNOWWHITE 201

NOTES 215

LIST OF INCIDENTS 263

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ILLUSTRATIONS

 PAGE

THE MARSHAL TELLS HOW HE KILLED THE DRAGON _Frontispiece_

THE HERALD ANNOUNCES THE COURT BALL 1

THE SOLDIER LAYS A HONEY TRAP 6

THE STEP-SISTER CUTS OFF HER TOE 9

"WILL YOU MIND MY PEA?" 13

THE SEVEN-HEADED DRAGON 19

THE MARSHAL TELLS HOW HE KILLED THE DRAGON 25

SCISSORS 31

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 39

REYNARD 42

BRUIN GETS A BEATING 45

BRUIN CARRIES REYNARD 46

THE FOSTER MOTHER 55

THE KING BEGS PARDON 64

THE GIRL AND THE FROG 66

THE POPE IS ELECTED 70

THE MAGIC PURSE 73

THE PRINCESS FINDS HORNS ON HER HEAD 79

THE UNICORN 81

THE EARL OF CATTENBOROUGH WILL BE PLEASED TO PARTAKE OF A POTATO 90

THE CAT AND THE OGRE 96

"HAD YOU NOT BETTER THROW ME INTO THE MILLSTREAM?" 97

THE CHILD FINDS THE FEATHER DRESS 98

THE DOLPHIN WHO CAME LATE 102

EAST O' THE SUN AND WEST O' THE MOON 105

ANDROCLES AND THE LION 107

DAY-DREAMING 110

THE PIG'S TAIL 120

THE DUMMY 121

ANIMA GOES DOWN THE HOLE 129

THE LAMP 133

THE DOG 139

THE CASKET 140

THE MASTER-MAID WITH THE GLASS AXE 142

THE PRINCE WANTS HIS LUNCH 145

THE GIANT TRIES TO DRINK THE STREAM 154

THE VISITOR 159

UP THE TREE 163

THE SNAKE 165

THE THREE RAVENS 170

THE WOUNDED DRAGON 179

THE WITCH 180

THE DUCK 187

"MIRROR, MIRROR, ON THE WALL, WHO IS THE FAIREST OF US ALL?" 201

SNOWWHITE AND THE THREE DWARFS 211

 * * * * *

[Illustration: The Herald Announces the Court Ball]

THE CINDER-MAID

Once upon a time, though it was not in my time or in your time, or inanybody else's time, there was a great King who had an only son, thePrince and Heir who was about to come of age. So the King sent round aherald who should blow his trumpet at every four corners where tworoads met. And when the people came together he would call out, "Oyes, O yes, O yes, know ye that His Grace the King will give on Mondaysennight"--that meant seven nights or a week after--"a Royal Ball towhich all maidens of noble birth are hereby summoned; and be itfurthermore known unto you that at this ball his Highness the Princewill select unto himself a lady that shall be his bride and our futureQueen. God save the King. "

Now there was among the nobles of the King's Court one who had marriedtwice, and by the first marriage he had but one daughter, and as shewas growing up her father thought that she ought to have some one tolook after her. So he married again, a lady with two daughters, andhis new wife, instead of caring for his daughter, thought only of herown and favoured them in every way. She would give them beautifuldresses but none to her step-daughter who had only to wear thecast-off clothes of the other two. The noble's daughter was set to doall the drudgery of the house, to attend the kitchen fire, and hadnaught to sleep on but the heap of cinders raked out in the scullery;and that is why they called her Cinder-Maid. And no one took pity onher and she would go and weep at her mother's grave where she hadplanted a hazel tree, under which she sat. 

You can imagine how excited they all were when they heard the King'sproclamation called out by the herald. "What shall we wear, mother;what shall we wear?" cried out the two daughters, and they all begantalking about which dress should suit the one and what dress shouldsuit the other, but when the father suggested that Cinder-Maid shouldalso have a dress they all cried out: "What, Cinder-Maid going to theKing's Ball; why, look at her, she would only disgrace us all. " Andso her father held his peace. 

Now when the night came for the Royal Ball Cinder-Maid had to help thetwo sisters to dress in their fine dresses and saw them drive off inthe carriage with her father and their mother. But she went to her ownmother's grave and sat beneath the hazel tree and wept and cried out:

 "Tree o'mine, O tree o'me, With my tears I've watered thee; Make me a lady fair to see, Dress me as splendid as can be. "

And with that the little bird on the tree called out to her, "Cinder-Maid, Cinder-Maid, shake the tree, Open the first nut that you see. "

So Cinder-Maid shook the tree and the first nut that fell she took upand opened, and what do you think she saw?--a beautiful silk dressblue as the heavens, all embroidered with stars, and two little lovelyshoon made of shining copper. And when she had dressed herself thehazel tree opened and from it came a coach all made of copper withfour milk-white horses, with coachman and footmen all complete. And asshe drove away the little bird called out to her:

 "Be home, be home ere mid-o'night Or else again you'll be a fright. "

When Cinder-Maid entered the ball-room she was the loveliest of allthe ladies and the Prince, who had been dancing with her step-sisters, would only dance with her. But as it came towards midnight Cinder-Maidremembered what the little bird had told her and slipped away to hercarriage. And when the Prince missed her he went to the guards at thePalace door and told them to follow the carriage. But Cinder-Maid whenshe saw this, called out:

 "Mist behind and light before, Guide me to my father's door. "

And when the Prince's soldiers tried to follow her there came such amist that they couldn't see their hands before their faces. So theycouldn't find which way Cinder-Maid went. 

When her father and step-mother and two sisters came home after theball they could talk of nothing but the lovely lady: "Ah, would notyou have liked to have been there?" said the sisters to Cinder-Maid asshe helped them to take off their fine dresses. "There was a mostlovely lady with a dress like the heavens and shoes of bright copper, and the Prince would dance with none but her; and when midnight cameshe disappeared and the Prince could not find her. He is going to givea second ball in the hope that she will come again. Perhaps she willnot, and then we will have our chance. "

When the time of the second Royal Ball came round the same thinghappened as before; the sisters teased Cinder-Maid saying, "Wouldn'tyou like to come with us?" and drove off again as before. AndCinder-Maid went again to the hazel tree over her mother's grave andcried:

 "Tree o'mine, O tree o'me, Shiver and shake, dear little tree Make me a lady fair to see, Dress me as splendid as can be. "

And then the little bird on the tree called out:

 "Cinder-Maid, Cinder-Maid, shake the tree, Open the first nut that you see. "

But this time she found a dress all golden brown like the earthembroidered with flowers, and her shoon were made of silver; and whenthe carriage came from the tree, lo and behold, that was made ofsilver too, drawn by black horses with trappings all of silver, andthe lace on the coachman's and footmen's liveries was also of silver;and when Cinder-Maid went to the ball the Prince would dance with nonebut her; and when midnight came round she fled as before. But thePrince, hoping to prevent her running away, had ordered the soldiersat the foot of the stair-case to pour out honey on the stairs so thather shoes would stick in it. But Cinder-Maid leaped from stair tostair and got away just in time, calling out as the soldiers tried tofollow her:

 "Mist behind and light before, Guide me to my father's door. "

[Illustration: The Soldier Lays a Honey Trap]

And when her sisters got home they told her once more of the beautifullady that had come in a silver coach and silver shoon and in a dressall embroidered with flowers: "Ah, wouldn't you have liked to havebeen there?" said they. 

Once again the Prince gave a great ball in the hope that his unknownbeauty would come to it. All happened as before; as soon as thesisters had gone Cinder-Maid went to the hazel tree over her mother'sgrave and called out:

 "Tree o'mine, O tree o'me Shiver and quiver, dear little tree; Make me a lady fair to see, Dress me as splendid as can be. "

And then the little bird appeared and said:

 "Cinder-Maid, Cinder-Maid, shake the tree Open the first nut that you see. "

And when she opened the nut in it was a dress of silk green as the seawith waves upon it, and her shoes this time were made of gold; andwhen the coach came out of the tree it was also made of gold, withgold trappings for the horses and for the retainers. And as she droveoff the little bird from the tree called out:

 "Be home, be home ere mid-o'night Or else again you'll be a fright. "

Now this time, when Cinder-Maid came to the ball, she was as desirousto dance only with the Prince as he with her, and so, when midnightcame round, she had forgotten to leave till the clock began to strike, one--two--three--four--five--six, --and then she began to run away downthe stairs as the clock struck, eight--nine--ten. But the Prince hadtold his soldiers to put tar upon the lower steps of the stairs; andas the clock struck eleven her shoes stuck in the tar, and when shejumped to the foot of the stairs one of her golden shoes was leftbehind, and just then the clock struck TWELVE, and the golden coach, with its horses and footmen, disappeared, and the beautiful dress ofCinder-Maid changed again into her ragged clothes and she had to runhome with only one golden shoe. 

You can imagine how excited the sisters were when they came home andtold Cinder-Maid all about it, how that the beautiful lady had come ina golden coach in a dress like the sea, with golden shoes, and how allhad disappeared at midnight except the golden shoe. "Ah, wouldn't youhave liked to have been there?" said they. 

Now when the Prince found out that he could not keep his lady-love nortrace where she had gone he spoke to his father and showed him thegolden shoe, and told him that he would never marry any one but themaiden who could wear that shoe. So the King, his father, ordered theherald to take round the golden shoe upon a velvet cushion and to goto every four corners where two streets met and sound the trumpet andcall out: "O yes, O yes, O yes, be it known unto you all thatwhatsoever lady of noble birth can fit this shoe upon her foot shallbecome the bride of his Highness the Prince and our future Queen. Godsave the King. "

[Illustration: The Step-Sister Cuts off her Toe]

And when the herald came to the house of Cinder-Maid's father theeldest of her two step-sisters tried on the golden shoe. But it wasmuch too small for her, as it was for every other lady that had triedit up to that time; but she went up into her room and with a sharpknife cut off one of her toes and part of her heel, and then fittedher foot into the shoe, and when she came down she showed it to theherald, who sent a message to the Palace saying that the lady had beenfound who could wear the golden shoe. Thereupon the Prince jumped atonce upon his horse and rode to the house of Cinder-Maid's father. Butwhen he saw the step-sister with the golden shoe, "Ah, " he said, "butthis is not the lady. " "But, " she said, "you promised to marry the onethat could wear the golden shoe. " And the Prince could say nothing, but offered to take her on his horse to his father's Palace, for inthose days ladies used to ride on a pillion at the back of thegentleman riding on horseback. Now as they were riding towards thePalace her foot began to drip with blood, and the little bird from thehazel tree that had followed them called out:

 "Turn and peep, turn and peep, There's blood within the shoe; A bit is cut from off the heel And a bit from off the toe. "

And the Prince looked down and saw the blood streaming from her shoeand then he knew that this was not his true bride, and he rode back tothe house of Cinder-Maid's father; and then the second sister triedher chance; but when she found that her foot wouldn't fit the shoe shedid the same as her sister, but all happened as before. The littlebird called out:

 "Turn and peep, turn and peep, There's blood within the shoe; A bit is cut from off the heel And a bit from off the toe. "

And the Prince took her back to her mother's house, and then he asked, "Have you no other daughter?" and the sisters cried out, "No, sir. "But the father said, "Yes, I have another daughter. " And the sisterscried out, "Cinder-Maid, Cinder-Maid, she could not wear that shoe. "But the Prince said, "As she is of noble birth she has a right to trythe shoe. " So the herald went down to the kitchen and foundCinder-Maid; and when she saw her golden shoe she took it from him andput it on her foot, which it fitted exactly; and then she took theother golden shoe from underneath the cinders where she had hidden itand put that on too. Then the herald knew that she was the true brideof his master; and he took her upstairs to where the Prince was; whenhe saw her face, he knew that she was the lady of his love. So hetook her behind him upon his horse; and as they rode to the Palace, the little bird from the hazel tree cried out:

 "Some cut their heel, and some cut their toe, But she sat by the fire who could wear the shoe. "

And so they were married and lived happy ever afterwards. 

[Illustration: "Will you Mind my Pea?"]

ALL CHANGE

There was once a man who was the laziest man in all the world. Hewouldn't take off his clothes when he went to bed because he didn'twant to have to put them on again. He wouldn't raise his cup to hislips but went down and sucked up his tea without carrying the cup. Hewouldn't play any sports because he said they made him sweat. And hewouldn't work with his hands for the same reason. But at last he foundthat he couldn't get anything to eat unless he did some work for it. So he hired himself out to a farmer for the season. But all throughthe harvest he ate as much and he worked as little as he could; andwhen the fall came and he went to get his wages from his master all hegot was a single pea. "What do you mean by giving me this?" he said tohis master. "Why, that is all that your labor is worth, " was thereply. "You have eaten as much as you have earned. " "None of yourlip, " said the man; "give me my pea; at any rate I have earned that. "So when he got it he went to an inn by the roadside and said to thelandlady, "Can you give me lodging for the night, me and my pea?""Well, no, " said the landlady, "I haven't got a bed free, but I cantake care of your pea for you. " No sooner said than done. The pea waslodged with the landlady, and the laziest man went and lay in a barnnear-by. 

The landlady put the pea upon a dresser and left it there, and achicken wandering by saw it and jumped up on the dresser and ate it. So when the laziest man called the next day and asked for his pea thelandlady couldn't find it. She said, "The chicken must have swallowedit. " "Well, I want my pea, " said the man. "You had better give me thechicken. " "Why, what--when--how?" stammered the landlady. "The chickenis worth thousands of your pea. " "I don't care for that; it has got mypea inside it, and the only way I can get my pea is to have that whichholds the pea. " "What, give you my chicken for a single pea, nonsense!" "Well, if you don't I'll summon you before the justice. ""Ah, well, take the chicken and my bad wishes with it. "

So off went the man and sauntered along all day, till that night hecame to another inn, and asked the landlord if he and his chickencould stop there. He said, "No, no, we have no room for you, but wecan put your chicken in the stable if you like. " So the man said, "Yes, " and went off for the night. But there was a savage sow in thestable, and during the night she ate up the poor chicken. And when theman came the next morning he said to the landlord, "Please give me mychicken. " "I am awfully sorry, sir, " said he, "but my sow has eaten itup. " The laziest man said, "Then give me your sow. " "What, a sow foryour chicken, nonsense; go away, my man. " "Then if you don't do thatI'll have you before the justice. " "Ah, well, take the sow and mycurses with it, " said the landlord. 

And the man took the sow and followed it along the road till he cameto another inn, and said to the landlady, "Have you room for me and mysow?" "I have not, " said the landlady, "but I can put your sow up. " Sothe sow was put in the stable, and the man went off to lie in the barnfor the night. Now the sow went roaming about the stable, and comingtoo near the hoofs of the mare, was hit in the forehead and killed bythe mare's hoofs. So when the man came in the morning and asked forhis sow the landlady said, "I'm very sorry, sir, but an accident hasoccurred; my mare has hit your sow in the skull and she is dead. ""What, the mare?" "No, your sow. " "Then give me the mare. " "What, mymare for your sow, nonsense. " "Well, if you don't I'll take you beforethe justice; you'll see if it's nonsense. " So after some time thelandlady agreed to give the man her mare in exchange for the dead sow. 

Then the man followed on in the steps of the mare till he came toanother inn, and asked the landlord if he could put him up for thenight, him and his mare. The landlord said, "All our beds are full, but you can put the mare up in the stable if you will. " "Very well, "said the man, and tied the halter of the mare into the ring of thestable. Next morning early the landlord's daughter said to her father, "That poor mare has had nothing to drink; I'll go and lead it to theriver. " "That is none of your business, " said the landlord; "let theman do it himself. " "Ah, but the poor thing has had nothing to drink. I'll bring it back soon. " So the girl took the mare to the river brinkand let it drink the water; but, by chance, the mare slipped into thestream, which was so strong that it carried the mare away. And theyoung girl ran back to her mother and said, "Oh mother, the mare fellinto the stream and it was carried quite away. What shall we do? Whatshall we do?"

When the man came round that morning he said, "Please give me mymare. " "I'm very sorry indeed, sir, but my daughter--that onethere--wanted to give the poor thing a drink and took it down to theriver and it fell in and was carried away by the stream; I'm verysorry indeed. " "Your sorrow won't pay my loss, " said the man; "theleast you can do is to give me your daughter. " "What, my daughter toyou because of the mare!" "Well, if you don't I will take you beforethe justice. " Now the landlord didn't like going before the justice. 

So after much haggling he agreed to let his daughter go with the man. And they went along, and they went along, and they went along, till atlast they came to another inn which was kept by the girl's aunt, though the man didn't know it. So he went in and said, "Can you giveme beds for me and my girl here?" So the landlady looked at the girlwho said nothing, and said, "Well, I haven't got a bed for you but Ihave got a bed for her; but perhaps she'll run away. " "Oh, I willmanage that, " said the man. And he went and got a sack and put thegirl in it and tied her up; and then he went off. As soon as he wasgone the girl's aunt opened the bag and said, "What has happened, mydear?" And she told the whole story. So the aunt took a big dog andput it in the sack; and when the man came the next morning he said, "Where's my girl?" "There she is, so far as I know. " So he took thesack and put it on his shoulder and went on his way for a time. Thenas the sun grew high he sat down under the shade of a tree and thoughthe would speak to the girl. And when he opened the sack the big dogflew out at him, and he fell back, and that's the last I heard ofhim. 

[Illustration: The Seven-Headed Dragon]

THE KING OF THE FISHES

Once upon a time there was a fisherman who was very poor and feltpoorer still because he had no children. Now one day as he was fishinghe caught in his net the finest fish he had ever seen, the scales allgold and eyes as bright as diamonds; and just as he was going to takeit out of the net what do you think happened? The fish opened his jawsand said, "I am the King of the Fishes, and if you throw me back intothe water you will never want a catch. " The fisherman was so surprisedthat he let the fish slip into the water, and he flapped his big tailand dived under the waves. When he got home he told his wife allabout it, and she said, "Oh, what a pity, I have had such a longing toeat such a fish. "

Well, next day the fisherman went again a-fishing and, sure enough, hecaught the same fish again, and it said, "I am the King of the Fishes, if you let me go you shall always have your nets full. " So thefisherman let him go again; and when he went back to his home he toldhis wife that he had done so. She began to cry and wail and said, "Itold you I wanted such a fish, and yet you let him go; I am sure youdo not love me. " The fisherman felt quite ashamed of himself andpromised that if he caught the King of the Fishes again he would bringhim home to his wife for her to cook. So next day the fisherman wentto the same place and caught the same fish the third time. But whenthe fish begged the fisherman to let him go he told the King of theFishes what his wife had said and what he had promised her. "Well, "said the King of the Fishes, "if you must kill me you must, but as youlet me go twice I will do this for you. When the wife cuts me up throwsome of my bones under the mare, and some of my bones under the bitch, and the rest of my bones bury beneath the rose-tree in the garden andthen you will see what you will see. "

So the fisherman took the King of the Fishes home to his wife, to whomhe told what the fish had said; and when she cut up the fish forcooking they threw some of the bones under the mare, and some underthe bitch, and the rest they buried under the rose-tree in the garden. 

Now after a time the fisherman's wife gave him two fine twin boys, whom they named George and Albert, each with a star on his foreheadjust under his hair, and at the same time the mare brought into theworld two fine colts, and the bitch two puppies. And under therose-tree grew up two rose bushes, each of which bore every year onlyone rose, but what a rose that was! It lasted through the summer andit lasted through the winter and, most curious of all, when Georgefell ill one of the roses began to wilt, and if Albert had an illnessthe same thing happened with the other rose. 

Now when George and Albert grew up they heard that a Seven-HeadedDragon was ravaging the neighbouring kingdom, and that the king hadpromised his daughter's hand to anyone that would free the land fromthis scourge. They both wanted to go and fight the dragon, but at lastthe twins agreed that George go and Albert stop at home and look aftertheir father and mother, who had now grown old. So George took hishorse and his dog and rode off where the dragon had last been seen. And when he came to Middlegard, the capital of the kingdom, he rodewith his horse and his dog to the chief inn of the town and asked thelandlady why everything looked so gloomy and why the houses weredraped in black. "Have you not heard, sir, " asked the landlady, "thatthe Dragon with the Seven Heads has been eating up a pure maidenevery month? And now he demands that the princess herself shall bedelivered up to him this day. That is why the town is draped in blackand we are all so gloomy. " Thereupon George took his horse and his dogand rode out to where the princess was exposed to the coming of theDragon with Seven Heads. And when the princess saw George with hishorse and his sword and his dog she asked him, "Why come you here, sir? Soon the Dragon with Seven Heads, whom none can withstand, willbe here to claim me. Flee before it is too late. " But George said, "Princess, a man can die once, and I will willingly try to save youfrom the dragon. " Now as they were talking a horrible roar rent theair and the Dragon with the Seven Heads came towards the princess. Butwhen it saw George it called out, "Can'st fight?" and George said, "IfI can't I can learn. " "I'll learn thee, " said the dragon. Andthereupon began a mighty combat between George and the dragon; andwhenever the dragon came near to George his dog would spring at one ofhis paws, and when one of the heads reared back to deal with itGeorge's horse would spring to that side, and George's sword wouldsweep that head away. And so at last all the seven heads of the dragonwere shorn off by George's sword, and the princess was saved. AndGeorge opened the mouths of seven of the dragon's heads and cut outthe tongues, and the princess gave him her handkerchief, and he wraptall the seven tongues in it and put them away next his heart. ButGeorge was so tired out by the fight that he laid down to sleep withhis head in the princess's lap, and she parted his hair with her handsand saw the star on his brow. 

Meanwhile the king's marshal, who was to have married the princess ifhe would slay the dragon, had been watching the fight from afar off;and when he saw that the dragon had been slain and that George waslying asleep after the fight, he crept up behind the princess and, drawing his dagger, said, "Put his head on the ground or else I willslay thee. " And when she had done that he bade her rise and come withhim after he had collected the seven heads of the dragon and strungthem on the leash of his whip. The princess would have wakened Georgebut the marshal threatened to kill her if she did. "If I cannot wedthee he shall not. " And then he made her swear that she would say thatthe marshal had slain the Dragon with the Seven Heads. And when theprincess and the marshal came near the city the king and his courtiersand all his people came out to meet them with great rejoicing, and theking said to his daughter, "Who saved thee?" and she said, "this man. ""Then he shall marry thee, " said the king. "No, no, father, " said theprincess, "I am not old enough to marry yet; give me, at any rate, ayear and a day before the wedding takes place, " for she hoped thatGeorge would come and save her from the wicked marshal. The kinghimself, who loved his daughter greatly, gave way at last and promisedthat she should not be married for a year and a day. 

When George awoke and saw the dead body and found the princess thereno longer he did not know what to make of it but thought that she didnot wish to marry a fisherman's son. So he mounted his horse, and withhis faithful hound went on seeking further adventures through theworld, and did not come that way again till a year had passed, when herode into Middlegard again and alighted at the same inn where he hadstopped before. "How now, hostess, " he cried, "last time I was herethe city was all in mourning but now everything is agog with glee;trumpets are blaring, lads and lasses are dancing round the trees, andevery house has flags and banners flowing from its windows. What ishappening?" "Know you not, sir, " said the hostess, "that our princessmarries to-morrow?" "Why, last time, " he said, "she was going to bedevoured by the Dragon with Seven Heads. " "Nay, but he was slain bythe king's marshal who weds the princess to-morrow as a reward for hisbravery, and every one that wishes may join the wedding feast to-nightin the king's castle. "

[Illustration: _The Marshal tells how he killed the Dragon_]

That night George went up to the king's castle and took his place atthe table not far off from where sat the king with the princess onone side of him and the marshal on the other; and after the banquetthe king called upon the marshal once more to tell how he had slainthe Dragon with the Seven Heads. And the marshal told a long tale ofhow he had cut off the seven heads of the dragon, and at the finish heordered his squire to bring in a platter on which were the sevenheads. Then up rose George and spoke to the king and said, "And pray, my lord, how does it happen that the dragon's heads had no tongues?"And the king said, "That I know not; let us look and see. " And thejaws of the dragon's heads were opened, and behold there were notongues in them. Then the king asked the marshal, "Know you aught ofthis?" And the marshal had nothing to say. And the princess looked upand saw her champion again. Then George took out from his doublet theseven tongues of the dragon, and it was found that they fitted. "Whatis the meaning of this, sir, " said the king. Then George told thestory of how he had slain the dragon and fallen asleep in theprincess's lap and had awoke and found her gone. And the princess, when asked by her father, could not but tell of the treachery of themarshal. "Away with him, " cried out the king, "let his head be takenoff and his tongue be taken out, and let his place be taken by thisyoung stranger. "

So George and the princess were married and lived happily, till onenight, looking out of the window of the castle where they lived, George saw in the distance another castle with windows all lit up andshining like fire. And he asked the princess, his wife, what thatcastle might be. "Go not near that, George, " said the princess, "for Ihave always heard that none who enters that castle ever comes outagain. " The next morning George went with horse and hound to seek thecastle; and when he got near it he found at the gate an old dame withbut one eye; and he asked her to open the gate, and she said she wouldbut that it was a custom of the castle that who ever entered had todrink a glass of wine before doing so; and she offered him a gobletfull of wine; but when he had drunk it he and his horse and his dogwere all turned into stone. 

Just at the very moment when George was turned to stone Albert, whohad heard nothing of him, saw George's rose in the garden close up andturn the colour of marble; then he knew that something had happened tohis brother, and he had out his horse and his dog and rode off to findout what had been George's fate. And he rode, and he rode, till hecame to Middlegard, and as soon as he reached the gate the guard ofthe gate said, "Your highness, the princess has been in great anxietyabout you; she will be so happy to know that you have returned safe. "Albert said nothing, but followed the guard until he came to theprincess's chamber, and she ran to him and embraced him and criedout, "Oh, George, I am so delighted that you have come back safe. ""Why should I not, " said Albert. "Because I feared that you had goneto that castle with flaming windows, from which nobody ever returnsalive, " said the princess. 

Then Albert guessed what had happened to George, and he soon made anexcuse and went off again to seek the castle which the princess hadpointed out from the window. When Albert got there he found the sameold dame sitting by the gate, and asked if he might go in and see thecastle. She said again that none might enter the castle unless theyhad taken a glass of wine and brought out the goblet of wine oncemore. Albert was about to drink it up when his faithful dog jumped upand spilt the wine, which he began to lap up, and as soon as he haddrunk a little of it his body turned to marble, just by the side ofanother stone which looked exactly the same. Then Albert guessed whathad happened, and descending from his horse he took out his sword andthreatened the old witch that he would kill her unless she restoredhis brother to his proper shape. In fear and trembling the old damemuttered something over the four stones in front of the castle, andGeorge and his horse and his hound and Albert's dog became alive againas they were before. Then George and Albert rode back to the princesswho, when she saw them both so much alike, could not tell which waswhich; then she remembered and went up to Albert and parted his hairon his forehead and saw there the star, and said, "This is my George";but then George parted his own hair, and she saw the same star there. At last Albert told her all that had happened, and she knew her ownhusband again. And soon after the king died, and George ruled in hisplace, and Albert married one of the neighbouring princesses. 

[Illustration: Scissors]

SCISSORS

Once upon a time, though it was not in my time nor in your time nor inanybody else's time, there lived a cobbler named Tom and his wifenamed Joan. And they lived fairly happily together, except thatwhatever Tom did Joan did the opposite, and whatever Joan thought Tomthought quite contrary-wise. When Tom wanted beef for dinner Joanliked pork, and if Joan wanted to have chicken Tom would like to haveduck. And so it went on all the time. 

Now it happened that one day Joan was cleaning up the kitchen and, turning suddenly, she knocked two or three pots and pans together andbroke them all. So Tom, who was working in the front room, came andasked Joan, "What's all this? What have you been doing?" Now Joan hadgot the pair of scissors in her hand, and sooner than tell him whathad really happened she said, "I cut these pots and pans into pieceswith my scissors. "

"What, " said Tom, "cut pottery with your scissors, you nonsensicalwoman; you can't do it!"

"I tell you I did with my scissors!"

"You couldn't. "

"I did. "

"You couldn't. "

"I did. "

"Couldn't. "

"Did. "

"Couldn't. "

"Did. "

"Couldn't. "

"Did. "

At last Tom got so angry that he seized Joan by the shoulders andshoved her out of the house and said, "If you don't tell me how youbroke those pots and pans I'll throw you into the river. " But Joankept on saying, "It was with the scissors"; and Tom got so enragedthat at last he took her to the bank of the river and said, "Now forthe last time, will you tell me the truth; how did you break thosepots and pans?"

"With the scissors. "

And with that he threw her into the river, and she sank once, and shesank twice, and just before she was about to sink for the third timeshe put her hand up into the air, out of the water, and made a motionwith her first and middle finger as if she were moving the scissors. So Tom saw it was no use to try to persuade her to do anything butwhat she wanted. So he rushed up the stream and met a neighbour whosaid, "Tom, Tom, what are you running for?"

"Oh, I want to find Joan; she fell into the river just in front of ourhouse, and I am afraid she is going to be drowned. "

"But, " said the neighbour, "you're running up stream. "

"Well, " said Tom, "Joan always went contrary-wise whatever happened. "And so he never found her in time to save her. 

[Illustration]

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

There was once a merchant that had three daughters, and he loved thembetter than himself. Now it happened that he had to go a long journeyto buy some goods, and when he was just starting he said to them, "What shall I bring you back, my dears?" And the eldest daughter askedto have a necklace; and the second daughter wished to have a goldchain; but the youngest daughter said, "Bring back yourself, Papa, andthat is what I want the most. " "Nonsense, child, " said her father, "you must say something that I may remember to bring back for you. ""So, " she said, "then bring me back a rose, father. "

Well, the merchant went on his journey and did his business and boughta pearl necklace for his eldest daughter, and a gold chain for hissecond daughter; but he knew it was no use getting a rose for theyoungest while he was so far away because it would fade before he gothome. So he made up his mind he would get a rose for her the day hegot near his house. 

When all his merchanting was done he rode off home and forgot allabout the rose till he was near his house; then he suddenly rememberedwhat he had promised his youngest daughter, and looked about to see ifhe could find a rose. Near where he had stopped he saw a great garden, and getting off his horse he wandered about in it till he found alovely rose-bush; and he plucked the most beautiful rose he could seeon it. At that moment he heard a crash like thunder, and lookingaround he saw a huge monster--two tusks in his mouth and fiery eyessurrounded by bristles, and horns coming out of its head and spreadingover its back. 

"Mortal, " said the Beast, "who told thee thou mightest pluck myroses?"

"Please, sir, " said the merchant in fear and terror for his life, "Ipromised my daughter to bring her home a rose and forgot about it tillthe last moment, and then I saw your beautiful garden and thought youwould not miss a single rose, or else I would have asked yourpermission. "

"Thieving is thieving, " said the Beast, "whether it be a rose or adiamond; thy life is forfeit. "

The merchant fell on his knees and begged for his life for the sake ofhis three daughters who had none but him to support them. 

"Well, mortal, well, " said the Beast, "I grant thy life on onecondition: Seven days from now thou must bring this youngest daughterof thine, for whose sake thou hast broken into my garden, and leaveher here in thy stead. Otherwise swear that thou wilt return andplace thyself at my disposal. "

So the merchant swore, and taking his rose mounted his horse and rodehome. 

As soon as he got into his house his daughters came rushing round him, clapping their hands and showing their joy in every way, and soon hegave the necklace to his eldest daughter, the chain to his seconddaughter, and then he gave the rose to his youngest, and as he gave ithe sighed. "Oh, thank you, Father, " they all cried. But the youngestsaid, "Why did you sigh so deeply when you gave me my rose?"

"Later on I will tell you, " said the merchant. 

So for several days they lived happily together, though the merchantwandered about gloomy and sad, and nothing his daughters could dowould cheer him up till at last he took his youngest daughter asideand said to her, "Bella, do you love your father?"

"Of course I do, Father, of course I do. "

"Well, now you have a chance of showing it"; and then he told her ofall that had occurred with the Beast when he got the rose for her. Bella was very sad, as you can well think, and then she said, "Oh, Father, it was all on account of me that you fell into the power ofthis Beast; so I will go with you to him; perhaps he will do me noharm; but even if he does better harm to me than evil to my dearfather. "

So next day the merchant took Bella behind him on his horse, as wasthe custom in those days, and rode off to the dwelling of the Beast. And when he got there and they alighted from his horse the doors ofthe house opened, and what do you think they saw there! Nothing. Sothey went up the steps and went through the hall, and went into thedining-room and there they saw a table spread with all manner ofbeautiful glasses and plates and dishes and napery, with plenty to eatupon it. So they waited and they waited, thinking that the owner ofthe house would appear, till at last the merchant said, "Let's sitdown and see what will happen then. " And when they sat down invisiblehands passed them things to eat and to drink, and they ate and drankto their heart's content. And when they arose from the table it arosetoo and disappeared through the door as if it were being carried byinvisible servants. 

Suddenly there appeared before them the Beast who said to themerchant, "Is this thy youngest daughter?" And when he had said thatit was, he said, "Is she willing to stop here with me?" And then helooked at Bella who said, in a trembling voice, "Yes, sir. "

"Well, no harm shall befall thee. " With that he led the merchant downto his horse and told him he might come that day week to visit hisdaughter. Then the Beast returned to Bella and said to her, "Thishouse with all that therein is thine; if thou desirest aught clapthine hands and say the word and it shall be brought unto thee. " Andwith that he made a sort of bow and went away. 

So Bella lived on in the home with the Beast and was waited on byinvisible servants and had whatever she liked to eat and to drink; butshe soon got tired of the solitude and, next day, when the Beast cameto her, though he looked so terrible, she had been so well treatedthat she had lost a great deal of her terror of him. So they spoketogether about the garden and about the house and about her father'sbusiness and about all manner of things, so that Bella lost altogetherher fear of the Beast. Shortly afterwards her father came to see herand found her quite happy, and he felt much less dread of her fate atthe hands of the Beast. So it went on for many days, Bella seeing andtalking to the Beast every day, till she got quite to like him, untilone day the Beast did not come at his usual time, just after themidday meal, and Bella quite missed him. So she wandered about thegarden trying to find him, calling out his name, but received noreply. At last she came to the rose-bush from which her father hadplucked the rose, and there, under it, what do you think she saw!There was the Beast lying huddled up without any life or motion. ThenBella was sorry indeed and remembered all the kindness that the Beasthad shown her; and she threw herself down by it and said, "Oh, Beast, Beast, why did you die? I was getting to love you so much. "

[Illustration: _Beauty and the Beast_]

No sooner had she said this than the hide of the Beast split in twoand out came the most handsome young prince who told her that he hadbeen enchanted by a magician and that he could not recover his naturalform unless a maiden should, of her own accord, declare that she lovedhim. 

Thereupon the prince sent for the merchant and his daughters, and hewas married to Bella, and they all lived happy together everafterwards. 

[Illustration: Reynard]

REYNARD AND BRUIN

You must know that once upon a time Reynard the Fox and Bruin the Bearwent into partnership and kept house together. Would you like to knowthe reason? Well, Reynard knew that Bruin had a beehive full ofhoneycomb, and that was what he wanted; but Bruin kept so close aguard upon his honey that Master Reynard didn't know how to get awayfrom him and get hold of the honey. So one day he said to Bruin, "Pardner, I have to go and be gossip--that means god-father, youknow--to one of my old friends. " "Why, certainly, " said Bruin. So offReynard goes into the woods, and after a time he crept back anduncovered the beehive and had such a feast of honey. Then he went backto Bruin, who asked him what name had been given to the child. Reynardhad forgotten all about the christening and could only say, "Just-begun. " "What a funny name, " said Master Bruin. 

A little while after Reynard thought he would like another feast ofhoney. So he told Bruin that he had to go to another christening; andoff he went. And when he came back and Bruin asked him what was thename given to the child Reynard said, "Half-eaten. " The third time thesame thing occurred, and this time the name given by Reynard to thechild that didn't exist was "All-gone, "--you can guess why. 

A short time afterwards Master Bruin thought he would like to eat upsome of his honey and asked Reynard to come and join him in the feast. When they got to the beehive Bruin was so surprised to find that therewas no honey left; and he turned round to Reynard and said, "Just-begun, Half-eaten, All-gone--so that is what you meant; you haveeaten my honey. " "Why no, " said Reynard, "how could that be? I havenever stirred from your side except when I went a-gossiping, and thenI was far away from here. You must have eaten the honey yourself, perhaps when you were asleep; at any rate we can easily tell; let uslie down here in the sunshine, and if either of us has eaten thehoney, the sun will soon sweat it out of us. " No sooner said thandone, and the two lay side by side in the sunshine. Soon Master Bruincommenced to doze, and Mr. Reynard took some honey from the hive andsmeared it round Bruin's snout; then he woke him up and said, "See, the honey is oozing out of your snout; you must have eaten it when youwere asleep. "

Some time after this Reynard saw a man driving a cart full of fish, which made his mouth water. So he ran and he ran and he ran till hegot far away in front of the cart and lay down in the road as still asif he were dead. When the man came up to him and saw him lying theredead, as he thought, he said to himself, "Why, that will make abeautiful red fox scarf and muff for my wife Ann. " And he got down andseized hold of Reynard and threw him into the cart all along with thefish, and then he went driving on as before. Reynard began to throwthe fish out till there were none left, and then he jumped out himselfwithout the man noticing it, who drove up to his door and called out, "Ann, Ann, see what I have brought you. " And when his wife came to thedoor she looked into the cart and said, "Why, there is nothing there. "

Reynard in the meantime had brought all his fish together and beganeating some when up comes Bruin and asked for a share. "No, no, " saidReynard, "we only share food when we have shared work. I fished forthese, you go and fish for others. "

"Why, how could you fish for these? the water is all frozen over, "said Bruin. 

"I'll soon show you, " said Reynard, and brought him down to the bankof the river, and pointed to a hole in the ice and said, "I put mytail in that, and the fish were so hungry I couldn't draw them upquick enough. Why do you not do the same?"

So Bruin put his tail down and waited and waited but no fish came. "Have patience, man, " said Reynard; "as soon as one fish comes therest will follow. "

"Ah, I feel a bite, " said Bruin, as the water commenced to freezeround his tail and caught it in the ice. 

[Illustration: Bruin Gets a Beating]

"Better wait till two or three have been caught and then you can catchthree at a time. I'll go back and finish my lunch. "

And with that Master Reynard trotted up to the man's wife and said toher, "Ma'am, there's a big black bear caught by the tail in the ice;you can do what you like with him. " So the woman called her husbandand they took big sticks and went down to the river and commencedwhacking Bruin who, by this time, was fast in the ice. He pulled andhe pulled and he pulled, till at last he got away leaving threequarters of his tail in the ice, and that is why bears have such shorttails up to the present day. 

Meanwhile Master Reynard was having a great time in the man's house, golloping everything he could find till the man and his wife came backand found him with his nose in the cream jug. As soon as he heard themcome in he tried to get away, but not before the man had seized holdof the cream jug and thrown it at him, just catching him on the tail, and that is the reason why the tips of foxes' tails are cream white tothis very day. 

[Illustration: Bruin Carries Reynard]

Well, Reynard crept home and found Bruin in such a state, whocommenced to grumble and complain that it was all Reynard's fault thathe had lost his tail. So Reynard pointed to his own tail and said, "Why, that's nothing; see my tail; they hit me so hard upon the headmy brains fell out upon my tail. Oh, how bad I feel; won't you carryme to my little bed. " So Bruin, who was a good-hearted soul, took himupon his back and rolled with him towards the house. And as he went onReynard kept saying, "The sick carries the sound, the sick carries thesound. "

"What's that you are saying?" asked Bruin. 

"Oh, I have no brains left, I do not know what I am saying, " saidReynard but kept on singing, "The sick carries the sound, ha, ha, thesick carries the sound. "

Then Bruin knew that he had been done and threw Reynard down upon theground, and would have eaten him up but that the fox slunk away andrushed into a briar bush. Bruin followed him closely into the briarbush and caught Reynard's hind leg in his mouth. Then Reynard calledout, "That's right, you fool, bite the briar root, bite the briarroot. "

Bruin thinking that he was biting the briar root, let go Reynard'sfoot and snapped at the nearest briar root. "That's right, now you'vegot me, don't hurt me too much, "

called out Reynard, and slunk away. 

 "Don't hurt me too much, don't hurt me too much. "

When Bruin heard Reynard's voice dying away in the distance he knewthat he had been done again, and that was the end of theirpartnership. 

Some time after this a man was plowing in the field with his two oxen, who were very lazy that day. So the man called out at them, "Get amove on or I'll give you to the Bear"; and when they didn't quickentheir pace he tried to frighten them by calling out, "Bear, Bear, comeand take these lazy oxen. " Sure enough, Bruin heard him and came outof the woods and said, "Here I am, give me the oxen, or else it'll beworse for you. " The man was in despair but said, "Yes, yes, of coursethey are yours, but please let me finish my morning's plowing so I mayfinish this acre. " Bruin could not say "No" to that, and sat downlicking his chops and waiting for the oxen. The man went on plowing, thinking what he should do, when just at the corner of the fieldReynard came up to him and said, "If you will give me two geese, I'llhelp you out of this fix and deliver the Bear into your hands. " Theman agreed and he told him what to do and went away into the woods. Soon after, the Bear and the man heard a noise like "Bow-wow, Bow-wow"; and the Bear came to the man and said, "What's that?" "Oh, that must be the lord's hounds out hunting for bears. " "Hide me, hideme, " said Bruin, "and I will let you off the oxen. " Then Reynardcalled out from the wood, "What's that black thing you've got there?"And the Bear said, "Say it's the stump of a tree. " So when the man hadcalled this out to the Fox, Reynard called out, "Put it in the cart;fix it with the chain; cut off the boughs, and drive your axe into thestump. " Then the Bear said to the man, "Pretend to do what he bidsyou; heave me into the cart; bind me with the chain; pretend to cutoff the boughs, and drive the axe into the stump. " So the man liftedBruin into the cart, bound him with the chain, then cut off his limbsand buried the axe in his head. 

Then Reynard came forward and asked for his reward, and the man wentback to his house to get the pair of geese that he had promised. 

"Wife, wife, " he called out, as he neared the house, "get me a pair ofgeese, which I have promised the Fox for ridding me of the Bear. "

"I can do better than that, " said his wife Ann, and brought him out abag with two struggling animals in it. 

"Give these to Master Reynard, " said she; "they will be geese enoughfor him. " So the man took the bag and went down to the field and gavethe bag to Reynard; but when he opened it out sprang two hounds, andhe had great trouble in running away from them to his den. 

When he got to his den the Fox asked each of his limbs, how they hadhelped him in his flight. His nose said, "I smelt the hounds"; hiseyes said, "We looked for the shortest way"; his ears said, "Welistened for the breathing of the hounds"; and his legs said, "We ranaway with you. " Then he asked his tail what it had done, and it said, "Why, I got caught in the bushes or made your leg stumble; that is allI could do. " So, as a punishment, the Fox stuck his tail out of hisden, and the hounds saw it and caught hold of it, and dragged the Foxout of his den by it and ate him all up. So that was the end of MasterReynard, and well he deserved it. Don't you think so?

[Illustration]

THE DANCING WATER, THE SINGING APPLE, AND THE SPEAKING BIRD

There was once an herb-gatherer who had three daughters who earnedtheir living by spinning. One day their father died and left them allalone in the world. Now the king had a habit of going about thestreets at night, and listening at the doors to hear what the peoplesaid of him. So one night he listened at the door of the house wherethe three sisters lived, and heard them disputing. The oldest said:"If I were the wife of the royal butler, I could give the whole courtto drink out of one glass of water, and there would be some left. "

The second said: "If I were the wife of the keeper of the royalwardrobe, with one piece of cloth I could clothe all the attendants, and have some left. "

But the youngest daughter said: "Were I the king's wife, I would bearhim two children: a son with a sun on his forehead, and a daughterwith a moon on her brow. "

The king went back to his palace, and the next morning sent for thesisters, and said to them: "Do not be frightened, but tell me what yousaid last night. " The oldest told him what she had said, and the kinghad a glass of water brought, and commanded her to prove her words. She took the glass, and gave all the attendants some water to drink, and still there was some water left. 

"Bravo!" cried the king, and summoned the butler. "This is yourhusband. Now it is your turn, " said the king to the next sister, andcommanded a piece of cloth to be brought, and the young girl at oncecut out garments for all the attendants, and had some cloth left. 

"Bravo!" cried the king again, and gave her the keeper of the wardrobefor her husband. "Now it is your turn, " said the king to theyoungest. 

"Please your Majesty, I said that if I were the king's wife, I wouldbear him two children: a son with a sun on his forehead, and adaughter with a moon on her brow. "

"If that is true, " replied the king, "you shall be my queen; if not, you shall die, " and straightway he married her. 

Very soon the two older sisters began to be envious of the youngest. "Look, " said they; "she is going to be queen, and we must beservants!" and they began to hate her. A few months before the queen'schildren were to be born, the king declared war, and was obliged to gowith his army, but he left word that if the queen had two children: ason with a sun on his forehead, and a girl with a moon on her brow, the mother was to be respected as queen; if not, he was to be informedof it, and would tell his servants what to do. Then he departed forthe war. 

When the queen's children were born, a son with a sun on his foreheadand a daughter with a moon on her brow, as she had promised, theenvious sisters bribed the nurse to put little dogs in the place ofthe queen's children, and sent word to the king that his wife hadgiven birth to two puppies. He wrote back that she should be takencare of for two weeks, and then put into a tread-mill. 

Meanwhile the nurse took the little babies, and carried them out ofdoors, saying: "I will make the dogs eat them up, " and she left themalone. While they were thus exposed, three fairies passed by andexclaimed: "Oh how beautiful these children are!" and one of thefairies said: "What present shall we make these children?" Oneanswered: "I will give them a deer to nurse them. " "And I a pursealways full of money. " "And I, " said the third fairy, "will give thema ring which will change colour when any misfortune happens to one ofthem. "

The deer nursed and took care of the children until they grew up. Thenthe fairy who had given them the deer came and said: "Now that youhave grown up, how can you stay here any longer?" "Very well, " saidthe brother, "I will go to the city and hire a house. " "Take care, "said the deer, "that you hire one opposite the royal palace. " So theywent to the city and hired a palace as directed, and furnished it asif they had been princes. When the aunts saw the brother and sister, imagine their terror! "They are alive!" they said. They could not bemistaken for there was the sun on the forehead of the son, and themoon on the girl's brow. They called the nurse and said to her:"Nurse, what does this mean? are our nephew and niece alive?" Thenurse watched at the window until she saw the brother go out, and thenshe went over as if to make a visit to the new house. She entered andsaid: "What is the matter, my daughter; how do you do? Are youperfectly happy? You lack nothing. But do you know what is necessaryto make you really happy? It is the Dancing Water. If your brotherloves you, he will get it for you!" She remained a moment longer andthen departed. 

[Illustration: _The Foster Mother_]

When the brother returned, his sister said to him; "Ah! my brother, ifyou love me go and get me the Dancing Water. " He consented, and nextmorning saddled a fine horse, and departed. On his way he met ahermit, who asked him, "Where are you going, cavalier?"

"I am going for the Dancing Water. " "You are going to your death, myson; but keep on until you find a hermit older than I. " He continuedhis journey until he met another hermit, who asked him the samequestion, and gave him the same direction. Finally he met a thirdhermit, older than the other two, with a white beard that came down tohis feet, who gave him the following directions: "You must climbyonder mountain. On top of it you will find a great plain and a housewith a beautiful gate. Before the gate you will see four giants withswords in their hands. Take heed; do not make a mistake; for if youdo, that is the end of you! When the giants have their eyes closed, donot enter; when they have their eyes open, enter. Then you will cometo a door. If you find it open, do not enter; if you find it shut, push it open and enter. Then you will find four lions. When they havetheir eyes shut, do not enter; when their eyes are open, enter, andyou will see the Dancing Water. " The youth took leave of the hermit, and hastened on his way. 

Meanwhile the sister kept looking at the ring constantly, to seewhether the stone in it changed colour; but as it did not, sheremained undisturbed. 

A few days after leaving the hermit the youth arrived at the top ofthe mountain, and saw the palace with the four giants before it. Theyhad their eyes shut, and the door was open. "No, " said the youth, "that won't do. " And so he remained on the lookout a while. When thegiants opened their eyes, and the door closed, he entered, waiteduntil the lions opened their eyes, and passed in. There he found theDancing Water, and filled his bottles with it, and escaped when thelions again opened their eyes. 

The aunts, meanwhile, were delighted because their nephew did notreturn; but in a few days he appeared and embraced his sister. Thenthey had two golden basins made, and put into them the Dancing Water, which leaped from one basin to the other. When the aunts saw it theyexclaimed: "Ah! how did he manage to get that water?" and called thenurse, who again waited until the sister was alone, and then visitedher. "You see, " said she, "how beautiful the Dancing Water is! But doyou know what you want now? The Singing Apple. " Then she departed. When the brother who had brought the Dancing Water returned, hissister said to him: "If you love me you must get for me the SingingApple. " "Yes, my sister, I will go and get it. "

Next morning he mounted his horse, and set out. After a time he metthe first hermit, who sent him to an older one. He asked the youthwhere he was going, and said: "It is a difficult task to get theSinging Apple, but hear what you must do: Climb the mountain; bewareof the giants, the door, and the lions; then you will find a littledoor and a pair of shears in it. If the shears are open, enter; ifclosed, do not risk it. " The youth continued his way, found thepalace, entered, and found everything favourable. When he saw theshears open, he went in a room and saw a wonderful tree, on top ofwhich was an apple. He climbed up and tried to pick the apple, but thetop of the tree swayed now this way, now that. He waited until it wasstill a moment, seized the branch, and picked the apple. He succeededin getting safely out of the palace, mounted his horse, and rode home, and all the time he was carrying the apple it kept on singing. 

The aunts were again delighted because their nephew was so longabsent; but when they saw him return, they felt as though the househad fallen on them. Again they summoned the nurse, and again shevisited the young girl, and said: "See how beautiful they are, theDancing Water and the Singing Apple! But should you see the SpeakingBird, there would be nothing left for you to see. " "Very well, " saidthe young girl; "we will see whether my brother will get it for me. "

When her brother came she asked him for the Speaking Bird, and hepromised to get it for her. He met, as usual on his journey, the firsthermit, who sent him to the second, who sent him on to a third one, who said to him: "Climb the mountain and enter the palace. You willfind many statues. Then you will come to a garden, in the midst ofwhich is a fountain, and on the basin is the Speaking Bird. If itshould say anything to you, do not answer. Pick a feather from thebird's wing, dip it into a jar you will find there, and anoint all thestatues. Keep your eyes open, and all will go well. "

The youth already knew well the way, and soon was in the palace. Hefound the garden and the bird, which, as soon as it saw him, exclaimed: "What is the matter, noble sir; have you come for me? Youhave missed it. Your aunts have sent you to your death, and you mustremain here. Your mother has been sent to the tread-mill. " "My motherin the tread-mill?" cried the youth, and scarcely were the words outof his mouth when he became a statue like all the others. 

Now when her brother did not come back the third time the sisterlooked at her ring, and it had become black, and she knew thatsomething had befallen him. Poor child! not having anything else todo, she dressed herself like a page and set out. 

Like her brother, she met the three hermits, and received theirinstructions. The third concluded thus: "Beware, for if you answerwhen the bird speaks you will lose your life, but if you speak not, itwill come to you; take one of its feathers and dip it in the jar youwill see there and anoint your brother's nostril with it. " Shecontinued her way, followed exactly the hermit's directions, andreached the garden in safety. When the bird saw her it exclaimed: "Ah!you here, too? Now you will meet the same fate as your brother. Do yousee him lying there? Your father is at the war. Your mother is in thetread-mill. Your aunts are rejoicing. "

But the sister made no reply, but let the bird sing on. When it hadnothing more to say it flew down, and the young girl caught it, pulleda feather from its wing, dipped it into the jar, and anointed herbrother's nostrils, and he at once came to life again. Then she didthe same with all the other statues, with the lions and the giants, until all became alive again. Then she departed with her brother, andall the noblemen, princes, barons, and kings' sons rejoiced greatly. Now when they had all come to life again the palace disappeared, andthe hermits disappeared, for they were the three fairies. 

The day after the brother and sister reached the city where theylived, they summoned a goldsmith, and had him make a gold chain, andfasten the bird with it. The next time the aunts looked out they sawin the window of the palace opposite the Dancing Water, the SingingApple, and the Speaking Bird. "Well, " said they, "the real trouble iscoming now!"

The bird directed the brother and sister to procure a carriage finerthan the king's, with twenty-four attendants, and to have the serviceof their palace, cooks, and servants, more numerous and better thanthe king's. All of which the brother and sister did at once. And whenthe aunts saw these things they were ready to die of rage. 

At last the king returned from the war, and his subjects told him allthe news of the kingdom, and the thing they talked about the least washis wife and children. One day the king looked out of the window andsaw the palace opposite furnished in a magnificent manner. "Who livesthere?" he asked, but no one could answer him. He looked again and sawthe brother and sister, the former with the sun on his forehead, andthe latter with the moon on her brow. "Gracious! if I did not knowthat my wife had given birth to puppies, I should say that those weremy children, " exclaimed the king. Another day he stood by the windowand enjoyed the Dancing Water and the Singing Apple, but the bird wassilent. 

After the king had heard all the music, the bird said: "What doesyour Majesty think of it?" The king was astonished at hearing theSpeaking Bird, and answered: "What should I think? It is marvellous. "

"There is something more marvellous, " said the bird; "just wait. "

Then the bird told his mistress to call her brother, and said: "Thereis the king; let us invite him to dinner on Sunday. Shall we not?"

"Yes, yes, " they said. So the king was invited and accepted, and onSunday the bird had a grand dinner prepared and the king came. When hesaw the young people near, he clapped his hands and said: "They mustbe my children. "

He went over the palace and was astonished at its richness. Then theywent to dinner, and while they were eating the king said: "Bird, everyone is talking; you alone are silent. "

"Ah! your Majesty, I am ill; but next Sunday I shall be well and ableto talk, and will come and dine at your palace with this lady and thisgentleman. "

The next Sunday the bird directed his mistress and her brother to puton their finest clothes; so they dressed in royal style and took thebird with them. The king showed them through his palace and treatedthem with the greatest ceremony; the aunts were nearly dead with fear. When they had seated themselves at the table, the king said: "Come, bird, you promised me you would speak; have you nothing to say?" Thenthe bird began and related all that had happened from the time theking had listened at the door until his poor wife had been sent to thetread-mill; then the bird added: "These are your children, and yourwife was sent to the tread-mill, and is dying. "

[Illustration: The King Begs Pardon]

When the king heard all this, he hastened to embrace his children, andthen went to find his poor wife, who was reduced to skin and bones andwas at the point of death. He knelt before her and begged her pardon, and then summoned her sisters and the nurse, and when they were in hispresence he said to the bird: "Bird, you who have told me everything, now pronounce their sentence. " Then the bird sentenced the nurse to bethrown out of the window, and the sisters to be cast into a cauldronof boiling oil. This was at once done. The king was never tired ofembracing his wife. Then the bird departed and the king and his wifeand children lived together in peace. 

[Illustration: The Girl and the Frog]

THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS

There was once a man who had a son named Jack, who was very simple inmind and backward in his thought. So his father sent him away toschool so that he might learn something; and after a year he came backfrom school. 

"Well, Jack, " said his father, "what have you learnt at school?"

And Jack said, "I know what dogs mean when they bark. "

"That's not much, " said his father. "You must go to school again. "

So he sent him to school for another year, and when he came back heasked him what he had learnt. 

"Well, father, " said the boy, "when frogs croak I know what theymean. "

"You must learn more than that, " said the father, and sent him oncemore to school. 

And when he returned, after another year, he asked him once more whathe had learnt. 

"I know all the birds say when they twitter and chirp, caw and coo, gobble and cluck. "

"Well I must say, " said the father, "that does not seem much for threeyears' schooling. But let us see if you have learnt your lessonsproperly. What does that bird say just above our heads in the treethere?"

Jack listened for some time but did not say anything. 

"Well, Jack, what is it?" asked his father. 

"I don't like to say, father. "

"I don't believe you know or else you would say. Whatever it is Ishall not mind. "

Then the boy said, "The bird kept on saying as clear as could be, 'thetime is not so far away when Jack's father will offer him water onbended knees for him to wash his hands; and his mother shall offer hima towel to wipe them with. '"

Thereupon the father grew very angry at Jack and his love for himchanged to hatred, and one day he spoke to a robber and promised himmuch money if he would take Jack away into the forest and kill himthere and bring back his heart to show that he had done what he hadpromised. But instead of doing this the robber told Jack all about itand advised him to flee away, while the robber took back to Jack'sfather the heart of a deer saying that it was Jack's. Then Jacktravelled on and on till one night he stopped at a castle on the way;and while they were all supping together in the castle hall the dogsin the court-yard began barking and baying. And Jack went up to thelord of the castle and said, "There will be an attack upon the castleto-night. "

"How do you know that?" asked the lord. 

"The dogs say so, " said Jack. 

At that the lord and his men laughed, but never-the-less put an extraguard around the castle that night, and, sure enough, the attack wasmade, which was easily beaten off because the men were prepared. Sothe lord gave Jack a great reward for warning him, and he went on hisway with a fellow traveller who had heard him warn the lord. 

Soon afterwards they arrived at another castle in which the lord'sdaughter was lying sick unto death; and a great reward had beenoffered to him that should cure her. Now Jack had been listening tothe frogs as they were croaking in the moat which surrounded thecastle. So Jack went to the lord of the castle and said, "I know whatails your daughter. "

"What is it, " asked the lord. 

"She has dropped the holy wafer from her mouth and it has beenswallowed by one of the frogs in the moat. "

"How do you know that?" said the lord. 

"I heard the frogs say so. "

At first the lord would not believe it; but in order to save hisdaughter's life he got Jack to point out the frog who was boasting ofwhat he had swallowed, and, catching it, found what Jack had said wastrue. The frog was caught and killed, the wafer got back, and the girlrecovered. So the lord gave Jack the reward which was promised, and hewent on further with his companion and with another guest of thecastle who had heard what Jack had said and done. 

So Jack, with his two companions, travelled on towards Rome, the cityof cities where dwelt the Pope, in those days the head of allChristendom. And as they were resting by the roadside Jack said to hiscompanions, "Who would have thought it? One of us is going to be thePope of Rome. "

And his comrades asked him how he knew. 

And he said, "The birds above in the tree have said so. "

And his comrades at first laughed at him, but then remembered thatwhat he had said before of the barking of dogs and of the croaking offrogs had turned out to be true. 

[Illustration: The Pope is Elected]

Now when they arrived at Rome they found that the Pope had just diedand that they were about to select his successor. And it was decidedthat all the people should pass under an arch whereon was a bell andtwo doves, and he upon whose shoulders the doves should alight, andfor whom the bell should ring as he passed under the arch was to bethe next Pope. And when Jack and his companions came near the archthey all remembered his prophecy and wondered which of the threeshould receive the signs. And his first comrade passed under the archand nothing happened, and then the second and nothing happened, butwhen Jack went through the doves descended and alighted upon hisshoulder and the bell began to toll. So Jack was made Pope of allChristendom, and he took the name of Pope Sylvester. 

After a while the new Pope went upon his travels and came to the townwhere his father dwelt. And there was a great banquet held, to whichJack's father and mother were invited at his request. And when theycame he ordered his servants to give to his father the basin of water, and to his mother the towel, wherewith the Pope would wash his handsafter dinner. Now this was, in those days, a great honour, and peoplewondered why Jack's father and mother should be so honoured. But afterJack's father had offered him the basin of water, and his mother thetowel, Jack said to them, "Do you not know me, mother? Do you not knowme, father?" and made himself known to them and reminded his father ofwhat the bird had said. So he forgave his father and took him and hismother to live with him ever afterwards. 

[Illustration]

THE THREE SOLDIERS

Once upon a time three soldiers returned from the wars; one was asergeant, one was a corporal, and the third was a simple private. Onenight they were caught in a forest and made a fire up to sleep by; andthe sergeant had to do sentry-go. While he was walking up and down anold woman, bent double, came up to him and said:

"Please, sir, may I warm myself by your fire?"

"Why, certainly, mother, you are welcome to all the warmth you canget. "

So the old woman sat by the fire for a time, and when she had gotthoroughly warmed she said to the sergeant:

"Thank you, soldier; here is something for your trouble. " And shehanded him a purse, which seemed to have nothing in it. 

"Oh, thank you, marm, " said the sergeant, "but I wouldn't deprive youof it, especially as there is nothing in it. "

"That may be so now, " said the old woman, "but take it in your handand turn it upside-down, and while you hold it like that goldpieces will come pouring out of it. "

[Illustration: _The Magic Purse_]

He took it, and, sure enough, whenever he held it up out came the goldpieces. So he thanked her very much, and off she went. 

Next night the corporal had to play sentry, and the old woman came upto him and asked to sit by the side of the fire. 

"Certainly, marm, " said he, "and welcome you are. I have known what itis to shiver in my bones. "

So the old woman sat by the fire for a time, and when she was leavinggave the corporal a tablecloth. 

Said he, "Thank you, marm, kindly, but we soldiers rarely usetablecloths when we are eating our vittles. "

"Yes, but this gives you vittles to eat, " said the old woman. "Whenever you put this over a table or on the ground and call out 'Becovered!' the finest dinner you could eat at once comes upon it. "

"If that is so, " said the corporal, "I'll take it and thank youkindly. " And with that the old woman departed, and the corporal wokeup his comrades and called out: "Tablecloth be covered!" And, sureenough, the finest dinner you could imagine appeared upon the cloth. 

Next night the private marched up and down doing sentry-go, when theold woman appeared again and asked to sit by the fire. 

"Surely, " said the private, "you're as welcome as my own mother wouldbe. "

And after she had sat some time by the fire she got up and said:

"Thank you kindly, sir; I hope this will pay you for your trouble. "And she gave him a whistle. 

"And what's this for?" said the private. "I can't play on thewhistle. "

"But you can blow it, " said she, "and whenever you blow it out willcome a regiment of armed men that will do whatever you tell them. "

And with that the old woman departed, and they never saw her more. 

So the three soldiers travelled on till they came to a city wherethere was a princess, who was so proud of her card playing that shehad agreed to marry any one who could beat her at cards. Now thesergeant was also very proud of his card playing, and he thought hewould try his luck with the princess. So when he went up to the palacehe offered to play a game with her, but she said to him:

"What are your stakes? If I lose I have to marry you. But if you losewhat do you lose?"

So the sergeant said: "I'll stake my purse. "

"Why, what's a purse with nothing in it!" said the princess. 

"There may be nothing in it now, " said the sergeant, "but see here, "and he turned the purse upside-down and put his hand under it, and itkept on dropping gold pieces into his hand as long as he held itupside-down. 

So the princess agreed to play for the purse. But she had arranged amirror at the back of his head in which she could see all his cards. And so she won easily, and he had to give up the purse. 

But this princess was so charming that the sergeant had fallen in lovewith her, and when he went back to his comrades he asked the corporalto lend him his tablecloth. And he went back to the princess and saidto her:

"Will you play me for this tablecloth?"

And she said: "It may be a very beautiful tablecloth but it isn'tquite equal to me. "

Then he laid it on a table and said, "Cloth, cover thyself. " And therewas a most delicious dinner spread upon it. 

But, as the princess knew she would be able to beat him, she agreed toplay him for the tablecloth, and, sure enough, by means of the mirror, she won the tablecloth from him. 

The same thing happened when he borrowed the whistle from the privateand tried his luck with the princess again. But this time he watchedwhat she was doing, and knew that she had cheated him though he darednot say so. He lost again and went back to his comrades and asked themto forgive him, but he could not help it as the princess had cheatedhim. So his friends forgave him, and they all went their variousways. 

Now the sergeant wandered along, and wandered along, and wanderedalong, till he came to the bank of a stream on which there grew figtrees, white and black. And he gathered some of these figs from thedifferent trees, and sat down by the bank to eat them. And he ate ablack fig, and then, feeling thirsty, went down to the stream to drinksome of the water, and as he looked in he found that he had two hornson the side of his head just like a goat, instead of two ears. Hedidn't know what to do; but as he was still hungry he ate one of thewhite figs; and when he went to drink again he found the horns haddisappeared. So then he knew that the black figs brought the horns andthe white figs took them away. So he gathered some more of them andwent back to the palace of the princess, and sent her up some of theblack figs as a present from an admirer. 

And after a while there was a rumour spread around the city that theprincess had horns in her head, and would give anything to any one whocould remove them. 

So the sergeant went up to the palace and presented himself before theprincess and said to her:

"I can remove your horns, but I want my purse, and my tablecloth, andmy whistle back. "

Then she ordered them to be brought and promised to give them back tohim as soon as the horns were removed. 

So he gave her a white fig, and as soon as she had eaten it the hornsdisappeared; and he took up the purse, the tablecloth, and thewhistle. Then he said to her:

[Illustration: The Princess Finds Horns on her Head]

"Now, will you marry me?"

"No, " she replied, "why should I?"

"Because you didn't win these fairly. "

"That may be, or that may not be, but I see no reason why I shouldmarry you. "

Thereupon he blew his whistle, and the palace was filled with aregiment of soldiers. And the sergeant said:

"If you do not marry me these men shall seize your father and I willseize his throne. "

So the princess married him, and he sent for the corporal and theprivate and made them rich and prosperous, and they all lived fairlyhappily together. 

[Illustration: The Unicorn]

A DOZEN AT A BLOW

A little tailor was sitting cross-legged at his bench and wasstitching away as busy as could be when a woman came up the streetcalling out: "Home-made jam, home-made jam!"

So the tailor called out to her: "Come here, my good woman, and giveme a quarter of a pound. "

And when she had poured it out for him he spread it on some bread andbutter and laid it aside for his lunch. But, in the summer-time, theflies commenced to collect around the bread and jam. 

When the tailor noticed this, he raised his leather strap and broughtit down upon the crowd of flies and killed twelve of themstraightway. He was mighty proud of that. So he made himself ashoulder-sash, on which he stitched the letters: A Dozen at One Blow. 

When he looked down upon this he thought to himself: "A man who coulddo such things ought not to stay at home; he ought to go out toconquer the world. "

So he put into his wallet the cream cheese that he had bought that dayand a favourite blackbird that used to hop about his shop, and wentout to seek his fortune. 

He hadn't gone far when he met a giant, and went up to him and said:"Well, comrade, how goes it with you?"

"Comrade, " sneered the giant, "a pretty comrade you would make forme. "

"Look at this, " said the tailor pointing to his sash. 

And when the giant read, "A Dozen at a Blow, " he thought to himself:"This little fellow is no fool of a fighter if what he says is true. But let's test him. "

So the giant said to the tailor: "If what you've got there is true, wemay well be comrades. But let's see if you can do what I can do. "

And he bent down in the road and took up a large stone and pressed itwith his hand till it all crushed up and water commenced to pour outfrom it. 

"Can you do that?" said the giant. 

The tailor also bent down in the road, but took out from his walletthe piece of cheese and pretended to pick it up. 

When he took it in his hand he pressed and pressed till the creampoured forth from it. 

The giant said: "Well, you can do that fairly well. Let's see if youcan throw. "

He took another stone and threw it till it went right across the riverby which they were standing. 

So the little tailor took his blackbird in his hand and pretended tothrow it, and of course when it felt itself in the air it flew awayand disappeared. 

The giant said: "That wasn't a bad throw. You may as well come homeand stop with us giants, and we'll do great things together. "

As they went along the giant said: "We want some twigs for our nightfires. You may as well help me carry some home. " And he pointed to atree that had fallen by the wayside and said: "Help me carry that, will you?"

So the tailor said, "Why certainly, " and went to the top of the tree, and said: "I'll carry these branches which are the heavier; you carrythe trunk which has no branches. "

And when the giant got the trunk on his shoulders the tailor seatedhimself on one of the branches and let the giant carry him along. 

After a time the giant got tired and said: "Ho there, wait a minute, I'm going to drop the tree and rest awhile. "

So the tailor jumped down and caught the tree around the branchesagain and said: "Well, you are easily tired. "

At last they got to the giant's castle and there the giant spoke tohis brothers and told them what a brave and powerful fellow thislittle tailor was. They spoke together and determined to get rid ofhim lest he might do them some harm. But they determined to kill himin the night because he was so strong and might kill twelve of them ata blow. 

But the tailor saw them whispering together, and guessing thatsomething was wrong went out into the yard and got a big bladder whichhe filled with blood and put it in the bed which the giants pointedout to him. 

Then he crept under it, and during the night they brought their bigclubs and hit the bed over and over again till the blood spurted outonto their faces. 

Then they thought the tailor was dead and went back to sleep. 

But in the morning there was the tailor as large as life. And theywere so surprised to see him that they asked him if he had not feltanything during the night. 

"Oh, I don't know, there seemed to be plenty of fleas in that bed, "said the tailor. "I do not think I would care to sleep there again. "And with that he took his leave of the giants and went on his way. 

After a time he came to the King's court and fell asleep under a tree. And some of the courtiers passing by saw written upon his sash, "ADozen at One Blow. "

They went and told the King who said: "Why, he's just the man for us;he will be able to destroy the wild boar and the unicorn that areravaging our kingdom. Bring him to us. "

So they woke up the little tailor and brought him to the King, whosaid to him: "There is a wild boar ravaging our kingdom. You are sopowerful that you will easily be able to capture it. "

"What shall I get if I do?" asked the little tailor. 

"Well, I have promised to give my daughter's hand and half the kingdomto the man who can do it, and other things. "

"What other things?" said the little tailor. 

"Oh, it will be time to learn that when you have caught the boar. "

Then the little tailor went out to the wood where the boar was lastseen, and when he came near him he ran away, and ran away, and ranaway, till at last he came to a little chapel in the wood into whichhe ran, and the boar at his heels. He climbed up to a high window andgot outside the chapel, and then rushed around to the door and closedand locked it. 

Then he went back to the King and said to him: "I have your wild boarfor you in the chapel in the woods. Send some of your men to kill him, or do what you like with him. "

"How did you manage to get him there?" said the King. 

"Oh, I caught him by the bristles and threw him in there as I thoughtyou wanted to have him safe and sound. What's the next thing I mustdo?"

"Well, " said the King, "there's a unicorn in this country killingeveryone that he meets. I do not want him slain; I want him caught andbrought to me. "

So the little tailor said, "Give me a rope and a hatchet and I willsee what I can do. "

So he went with the rope and hatchet to the wood, where the unicornhad been seen. And when he came towards it he dodged it, and he dodgedit, till at last he dodged behind a big tree, till the unicorn, intrying to pierce, ran his horn into the tree where it stuck fast. 

Then the little tailor came forth and tied the rope around theunicorn's neck, and dug out the horn with his hatchet, and dragged theunicorn to the King. 

"What's the next thing?" said the little tailor. 

"Well, there is only one thing more. There are two giants who aredestroying everybody they meet. Get rid of them, and my daughter andthe half of my kingdom shall be yours. "

Then the little tailor went to seek the giants and found them sleepingunder some trees in the woods. He filled his box with stones, climbedup a tree overlooking the giants, and when he had hidden himself inthe branches he threw a stone at the chest of one of the giants whowoke up and said to his brother giant, "What are you doing there?"

And the other giant woke up and said, "I have done nothing. "

"Well, don't do it again, " said the other giant, and laid down tosleep again. 

Then the tailor threw a stone at the other giant and hit him a whackon the chin. That giant rose up and said to his fellow giant, "What doyou do that for?"

"Do what?"

"Hit me on the chin. "

"I didn't. "

"You did. "

"I didn't. "

"You did. "

"Well, take that for not doing it. "

And with that the other giant hit him a rousing blow on the head. Withthat they commenced fighting and tore up the trees and hit one anothertill at last one of them was killed, and the other one was so badlyinjured that the tailor had no difficulty in killing him with hishatchet. 

Then he went back to the King and said: "I have got rid of yourgiants for you; send your men and bury them in the forest. They toreup the trees and tried to kill me with them but I was too much forthem. Now for the Princess. "

Well, the King had nothing more to say, and gave him his daughter inmarriage and half the kingdom to rule. 

But shortly after they were married the Princess heard the tailorsaying in his sleep: "Fix that button better; baste that side gore;don't drop your stitches like that. "

And then she knew she had married a tailor. And she went to her fatherweeping bitterly and complained. 

"Well, my dear, " he said, "I promised, and he certainly showed himselfa great hero. But I will try and get rid of him for you. To-night Iwill send into your bedroom a number of soldiers that shall slay himeven if he can kill a dozen at a blow. "

So that night the little tailor noticed there was something wrong andheard the soldiers moving about near the bedroom. So he pretended tofall asleep and called out in his sleep: "I have killed a dozen at ablow; I have slain two giants; I have caught a wild boar by hisbristles, and captured a unicorn alive. Show me the man that I needfear. "

And when the soldiers heard that they said to the Princess that thejob was too much for them, and went away. 

And the Princess thought better of it, and was proud of her littlehero, and they lived happily ever afterwards. 

[Illustration: The Earl of Cattenborough will be Pleased to Partake ofa Potato]

THE EARL OF CATTENBOROUGH

Once upon a time there was a miller who had three sons, Charles, Sam, and John. And every night when the servant went to bed he used to callout:

"Good-night, Missus; good-night, Master; Good-night, Charles, Sam, John. "

Now after a time the miller's wife died, and, soon after, the miller, leaving only the mill, the donkey, and the cat. And Charles, as theeldest, took the mill, and Sam took the donkey and went off with it, and John was left with only the cat. 

Now how do you think the cat used to help John to live? She used totake a bag with a string around the top and place it with some cheesein the bushes, and when a hare or a partridge would come and try toget the piece of cheese--snap! Miss Puss would draw the string andthere was the hare or partridge for Master Jack to eat. One day twohares happened to rush into the bag at the same time. So the cat, after giving one to Jack, took the other and went with it to theKing's palace. And when she came outside the palace gate she criedout, "Miaou. "

The sentry at the gate came to see what was the matter. Miss Puss gavehim the hare with a bow and said: "Give this to the King with thecompliments of the Earl of Cattenborough. "

The King liked jugged hare very much and was glad to get such a finepresent. 

Shortly after this Miss Puss found a gold coin rolling in the dirt. And she went up to the palace and asked the sentry if he would lendher a corn measure. 

The sentry asked who wanted it. And Puss said: "My Master, the Earl ofCattenborough. "

So the sentry gave her the corn measure. And a little while afterwardsshe took it back with the gold coin, which she had found, fixed in acrack in the corn measure. 

So the King was told that the Earl of Cattenborough measured his goldin a corn measure. When the King heard this he told the sentry that ifsuch a thing happened again he was to deliver a message asking theEarl to come and stop at the palace. 

Some time after the cat caught two partridges, and took one of them tothe palace. And when she called out, "Miaou, " and presented it to thesentry, in the name of the Earl of Cattenborough, the sentry told herthat the King wished to see the Earl at his palace. 

So Puss went back to Jack and said to him: "The King desires to seethe Earl of Cattenborough at his palace. "

"What is that to do with me?" said Jack. 

"Oh, you can be the Earl of Cattenborough if you like. I'll help you. "

"But I have no clothes, and they'll soon find out what I am when Italk. "

"As for that, " said Miss Puss, "I'll get you proper clothes if you dowhat I tell you; and when you come to the palace I will see that youdo not make any mistakes. "

So next day she told Jack to take off his clothes and hide them undera big stone and dip himself into the river. And while he was doingthis she went up to the palace gate and said: "Miaou, miaou, miaou!"

And when the sentry came to the gate she said: "My Master, the Earl ofCattenborough, has been robbed of all he possessed, even of hisclothes, and he is hiding in the bramble bush by the side of theriver. What is to be done? What is to be done?"

The sentry went and told the King. And the King gave orders that asuitable suit of clothes, worthy of an Earl, should be sent to MasterJack, who soon put them on and went to the King's palace accompaniedby Puss. When they got there they were introduced into the chamber ofthe King, who thanked Jack for his kind presents. 

Miss Puss stood forward and said: "My Master, the Earl ofCattenborough, desires to state to your Majesty that there is no needof any thanks for such trifles. "

The King thought it was very grand of Jack not to speak directly tohim, and summoned his lord chamberlain, and from that time onward onlyspoke through him. Thus, when they sat down to dinner with the Queenand the Princess, the King would say to his chamberlain, "Will theEarl of Cattenborough take a potato?"

Whereupon Miss Puss would bow and say: "The Earl of Cattenboroughthanks his Majesty and would be glad to partake of a potato. "

The King was so much struck by Jack's riches and grandeur, and thePrincess was so pleased with his good looks and fine dress that it wasdetermined that he should marry the Princess. 

But the King thought he would try and see if he were really so noblyborn and bred as he seemed. So he told his servants to put a meantruckle bed in the room in which Jack was to sleep, knowing that nonoble would put up with such a thing. 

When Miss Puss saw this bed she at once guessed what was up. And whenJack began to undress to get into bed, she made him stop, and calledthe attendants to say that he could not sleep in such a bed. 

So they took him into another bedroom, where there was a finefour-poster with a dais, and everything worthy of a noble to sleepupon. Then the King became sure that Jack was a real noble, andmarried him soon to his daughter the Princess. 

After the wedding feast was over the King told Jack that he and theQueen and the Princess would come with him to his castle ofCattenborough, and Jack did not know what to do. But Miss Puss toldhim it would be all right if he only didn't speak much while on thejourney. And that suited Jack very well. 

So they all set out in a carriage with four horses, and with theKing's life-guards riding around it. But Miss Puss ran on in front ofthe carriage, and when she came to a field where men were mowing downthe hay she pointed to the life-guards riding along, and said: "Men, if you do not say that this field belongs to the Earl of Cattenboroughthose soldiers will cut you to pieces with their swords. "

So when the carriage came along the King called one of the men to theside of it and said, "Whose is this field?"

And the man said, "It belongs to the Earl of Cattenborough. "

And the King turned to his son-in-law and said, "I did not know thatyou had estates so near us. "

And Jack said, "I had forgotten it myself. "

And this only confirmed the King in his idea about Jack's greatwealth. 

A little farther on there was another great field in which men wereraking hay. And Miss Puss spoke to them as before. So, when thecarriage came up, they also declared that this field belonged to theEarl of Cattenborough. And so it went on through the whole drive. Thenthe King said, "Let us now go to your castle. "

Then Jack looked at Miss Puss, and she said: "If your Majesty will butwait an hour I will go on before and order the castle to be made readyfor you. "

With that she jumped away and went to the castle of a great ogre andasked to see him. When she came into his presence she said:

"I have come to give you warning. The King with all his army is comingto the castle and will batter its walls down and kill you if he findsyou here. "

"What shall I do? What shall I do?" said the ogre. 

"Is there no place where you can hide yourself?"

"I am too big to hide, " said the ogre, "but my mother gave me apowder, and when I take that I can make myself as small as I like. "

"Well, why not take it now?" said the cat. 

[Illustration: The Cat and the Ogre]

And with that he took the powder and shrunk into a little body nobigger than a mouse. And thereupon Miss Puss jumped upon him and atehim all up, and then went down into the great yard of the castle andtold the guards that it now belonged to her Master the Earl ofCattenborough. Then she ordered them to open the gates and let in theKing's carriage, which came along just then. 

The King was delighted to find what a fine castle his son-in-lawpossessed, and left his daughter the Princess with him at the castlewhile he drove back to his own palace. And Jack and the Princesslived happily in the castle. 

But one day Miss Puss felt very ill and lay down as if dead, and thechamberlain of the castle went to Jack and said:

"My lord, your cat is dead. "

And Jack said: "Well, throw her out on the dunghill. "

But Miss Puss, when she heard it, called out: "Had you not betterthrow me into the mill stream?"

And Jack remembered where he had come from and was frightened that thecat would say. So he ordered the physician of the castle to attend toher, and ever after gave her whatever she wanted. 

[Illustration: "Had You not Better Throw me into the Millstream?"]

And when the King died he succeeded him, and that was the end of theEarl of Cattenborough. 

[Illustration: The Child Finds the Feather Dress]

THE SWAN MAIDENS

There was once a hunter who used often to spend the whole nightstalking the deer or setting traps for game. Now it happened one nightthat he was watching in a clump of bushes near the lake for some wildducks that he wished to trap. Suddenly he heard, high up in the air, awhirring of wings and thought the ducks were coming; and he strung hisbow and got ready his arrows. But instead of ducks there appearedseven maidens all clad in robes made of feathers, and they alighted onthe banks of the lake, and taking off their robes plunged into thewaters and bathed and sported in the lake. They were all beautiful, but of them all the youngest and smallest pleased most the hunter'seye, and he crept forward from the bushes and seized her dress ofplumage and took it back with him into the bushes. 

After the swan maidens had bathed and sported to their heart'sdelight, they came back to the bank wishing to put on their featherrobes again; and the six eldest found theirs, but the youngest couldnot find hers. They searched and they searched till at last the dawnbegan to appear, and the six sisters called out to her:

"We must away; 'tis the dawn; you meet your fate whatever it be. " Andwith that they donned their robes and flew away, and away, and away. 

When the hunter saw them fly away he came forward with the featherrobe in his hand; and the swan maiden begged and begged that he wouldgive her back her robe. He gave her his cloak but would not give herher robe, feeling that she would fly away. And he made her promise tomarry him, and took her home, and hid her feather robe where she couldnot find it. So they were married and lived happily together and hadtwo fine children, a boy and a girl, who grew up strong and beautiful;and their mother loved them with all her heart. 

One day her little daughter was playing at hide-and-seek with herbrother, and she went behind the wainscoting to hide herself, andfound there a robe all made of feathers, and took it to her mother. Assoon as she saw it she put it on and said to her daughter:

"Tell father that if he wishes to see me again he must find me in theLand East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon;" and with that she flewaway. 

When the hunter came home next morning his little daughter told himwhat had happened and what her mother said. So he set out to find hiswife in the Land East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon. And he wanderedfor many days till he came across an old man who had fallen on theground, and he lifted him up and helped him to a seat and tended himtill he felt better. 

Then the old man asked him what he was doing and where he was going. And he told him all about the swan maidens and his wife, and he askedthe old man if he had heard of the Land East o' the Sun and West o'the Moon. 

And the old man said: "No, but I can ask. "

Then he uttered a shrill whistle and soon all the plain in front ofthem was filled with all of the beasts of the world, for the old manwas no less than the King of the Beasts. 

And he called out to them: "Who is there here that knows where theLand is East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon?" But none of the beastsknew. 

Then the old man said to the hunter: "You must go seek my brother whois the King of the Birds, " and told him how to find his brother. 

And after a time he found the King of the Birds, and told him what hewanted. So the King of the Birds whistled loud and shrill, and soonthe sky was darkened with all the birds of the air, who came aroundhim. Then he asked:

"Which of you knows where is the Land East o' the Sun and West o' theMoon?"

And none answered, and the King of the Birds said:

"Then you must consult my brother the King of the Fishes, " and he toldhim how to find him. 

And the hunter went on, and he went on, and he went on, till he cameto the King of the Fishes, and he told him what he wanted. And theKing of the Fishes went to the shore of the sea and summoned all thefishes of the sea. And when they came around him he called out:

"Which of you knows where is the Land East o' the Sun and West o' theMoon?"

And none of them answered, till at last a dolphin that had come latecalled out:

"I have heard that at the top of the Crystal Mountain lies the LandEast o' the Sun and West o' the Moon; but how to get there I know notsave that it is near the Wild Forest. "

So the hunter thanked the King of the Fishes and went to the WildForest. And as he got near there he found two men quarrelling, and ashe came near they came towards him and asked him to settle theirdispute. 

"Now what is it?" said the hunter. 

[Illustration: The Dolphin who Came Late]

"Our father has just died and he has left but two things, this capwhich, whenever you wear it, nobody can see you, and these shoon, which will carry you through the air to whatever place you will. Now Ibeing the elder claim the right of choice, which of these two I shallhave; and he declares that, as the younger, he has the right to theshoon. Which do you think is right?"

So the hunter thought and thought, and at last he said:

"It is difficult to decide, but the best thing I can think of is foryou to race from here to that tree yonder, and whoever gets back to mefirst I will hand him either the shoes or the cap, whichever hewishes. "

So he took the shoes in one hand and the cap in the other, and waitedtill they had started off running towards the tree. And as soon asthey had started running towards the tree he put on the shoes ofswiftness and placed the invisible cap on his head and wished himselfin the Land East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon. And he flew, and heflew, and he flew, over seven Bends, and seven Glens, and sevenMountain Moors, till at last he came to the Crystal Mountain. And onthe top of that, as the dolphin had said, there was the Land East o'the Sun and West o' the Moon. 

Now when he got there he took off his invisible cap and shoes ofswiftness and asked who ruled over the Land; and he was told thatthere was a King who had seven daughters who dressed in swans'feathers and flew wherever they wished. 

Then the hunter knew that he had come to the Land of his wife. And hewent boldly to the King and said:

"Hail O King, I have come to seek my wife. "

And the King said, "Who is she?"

And the hunter said, "Your youngest daughter. " Then he told him how hehad won her. 

Then the King said: "If you can tell her from her sisters then I knowthat what you say is true. " And he summoned his seven daughters tohim, and there they all were, dressed in their robes of feathers andlooking each like all the rest. 

So the hunter said: "If I may take each of them by the hand I willsurely know my wife"; for when she had dwelt with him she had sewn thelittle shifts and dresses of her children, and the forefinger of herright hand had the marks of the needle. 

And when he had taken the hand of each of the swan maidens he soonfound which was his wife and claimed her for his own. Then the Kinggave them great gifts and sent them by a sure way down the CrystalMountain. 

And after a while they reached home, and lived happily together everafterwards. 

[Illustration: _East o' the Sun & West o' the Moon_]

[Illustration: Androcles and the Lion]

ANDROCLES AND THE LION

It happened in the old days at Rome that a slave named Androclesescaped from his master and fled into the forest, and he wanderedthere for a long time till he was weary and well nigh spent withhunger and despair. Just then he heard a lion near him moaning andgroaning and at times roaring terribly. Tired as he was Androcles roseup and rushed away, as he thought, from the lion; but as he made hisway through the bushes he stumbled over the root of a tree and felldown lamed, and when he tried to get up there he saw the lion comingtowards him, limping on three feet and holding his fore-paw in frontof him. Poor Androcles was in despair; he had not strength to rise andrun away, and there was the lion coming upon him. But when the greatbeast came up to him instead of attacking him it kept on moaning andgroaning and looking at Androcles, who saw that the lion was holdingout his right paw, which was covered with blood and much swollen. Looking more closely at it Androcles saw a great big thorn pressedinto the paw, which was the cause of all the lion's trouble. Pluckingup courage he seized hold of the thorn and drew it out of the lion'spaw, who roared with pain when the thorn came out, but soon afterfound such relief from it that he fawned upon Androcles and showed, inevery way that he knew, to whom he owed the relief. Instead of eatinghim up he brought him a young deer that he had slain, and Androclesmanaged to make a meal from it. For some time the lion continued tobring the game he had killed to Androcles, who became quite fond ofthe huge beast. 

But one day a number of soldiers came marching through the forest andfound Androcles, and as he could not explain what he was doing theytook him prisoner and brought him back to the town from which he hadfled. Here his master soon found him and brought him before theauthorities, and he was condemned to death because he had fled fromhis master. Now it used to be the custom to throw murderers and othercriminals to the lions in a huge circus, so that while the criminalswere punished the public could enjoy the spectacle of a combat betweenthem and the wild beasts. So Androcles was condemned to be thrown tothe lions, and on the appointed day he was led forth into the Arenaand left there alone with only a spear to protect him from the lion. The Emperor was in the royal box that day and gave the signal for thelion to come out and attack Androcles. But when it came out of itscage and got near Androcles, what do you think it did? Instead ofjumping upon him it fawned upon him and stroked him with its paw andmade no attempt to do him any harm. It was of course the lion whichAndrocles had met in the forest. The Emperor, surprised at seeing sucha strange behaviour in so cruel a beast, summoned Androcles to him andasked him how it happened that this particular lion had lost all itscruelty of disposition. So Androcles told the Emperor all that hadhappened to him and how the lion was showing its gratitude for hishaving relieved it of the thorn. Thereupon the Emperor pardonedAndrocles and ordered his master to set him free, while the lion wastaken back into the forest and let loose to enjoy liberty once more. 

[Illustration: Day-Dreaming]

DAY-DREAMING

Now there was once a man at Bagdad who had seven sons, and when hedied he left to each of them one hundred dirhems; and his fifth son, called Alnaschar the Babbler, invested all this money in someglassware, and, putting it in a big tray, from which to show and sellit, he sat down on a raised bench, at the foot of a wall, againstwhich he leant back, placing the tray on the ground in front of him. As he sat he began day-dreaming and said to himself: "I have laid outa hundred dirhems on this glass. Now I will surely sell it for twohundred, and with it I will buy more glass and sell that for fourhundred; nor will I cease to buy and sell till I become master ofmuch wealth. With this I will buy all kinds of merchandise and jewelsand perfumes and gain great profit on them till, God willing, I willmake my capital a hundred thousand dinars or two million dirhems. ThenI will buy a handsome house, together with slaves and horses andtrappings of gold, and eat and drink, nor will there be a singing girlin the city but I will have her to sing to me. " This he said lookingat the tray before him with glassware worth a hundred dirhems. Then hecontinued: "When I have amassed a hundred thousand dinars I will sendout marriage-brokers to demand for me in marriage the hand of theVizier's daughter, for I hear that she is perfect in beauty and ofsurpassing grace. I will give her a dowry of a thousand dinars, and ifher father consent, 'tis well; if not, I will take her by force, inspite of him. When I return home, I will buy ten little slaves andclothes for myself such as are worn by kings and sultans and get asaddle of gold, set thick with precious jewels. Then I will mount andparade the city, with slaves before and behind me, while the peoplewill salute me and call down blessings upon me: after which I will goto the Vizier, the girl's father, with slaves behind and before me, aswell as on either hand. When the Vizier sees me, he will rise andseating me in his own place, sit down below me, because I am hisson-in-law. Now I will have with me two slaves with purses, in each athousand dinars, and I will give him the thousand dinars of the dowryand make him a present of another thousand dinars so that he mayrecognize my nobility and generosity and greatness of mind and thelittleness of the world in my eyes; and for every ten words he willsay to me, I will answer him only two. Then I will return to my house, and if any one come to me on the bride's part, I will make him apresent of money and clothe him in a robe of honour; but if he bringme a present I will return it to him and will not accept it so thatthey may know how great of soul I am. " After a while Alnascharcontinued: "Then I will command them to bring the Vizier's daughter tome in state and will get ready my house in fine condition to receiveher. When the time of the unveiling of the bride is come, I will puton my richest clothes and sit down on a couch of brocaded silk, leaning on a cushion and turning my eyes neither to the right nor tothe left, to show the haughtiness of my mind and the seriousness of mycharacter. My bride shall stand before me like the full moon, in herrobes and ornaments, and I, out of my pride and my disdain, will notlook at her, till all who are present shall say to me: 'O my lord, thywife and thy handmaid stands before thee; deign to look upon her, forstanding is irksome to her. ' And they will kiss the earth before memany times, whereupon I will lift my eyes and give one glance at her, then bend down my head again. Then they will carry her to thebride-chamber, and meanwhile I will rise and change my clothes for aricher suit. When they bring in the bride for the second time, I willnot look at her till they have implored me several times, when I willglance at her and bow down my head; nor will I cease doing thus, tillthey have made an end of parading and displaying her. Then I willorder one of my slaves to fetch a purse, and, giving it to thetire-women, command them to lead her to the bride-chamber. When theyleave me alone with the bride, I will not look at her or speak to her, but will sit by her with averted face, that she may say I am high ofsoul. Presently her mother will come to me and kiss my head and handsand say to me: 'O my lord, look on thy handmaid, for she longs for thyfavour, and heal her spirit, ' But I will give her no answer; and whenshe sees this, she will come and kiss my feet and say, 'O my lord, verily my daughter is a beautiful girl, who has never seen man; and ifthou show her this aversion, her heart will break; so do thou begracious to her and speak to her. ' Then she will rise and fetch a cupof wine, and her daughter will take it and come to me; but I willleave her standing before me, while I recline upon a cushion of clothof gold, and will not look at her to show the haughtiness of my heart, so that she will think me to be a Sultan of exceeding dignity and willsay to me: 'O my lord, for God's sake, do not refuse to take the cupfrom thy servant's hand, for indeed I am thy handmaid. ' But I will notspeak to her, and she will press me, saying: 'Needs must thou drinkit, ' and put it to my lips. Then I will shake my fist in her face andspurn her with my foot thus. " So saying, he gave a kick with his footand knocked over the tray of glass, which fell over to the ground, andall that was in it was broken. 

KEEP COOL

There was once a man and he had three sons, and when he died they allhad to go out to seek a living. So the eldest went out first, leavinghis two brothers at home, and went to a neighbouring farmer to try andget work from him. 

"Well, well, my man, " said the farmer, "I can give you work but ononly one condition. "

"What is that?"

"I cannot abear any high talk on my farm. You must keep cool and notlose your temper. "

"Oh, never bother about that, " said the youngster, "I never lose mytemper, or scarcely ever. "

"Ah, but if you do, " said the farmer, "I make it a condition that Ishall tear a strip of your skin from your nape to your waist; thatwill make a pretty ribbon to tie around the throat of my dog there. "

"That doesn't suit me, " was the reply. "So fare thee well, master, Imust try another place. "

"Keep cool, keep cool, " said the farmer. "I am a just man; what's goodfor the man I consider good for the master. So if I should lose mytemper I am quite willing that you should take the ribbon of fleshfrom my back. "

"Oh, if that's so, " said the youngster, "I'll agree to stay. But wemust have it in black and white. "

So they sent for the notary and wrote it all down that if either losthis temper he should also lose a strip of skin from his back. But theeldest son had not been in the house a week when the master gave himso hard a task that he lost his temper and had to give up a strip ofskin from his back. So he went home and told his brothers about it. 

Well, the brothers were savage at hearing what he had suffered. Andthe second son went to the same man in the hope of getting revenge forhis brother. But the same thing happened to him, and he had to comewith a strip of skin from his back like his elder brother. 

Now the third son, whose name was Jack, made up his mind he wouldn'tbe done like the other two. And he went to the man and he engagedhimself to serve him for the same wage but on the same conditions thathis two brothers had done. 

The very first morning that Jack had to go out to work his master gavehim a piece of dry bread and told him to mind the sheep. 

"Is this all I'm to get to eat?" said Jack. 

"Why, yes, " said the master; "there'll be supper when you come home. "

Jack was going to complain when his master called out to him, "Keepcool, Jack, keep cool, " and pointed to his back. 

So Jack swallowed his rage and went out into the field. But on his wayhe met a man, to whom he sold one of the sheep for five shillings, andwent and bought enough to eat and drink for a whole week. 

When he got home that evening his master began to count the sheep, andwhen he found one was missing, he said to Jack:

"You've let one of the sheep run away. "

"No, no, sir, " said Jack, "I sold him to a man passing along. "

"You shouldn't have done that without my telling you; but where's themoney?"

"Oh, with the money, " said Jack, "I went and bought me some eats. " Andhe showed him what he had bought. 

The master was going to fly in a rage, but Jack said to him: "Keepcool, master, keep cool, " and pointed to his back. So he rememberedand said nothing more. 

The next day Jack was ordered to take the pigs to market to sell them, and after he had cut off all their tails he sold them and pocketed themoney; and then he went to a marsh near the farm and planted all thetails in the marsh. 

When he got home the master asked him if he had sold the pigs. 

He said: "No, they all rushed into the marsh at the foot of thevalley. "

"I don't believe you, " said the master, and was going to get into arage when Jack said to him:

"Keep cool, master, keep cool. "

So he went with Jack to the marsh, and when he saw the pigs' tails allpeeping out the marsh he went and plucked one of them out of theground, and Jack said:

"There, you've torn the tail from the poor pig's back. "

Then the master was going to get into a rage again but Jack said:"Keep cool, master, keep cool, " and pointed to his back. 

Next day the master didn't like sending Jack out with the animals orelse he might sell them to get some dinner. So he said to him:

"Jack, I want you today to clean the horses and the stable within andwithout. "

"Very well, master, " said Jack, and went to the stable; and hewhitewashed it within and he whitewashed it without. Then he went tothe horses and killed them and took out their insides and cleaned themwithin; and then he washed their skins. 

In the evening the master came to see how Jack had got on with hiswork and was delighted to find the stable looking so clean. 

"But where are the horses?" he said; and Jack pointed to them lyingdead on their backs. 

"Why, what have you done?" said the master. 

"You told me to clean them within and without and how could I cleanthem within without killing them?" said Jack. 

Then the master was just going to fly into a rage, when Jack said tohim: "Keep cool, master, keep cool, " and pointed to his back. 

So next day the master had sent Jack out with the sheep, but so thathe should not sell any of them to get money for his lunch he sent hiswife with them telling her to watch Jack from behind a bush, and if hetried to sell any of the sheep to stop him. But Jack saw her anddidn't say anything or try and sell any of the sheep. 

But next day, when he went out with them, he took with him his gun, and when the farmer's wife got behind the bush to watch him, he calledout: "Ah, wolf, I see you, " and fired his gun at her and hit her inthe leg. She screamed out, and the master came running up and said:

"What's this, Jack, what's this?"

Then Jack said: "Why, master, I thought that was a wolf and I shot mygun at it and it turned out to be the missus. "

"How dare you, you scoundrel, shoot my wife!" cried out the master. 

"Don't be in a rage, master, don't be in a rage, " said Jack. 

"Anybody would be in a rage if his wife was shot, " said the master. 

"Well, then, " said Jack, "I'll have that strip off your back. " And asthere were witnesses present the master had to let Jack take a stripof skin from his back. 

And with that he went home to his brothers. 

[Illustration: The Pig's Tail]

[Illustration: The Dummy]

THE MASTER THIEF

There was once a farmer who had a son named Will, and he sent him outin the world to learn a trade and seek his fortune. Now he hadn't gonefar when he was stopped by a band of robbers who called out to him:

"Your purse or your life!"

And he gave them his purse and said: "That is an easy way of gettingmoney, I'd like to be a robber myself. "

So they agreed to take him into their band if he could show he wasable to do a robber's work. And the first person who went through thewood again they sent Will to see if he could rob him. So he went up tothe man and said to him:

"Your purse or your life!"

The man gave him his purse, whereupon Will took all the money out ofit and gave it back to the man and took the purse back to the robbers, who said:

"Well, what luck?"

"Oh, I got his purse from him quite easily; here it is. "

"Well, what about the money?" said they. 

"Well, that I gave back to him. You only asked me to say, 'Your purseor your life. '"

At that the robbers roared with laughter and said: "You'll never be athief. "

Will was quite ashamed of making such a fool of himself and determinedhe would do better next time. 

So one day he saw two farmers driving a herd of cattle to market, andtold the robbers that he knew a way to take the cattle from themwithout fighting for them. 

"If you do that, " said they, "you will be a Master Thief. "

Then Will went a little way ahead of the robbers with a stout cord, which he tied under his armpits and then fixed himself upon a branchof a tree over the road so that it looked as if he had been hanged. 

When the farmers came with their cattle they said: "There's one of therobbers hung up for an example, " and drove their cattle on farther. 

Then Will got down, and running across a bypath got again in front ofthe farmers and hung himself up as before on a tree by the side of theroad. 

When the farmers came up to him one of them said: "Goodness graciousme, why there's the same robber hanged up here again. "

"Oh, that's not the same robber, " said the other. 

"Yes, it is, " said the first, "for I noticed he had a white hornbutton on his coat, and see, there it is. It must be the same man. "

"How could that be?" said the other. "We left that one hanging up deadhalf a mile back. "

"I am sure it is. "

"I am certain it isn't. "

"Well, give a good look at him, and we'll go back and see if it isn'tthe same. "

So the farmers went back to look, and Will took their cattle and drovethem back to the robbers, who agreed that he was a Master Thief. 

He stopped with them for several years and made much money, and thendrove back in a carriage and pair to his father's farm. 

When he came there his father came to the carriage and bowed to himand asked him, "What is your pleasure, sir?"

"Oh, I want to make some inquiries about a young fellow named Williamwho used to be on this farm. What has become of him?"

"Oh, I don't know; he was my son and I have not heard from him formany years; I am afraid he has come to no good. "

"Look at me closely and see if you see any resemblance to him. "

Then the farmer recognized Will and took him into the farmhouse andcalled Will's mother to come and welcome him back. 

"So, Will, you've come back in a carriage and pair, " said she. "Howhave you earnt so much money?"

So Will told his mother that he had become a Master Thief but beggedher not to mention it to any one, but to tell them that he had been anexplorer and had found gold. 

Well, the very next day a neighbouring gossip called in upon Will'smother and asked her to tell her the news about Will and what he hadbeen doing. 

So she said: "Oh, Will has been an exploiter, I mean explorer, but hereally was a Master Thief. But you mustn't tell anybody; you'llpromise, won't you?"

So the gossip promised, but of course the moment she got home she toldall about Will being a Master Thief. 

Now the lord of the village soon heard of this, and he called Will upto him and said: "I hear you are a Master Thief. You know that youdeserve death for that. But if you can prove that you are really amaster in your thievery I will let you go free. First let us seewhether you can steal my horse out of my stable to-night. "

To prevent his horse being stolen, the lord ordered it to be saddledand put a stable boy on it, telling him to stop there all night. 

Will took two flasks of brandy into one of which he had poured a drug, and dressing himself as an old woman he went to the lord's stable lateat night and asked to rest there as it was so cold and she was sotired. 

The stable boy pointed to some straw in the corner and told the womanshe might rest there for a time. 

When she sat down she took one of the brandy flasks out of her pocketand drank it off, saying, "Ah, that warms one! Would you like to havea drink?"

And when the stable boy said "Yes, " Will gave him the other flask, andas soon as he had drunk it he fell dead asleep. 

So Will lifted him off of the horse and put him on the cross-bar ofthe stable as if he were riding, and then he got on the horse and rodeaway. 

In the morning the lord went down to the stable and there he saw thestable boy riding the cross-bar and his horse gone. 

Then Will rode up to the stable on the lord's horse and said: "Am Inot a Master Thief?"

"Oh, stealing my horse was not so hard. Let us see if you can stealthe sheet from off my bed to-night. But, look out, if you come near mybedroom I shall shoot you. "

That night Will took a dummy man and propped it up on a ladder, whichhe put up to the lord's bedroom. 

And when the lord saw the dummy coming in at the window he shot hispistol at it and it fell down. He rushed downstairs and out into theopen air looking to see if he had shot Will. 

Meanwhile Will went up to the lord's bedroom and, speaking in thelord's voice, said to his wife: "Give me the sheet, my dear, to wrapthe body of that poor Master Thief in. "

So she gave him the sheet and he went away. 

Next morning Will brought up the sheet to the lord, who said: "Thatwas a good trick, I must confess. But if you want really to prove thatyou are a Master Thief bring to me the priest in a bag, and then Iwill own your mastery. "

So that night Will took a number of crabs and tied candle ends uponthem, and taking them to the cemetery lit the candle ends and let themloose. 

When the priest of the village saw these lights moving over thecemetery he came to the door and watched them and called out:

"What is that?"

Now Will had dressed himself up like an angel. 

"It is the last day of judgment, and I have come for thee, FatherLawrence, to carry thee to heaven. Come within this bag, and in ashort time thou wilt be in thine appointed place. "

So Father Lawrence crept within the bag, and Will dragged him along, and when he bumped against the ground Father Lawrence said:

"Oh, we must be going through purgatory. "

And then Will took him to the hen-coops and threw him in among thechickens and ducks and geese, and Father Lawrence said:

"We must be getting near the angels for I hear the rustling of theirwings. "

So Will went up to the lord's house and made him come down to thehen-coops and there showed him the priest in the bag, and the lordsaid:

"I do not know how you do these things. I cannot tell if you arereally a Master Thief unless you take my horse from under me. If youcan do that I will call you the Master of all Master Thieves. "

Well, next day, Will dressed himself up as an old woman, and taking acart with an old horse put in it a cask of beer, and then went drivingalong with his thumb in the bunghole. 

Soon after he met the lord on horseback who asked him if he had seen aman like Will lurking about there in the forest. 

"I think I have, " said Will, "and could bring him to you if youwanted. But I can't leave this cask before the taps come out; I haveto keep my thumb in the bunghole. "

"Oh, I will do that, " said the lord, "if you will only go and get thatman. Take my horse and run him down. "

So Will got on the lord's horse and rode off, leaving the noblemanwith his thumb in the bunghole. He waited and he waited and he waitedtill at last he drove in the cart back to his house, and there he sawno less a person than Will himself riding his horse. 

Then the noble said unto Will: "You are indeed a Master Thief. Go yourway in peace. "

[Illustration: Anima Goes down the Hole]

THE UNSEEN BRIDEGROOM

Once upon a time there was a king and queen, as many a one has been, and they had three daughters, all of them beautiful; but the mostbeautiful of all was the youngest whose name was Anima. Now ithappened one day that all three sisters were playing in the meadows, and Anima saw a bush with lovely flowers. As she wished to carry ithome to plant in her own garden she plucked at the root and pluckedand plucked again. At last it gave way, and she saw beneath it astairway going down farther into the earth. Being a brave girl andvery curious as to where this could lead to, without calling hersisters, she crept down the stairs for a long, long way, till at lastshe came out into the open air again in a country which she had neverseen before, and not far away, in front of her, she saw a magnificentpalace. 

Anima ran towards it, and when she came to the door she knocked at theknocker and it opened without anybody being there. So she went in andfound all inside richly bedecked with marble walls and rich trappings;and, as she went along, lovely music broke out and came with herwherever she went. At last she came to a room with cosy couches, andshe threw herself into one because she was tired with her searching. Scarcely had she done so, when there appeared a table coming towardsher on wheels, without anybody moving it, and upon the table weredelightful fruits and cakes and cool drinks of all kinds. So Animatook as much as she needed and fell into slumber and did not awaketill it was getting dark. And then appeared through the air two largecandlesticks, each with three candles in them; and they swam throughthe air and settled upon the tables near her, so that she had plentyof light. But she cried out: "Oh, I must go back to my father andmother; how shall I go? How shall I go?"

Then a sweet voice near her spoke out and said: "Abide with me and bemy bride, and thou shalt have all thy heart desires. "

But Anima cried out in fear and trembling: "But who art thou? Who artthou? Come forth and let me see thee. "

But the voice replied: "Nay, nay, that is forbidden. Never must thoulook upon my face or we must part, for my mother, the Queen, wishesnot that I should wed. "

So sweet was his voice and so lonely did Anima feel, that sheconsented to become his bride, and they lived happily together, thoughhe never came near her till all was dark, so that she could not seehim. But after a time Anima became weary even with all thesesplendours and happiness, and wished to see her own people again, andsaid to her husband:

"Please may I go home and see my father and my mother and my dearsisters?"

"Nay, nay, child, " said the voice of her husband, "ill will come of itif thou seest them again, and thou and I must part. "

But she kept on begging him to let her return to her people for avisit, or at least to let them come and see her, till at last heconsented and sent a message to her father and mother and sisters, asking them to come and spend some days with her, at a time when hehimself would have to be absent. 

So the King and Queen and Anima's two sisters came and wondered atthe splendours of her new home, and, above all, was surprised to findthat they were waited on by invisible hands, who did all for them thatthey could wish for. But Anima's sisters soon became both curious andenvious; they could not guess who or what her husband was, and enviedher having so wonderful a household. 

So one of them said to her: "But Anima, how marry a man without everseeing him? There must be some reason why he will not show himself;perhaps he is deformed, or maybe he is some beast transformed. "

But Anima laughed and said: "He is no beast, that I am sure; and seehow kind he is to me. I do not care if he is not as handsome as hedoes. "

Still the sisters kept on insisting that there must be something wrongwhere there was something concealed, and at last they got their motherthe Queen to say to her as she was leaving: "Now, Anima, I think itright to know who and what thy husband is. Wait till he is asleep andlight a lamp, and then see what he is. "

Soon after this they all departed. And the same night her husband cameto Anima again, but she had already prepared a lamp of oil with aspark of fire ready to kindle it. And when she heard him sleeping byher side she lit the candle and looked at him. She was delighted tofind that he was most handsome, with a strong and well-made body. Butas she was looking at him her hand trembled with delight and threedrops of oil fell upon his cheek from the lamp she was holding. Thenhe woke up and saw her, and knew that she had broken her promise, andsaid:

"Oh, Anima, oh, Anima, why hast thou done this? Here we part untilthou canst persuade my mother the Queen to let thee see me again. "

[Illustration: _The Lamp_]

With that came a rumbling of thunder and her lamp went out, and Animafell to the ground in a swoon. And when she awoke the palace haddisappeared and she was on a bleak, bleak moor. She walked and shewalked till she came to a house by the wayside where an old womanreceived her and gave her something to eat and drink, and then askedAnima how she came there. So Anima told all that had happened to her, and the old woman said:

"Thou hast married my nephew, my sister's son, and I fear she willnever forgive thee. But pluck up courage, go to her and demand thyhusband, and she'll have to give him up to thee if thou canst do allthat she demands from thee. Take this twig; if she asks what I thinkshe will ask, strike it on the ground thrice and help will come tothee. "

Then she told Anima the way to her husband's mother, and, as it wasfar distant, gave her directions where she could find another sisterof hers who might help her. So she came to another house along the waywhere she saw another old woman, to whom she told her story, and thisold woman, the Queen's sister, gave her a raven's feather and toldher how to use it. 

At last Anima came to the palace of the Queen, the mother of herinvisible husband, and when she came into her presence demanded to seehim. 

"What, thou low-born mortal, " cried the Queen; "how didst thou dare towed my son?"

"It was his choice, " said Anima, "and I am now his wife. Surely youwill let me see him once more. "

"Well, " said the Queen, "if thou canst do what I demand of thee thoushalt see my son again. And first go into that barn where my stupidstewards have poured together all the wheat and oats and rice into onegreat heap. If by nightfall thou canst separate them into three heapsperhaps I may grant thy request. "

So Anima was led to the great barn of the Queen and there was a hugeheap of grain all mixed together, and she was left alone, and the barnwas closed upon her. Then she bethought herself of the twig that theQueen's sister had given her, and she struck it thrice upon theground, whereupon thousands of ants came out of the ground and beganto work upon the heap of grain, some of them taking the wheat to onecorner, some the oats to another, and the rest carrying off the grainsof rice to a third. By nightfall all the grain had been separated, andwhen the Queen came to let out Anima she found the task had beendone. 

"Thou hast had help, " she cried; "we'll see to-morrow if thou canst dosomething by thyself. "

Next day the Queen took her into a large loft at the top of the palacealmost filled with feathers of geese, of eider ducks, and of swans, and from her cupboard she took twelve mattresses and said:

"See these mattresses; by the end of the day thou must fill four ofthem with swans' feathers, four of them with eider-down, and the restwith feathers of geese. Do that and then we will see. "

With that she left Anima and closed and locked the door behind her. And Anima remembered what the other Queen's sister had given her, andtook out the raven's feather and waved it thrice. Immediately birds, and birds, and birds came flying through the windows, and each of thempicked out different kinds of feathers and placed them in themattresses, so that long before night the twelve mattresses werefilled as the Queen had ordered. 

Again at nightfall the Queen came in, and as soon as she saw that thesecond task had been carried out, she said:

"Again thou hast had help; to-morrow thou shalt have something to dowhich thou alone canst carry out. "

Next day the Queen summoned her and gave her a small flask and aletter and said to her:

"Take these to my sister, the Queen of the Nether-World, and bringback what she will give to thee safely, and then I may let thee see myson. "

"How can I find your sister?" said Anima. 

"That thou must find for thyself, " and left her. 

Poor Anima did not know which way to go, but as she walked along thevoice of some one invisible to her said softly:

"Take with thee a copper coin and a loaf of bread and go down thatdeep defile there till thou comest to a deep river and there thou wiltsee an old man ferrying people across the river. Put the coin betweenyour teeth and let him take it from you, and he will carry you across, but speak not to him. Then, on the other side, thou wilt come to adark cave, and at the entrance is a savage dog; give him the loaf ofbread and he will let thee pass and thou wilt soon come to the Queenof the Nether-World. Take what she gives thee, but beware lest thoueat anything or sit down while thou art within the cave. "

Anima recognized the voice of her husband and did all that he had toldher, till she came to the Queen of the Nether-World, who read theletter she had handed to her. Then she offered Anima cake and wine, but she refused, shaking her head, but saying nothing. Then the Queenof the Nether-World gave her a curiously wrought box and said to her:

"Take this, I pray thee, to my sister, but beware lest thou open it onthe way or ill may befall thee, " and then dismissed her. 

[Illustration: The Dog]

Anima went back past the great dog and crossed the dark river. Whenshe got into the forest beyond she could not resist the temptation toopen the box, and when she did so out jumped a number of little dolls, which commenced dancing about in front of her and around her andamused her much by their playful antics. But soon the night was comingon, and she wanted to put them into the box, and they ran away and hidbehind the trees, and Anima knew that she could not get them back. Soshe sat down upon the ground and wept, and wept, and wept. But at lastshe heard the voice of her husband once more, who said:

[Illustration: The Casket]

"See what thy curiosity has again brought upon thee; thou canst notbring back the box to my mother just as my aunt the Queen of theNether-World has given it to you, and so we shall not see one anotheragain. "

But at this Anima burst out into weeping and wailing so piteously thathe took compassion on her and said:

"See that golden bough on yonder tree; pluck it and strike the groundthree times with it and see what thou wilt see. "

Anima did as she had been told, and soon the little dolls came runningfrom behind the trees and jumped of their own accord into the box; andshe closed it quickly and took it back to the Queen, her husband'smother. 

The Queen opened the box, and when she found all the little dolls werein it laughed aloud and said:

"I know who has helped thee; I cannot help myself; I suppose thou musthave my son. "

And as soon as she had said this Anima's husband appeared and took herto him, and they lived happy ever afterwards. 

[Illustration: The Master-Maid with the Glass Axe]

THE MASTER-MAID

There was once a king and a queen and they had a bonny boy whom theyloved beyond anything. Now when he was grown up into a fine youngprince, the King, his father, went a-hunting one day and lost his wayin the forest, and when he came through it he found a raging streambetween him and his palace. He did not know how to get home, whensuddenly a huge giant came out of the forest and said:

"What would you give if I carried you across?"

"Anything, anything, " said the King. 

"Will you give me the first thing that meets you as you come to thepalace gate?"

The King thought for a while and then remembered that whenever he cameto the gate of the palace his favourite deerhound Bevis always came togreet him. So, though he was sorry to lose him, he thought it wasworth while, and agreed with the giant. 

Thereupon the giant took the King upon his shoulders and wading acrossthe raging stream landed him on the farther bank and saying to him, "Remember what you have promised, " went back again to the other side. 

The King soon found his way towards the palace, but as he came to thepalace gate it happened that his son Prince Edgar was standing there, and before Bevis the hound could dash out to greet his master, PrinceEdgar had rushed towards his father and caught him by the hand. TheKing was rather startled but thought to himself:

"Oh, how will the giant know who met me? After all I intended to givehim Bevis, and that's what I'll do when he comes. "

The next day the giant came to the castle gates and asked to see theKing, and when he was admitted to his presence he said:

"I come for your promise. "

"Bring Bevis the hound, " said the King to his attendants. 

But the giant said: "I want no hound; give me your Prince. "

The King was alarmed at finding that the giant knew who had met him;but he told him that the Prince was away, but he would send and summonhim. Then he called his High Steward and told him to dress up theherd-boy of the palace in some of the Prince's clothes. And when thiswas done he gave him to the giant, who hoisted him on his shoulder andstrode off with him. 

When they had gone a little way along the herd-boy in the Prince'ssuit called out:

"Stop, stop, I am hungry; this is the time the herd rests and I havemy luncheon. "

Then the giant knew that he had been deceived and went back to theKing's palace and said to him:

"Take your herd-boy and give me the Prince. "

The King was again startled to find that the giant had found out histrick, but thought to himself:

"Well, he didn't find out at once; we'll have another try, " andordered his Steward to dress up the shepherd boy in the Prince'sclothes and give him to the giant. 

Again the giant strode off with the shepherd boy in Prince's clothesupon his shoulder, and they had not gone far when the boy called out:

[Illustration: _The Prince wants his Lunch_]

"Stop, stop, it is time for lunch; this is when the sheep all rest. "

Then again the giant knew that he had been tricked and rushed back ina rage to the King's palace and threw the shepherd boy to the groundand called out:

"Take your shepherd boy and give me the Prince you promised, or itwill be worse for you. "

This time the King dared not refuse and called Prince Edgar to him andgave him to the giant, who seized him as before and put him on hisshoulder. 

After they had gone a little way, the Prince called out:

"'Tis time to stop; this is the time I have always lunched with myfather the King and my mother the Queen. "

Then the giant knew that he had got the right Prince and took him hometo his castle. When he got him there he gave him his supper and toldhim that he would have to work for him and that his first work wouldbe next day to clean out the stable. 

"That's not much, " thought the Prince, and went to bed quite happy andcomfortable. 

Next day the giant took Edgar into the giant's stable, which was fullof straw and dirt and all huddled up, and pointing to a pitchforksaid:

"Clear all of this straw out of this stable by to-night, " and left himto his task. 

The Prince thought this was an easy thing to do, and before startingwent to get a drink at the well, and there he saw a most beautifulmaiden sitting by the well and knitting. 

"Who are you?" said she. 

And so he told her all that had happened and said:

"At any rate I have an easy master; all he has given me to do is toclear out the stable. "

"That is not so easy as you think, " said the maid. "How are you goingto do it?"

"With a pitchfork. "

"You will find that not so easy; if you try to use the pitchfork inthe ordinary way, the more you shove the more there will be; but turnthe pitchfork upside-down and push with the handle and all the strawand stuff will run away from it. "

So Prince Edgar went back to the stable, and sure enough, when hetried to push the straw with the fork it only grew more and more, butif he turned the handle towards it the straw moved away from the forkand so he soon cleared it out of the stable. 

When the giant came home the first thing he did was to go to thestable; and when he saw it had all been cleared out he said to thePrince:

"Ah, you've been talking to my Master-Maid. Well, to-morrow you'llhave to cut down that clump of trees. "

"Very well, Master, " said Prince Edgar, and thought that would not bedifficult. 

But next morning the giant gave him an axe made of glass and told himthat he must cut down every one of the trees before nightfall. 

When he had gone away, the Prince went to the Master-Maid and told herwhat his task was. 

"You cannot do that with such an axe, but never mind, I can help you. Sleep here in peace and when you wake up you will see what you willsee. "

So Prince Edgar trusted the Master-Maid and lay down and slept tilllate in the afternoon, when he woke up and looked, and there were thetrees all felled and the Master-Maid was smiling by his side. 

"How did you do it?" he said. 

"That I may not say, but done it is, and that is all that you needcare for. "

When the giant came home, the first thing he did was to go to theclump of trees and found, to his surprise, that they had all beenfelled. 

"Ah, you've spoken to my Master-Maid, " he said once more. 

"Who is she?" said the Prince. 

"You know well enough, " said the giant. "But for her you could nothave cut down those trees with that glass axe. "

"I do not know what you mean, " said the Prince. "But at any rate, there you have your trees cut down, what more do you want?"

"Well, well, " grumbled the giant, "we'll see to-morrow whether you cando what I tell you then, " and would not say what his task should benext day. 

When the morning came, the giant pointed to the tallest tree in theforest near them, and said:

"Do you see that birds' nest in the top of that tree? In it are sixeggs; you must climb up there and get all those eggs for me beforenightfall, and if one is broken woe betide you!"

At that Prince Edgar did not feel so happy, for there were no branchesto the tree till very near the top, and it was as smooth, as smooth asit could be, and he did not see how possibly he could reach the birds'nest. But when the giant had gone out for the day he went at once tothe Master-Maid and told her of his new task. 

"That is the hardest of all, " said the Master-Maid. "There is only oneway to do the task. You must cut me up into small pieces and take outmy bones, and out of the bones you must make a ladder, and with thatladder you can reach the top. "

"That I will never do, " said the Prince. "You've been so good to me, shall I do you harm? Before that, I should suffer whatever punishmentthe giant will give me for not carrying out the task. "

"But all will be well, " said the Master-Maid. "As soon as you havebrought down the nest, all that you will have to do is to put thebones together and sprinkle on them the water from this flask, andthen I shall be whole again just as before. "

After much persuasion the Prince agreed to do what the Master-Maidhad told him, and made a ladder out of her bones and climbed up to thetop of the tree and took the birds' nest with the six eggs in it, andthen he put the bones together, but forgot to put one little bone inits proper place. 

So when he had sprinkled the water over the bones the Master-Maidstood up before him just as before, but the little finger of her lefthand was not there. She cried and said:

"Ah, why did you not do what I told you--put all my bones together intheir place? You forgot my little finger; I shall never have one allthe days of my life. "

When the giant came home, he asked the Prince:

"Where is the birds' nest?"

And the Prince brought it to him with the eggs all safe within it. Andthen the giant said:

"Ah, you have spoken to my Master-Maid. "

"Whom do you mean by your Master-Maid?" said the Prince. "There areyour eggs, what more do you want?"

But the giant said: "Well, as the Master-Maid has helped you so farshe can help you always. You shall marry her today and sleep in my ownfour-poster. "

The Prince was well content with that arrangement and went and soughtthe Master-Maid and told her what the giant had said. 

The Master-Maid wept and said: "You know not what he means. Hisfour-poster rolls up and would crush us and we would be dead beforethe morning. Let me think, let me think. "

So the Master-Maid took an apple and divided it into six parts and puttwo at the foot of the bed and two at the door of the room and two atthe foot of the stairs. 

When night came, the Master-Maid and her Prince went up into the roomwith the four-poster, but as soon as it was dark crept down the stairsand went out to the stable and chose two of the swiftest horses thereand rode away as quickly as they could. 

The giant waited for some time after they had gone upstairs and thencalled out:

"Are you asleep?"

And the two apple shares near the bed called out:

"Not yet, not yet!"

So after waiting some time he called out again:

"Are you asleep?"

And the apple shares at the door called out:

"Not yet, not yet!"

And still a third time the giant called out:

"Are you asleep?"

And the apple shares on the stairs replied:

"Not yet, not yet!"

Then the giant knew that the voice was outside the bedroom, and rushedup to find Edgar and his bride, but found they were gone. He rushed tothe stable and chose his great horse Dapplegrim and rode after PrinceEdgar and the Master-Maid. 

They had gone on a good way in front; but after a time they heard thetrampling of the hoofs of the great horse Dapplegrim, and theMaster-Maid said to Prince Edgar:

"That is the giant; he will soon overtake us if we do not dosomething. " And she jumped off her horse and bade Prince Edgar do thesame. 

Then the Master-Maid took three twigs and threw them behind her withmagic spells; and they grew and they grew and they grew, till theybecame a huge thick forest. And the Master-Maid and Edgar jumped upontheir horses again and rode away as fast as they could. 

But the giant, as soon as he came to the forest, had to take his axefrom his side and hew his way through the thick trees, so that Edgarand the Master-Maid got far ahead. But soon they heard once more thetrampling of Dapplegrim close behind them; and the Master-Maid tookthe glass axe that the giant had given Edgar on the second day, andthrew it behind her with magic spells. And a huge glass mountain rosebehind them, so that the giant had to stop and split his way throughthe glass mountain. 

Edgar and the Master-Maid rode on at full speed, but once again theyheard Dapplegrim trampling behind them, and the Master-Maid took theflask of water from her side and cast it down back of her, and out ofit gushed a huge stream. 

When the giant came up to the stream and tried to make Dapplegrimswim through it he would not; and then he lay down on the bank of thestream and commenced to drink up as much of it as he could. And hedrank and he drank and he drank, till at last he swallowed so muchthat he burst; and that was the end of the giant. 

[Illustration: The Giant Tries to Drink the Stream]

Meanwhile Edgar and the Master-Maid had ridden on fast and furioustill they came near where the palace of the King, Edgar's father, could be seen in the far distance. And Edgar said:

"Let me go on first and tell my father and mother all that you havedone for me, and they will welcome you as their daughter. "

The Master-Maid shook her head sadly and said:

"Do as you will, but beware lest any one kiss you before you see meagain. "

"I want no kisses from any one but you, " said Prince Edgar, andleaving her in a hut by the roadside he went on to greet the King andQueen. 

When he got to the palace gate everybody was astonished to see him, asthey had all thought he had been destroyed by the giant. And when theytook him to the Queen, his mother, she rushed to him and kissed himbefore he could say nay. 

No sooner had his mother kissed him than all memory of the Master-Maiddisappeared from his mind. And when he told his mother and his fatherwhat he had done in the giant's castle and how he had escaped, he saidnothing of the help given him by the Master-Maid. 

Soon afterwards the King and the Queen arranged for the marriage ofPrince Edgar with a great Princess from a neighbouring country. Andshe was brought home with great pomp and ceremony to the King'spalace. And one day after her marriage, when she was out, she passedby the hut in which the Master-Maid was dwelling. 

Now the Master-Maid had put on that day a beautiful dress of richsilk, and when the Prince's wife saw it she went to the Master-Maidand said:

"I should like that dress. Will you not sell it to me?"

"Yes, " said the Master-Maid, "but at a price you are not likely togive. "

"What do you want for it?" said the Princess. 

"I want to spend one night in the room of your bridegroom, PrinceEdgar. "

At first the Princess would not think of such a thing; but afterthinking the matter over she thought of a plan, and said:

"Well, you shall have your wish, " and took away with her the silkendress. 

But at night, when the Master-Maid came to the palace and claimed herpromise, the Princess put a sleep-giving drug in Edgar's cup. 

When the Master-Maid came into Edgar's room she bent over his bed andcried:

 "I cleaned the byre for thee, I swung the axe for thee, And now thou'lt not speak to me. "

But still Edgar slept on, and in the morning the Master-Maid had toleave without speaking to him. 

Next day, when the Princess went out to see what the Master-Maid hadbeen doing, she found her dressed in a rich silver dress, and said toher:

"Will you sell that dress to me?"

And the Master-Maid said, "Yes, at a price. "

Then the Princess said, "What price?"

"One night in Edgar's room, " replied the Master-Maid. 

The Princess knew what had happened the night before, so she agreed tolet the Master-Maid pass still another night with her bridegroom. Butall happened as before; and when the Master-Maid came into the roomshe bent over Edgar, lying upon the bed, and called out:

 "I gave my bones for thee, I shared the apples for thee, And yet thou'lt not speak to me";

and had to leave him as before, without his waking up. 

But this time Prince Edgar had heard something of what she said in hissleep. And when he woke up he asked his chamberlain what had happenedduring the night. And he told the Prince that for two nights running amaiden had been in his room and sung to him, but he had not answered. 

Next day the Princess sought out the Master-Maid as before. And thistime she was dressed in a dress of shining gold; and for that thePrincess agreed to let her spend one more night in the Prince's room. 

But this time the Prince, guessing what had happened, threw away thewine-cup, in which the Princess had placed the sleeping draught, andlay awake on his bed when the Master-Maid came in. She bent over himand cried:

 "I grew the forest for thee, I made the glass mount for thee, For thee a stream flowed from my magic flask, And yet thou'lt not wake and speak to me. "

But this time Prince Edgar rose up in bed and recognized theMaster-Maid, and called in his father and his mother and told them allthat had happened, which had now come back to him. 

So the Princess was sent back to her home, and Edgar married theMaster-Maid and lived happy ever afterwards. 

[Illustration: The Visitor]

A VISITOR FROM PARADISE

There was once a woman, good but simple, who had been twice married. One day when her husband was in the field--of course that was hersecond husband, you know--a weary tramp came trudging by her door andasked for a drink of water. When she gave it to him, being rather agossip, she asked where he came from. 

"From Paris, " said the man. 

The woman was a little bit deaf, and thought the man said fromParadise. 

"From Paradise! Did you meet there my poor dear husband, Lord rest hissoul?"

"What was his name?" asked the man. 

"Why, John Goody, of course, " said the woman. "Did you know him inParadise?"

"What, John Goody!" said the man. "Him and me was as thick asthieves. "

"Does he want for anything?" said the woman. "I suppose up in Paradiseyou get all you want. "

"All we want! Why, look at me, " said the man pointing to his rags andtatters. "They treat some of us right shabby up there. "

"Dear me, that's bad. Are you likely to go back?"

"Go back to Paradise, marm; I should say! We have to be in every nightat ten. "

"Well, perhaps you wouldn't mind taking back some things for my poorold John, " said the woman. 

"In course, marm, delighted to help my old chum John. "

So the woman went indoors and got a big pile of clothes and a longpipe and three bottles of beer, and a beer jug, and gave them to theman. 

"But, " he said, "please marm, I can't carry all these by my own self. Ain't you got a horse or a donkey that I can take along with me tocarry them? I'll bring them back to-morrow. "

Then the woman said, "There's our old Dobbin in the stable; I can'tlend you mare Juniper cos my husband's ploughing with her just now. "

"Ah, well, Dobbin'll do as its only till to-morrow. "

So the woman got out Dobbin and saddled him, and the man took theclothes and the beer and the pipe and rode off with them. 

Shortly afterwards her husband came home and said, "What's become of Dobbin? He's not in the stable. "

So his wife told him all that had happened. And he said, "I don't like that. How do we know that he is going to Paradise? Andhow do we know that he'll bring Dobbin back to-morrow? I'll saddleJuniper and get the things back. Which way did he go?"

So he saddled Juniper and rode after the man, who saw him coming afaroff and guessed what had happened. So he got off from Dobbin and drovehim into a clump of trees near the roadside, and then went and laiddown on his back and looked up to the sky. 

When the farmer came up to him he got down from Juniper and said, "What are you doing there?"

"Oh, such a funny thing, " said the man; "a fellow came along here on ahorse with some clothes and things, and when he got to the top of thehill here he simply gave a shout and the horse went right up into thesky; and I was watching him when you came up. "

"Oh, it's all right then, " said the farmer. "He's gone to Paradise, sure enough, " and went back to his wife. 

Next day they waited, and they waited for the man to bring backDobbin; but he didn't come that day nor the next day, nor the next. Sothe farmer said to his wife, "My dear, we've been done. But I'll find that man if I have to trudgethrough the whole kingdom. And you must come with me, as you knowhim. "

"But what shall we do with the house?" said the wife. "You know therehave been robbers around here, and while we are away they'll come andtake my best chiny. "

"Oh, that's all right, " said the farmer. "He who minds the door mindsthe house. So we'll take the door with us and then they can't get in. "

So he took the door off its hinges and put it on his back and theywent along to find the man from Paradise. So they went along, and theywent along, and they went along till night came, and they didn't knowwhat to do for shelter. So the man said, "That's a comfortable tree there; let us roost in the branches likethe birds. " So they took the door up with them and laid down to sleepon it as comfortable, as comfortable can be. 

[Illustration: Up the Tree]

Now it happened that a band of robbers had just broken into a castlenear by and taken out a great lot of plunder; and they came under thevery tree to divide it. And when they began to settle how much eachshould have they began to quarrel and woke up the farmer and his wife. They were so frightened when they heard the robbers underneath themthat they tried to get up farther into the tree, and in doing so letthe door fall down right on the robbers' heads. 

"The heavens are falling, " cried the robbers, who were so frightenedthat they all rushed away. And the farmer and his wife came down fromthe tree and collected all the booty and went home and lived happyever afterwards. 

It was and it was not. 

[Illustration: The Snake]

INSIDE AGAIN

A man was walking through the forest one day when he saw a funny blackthing like a whip wriggling about under a big stone. He was curious toknow what it all meant. So he lifted up the stone and found there ahuge black snake. 

"That's well, " said the snake. "I have been trying to get out for twodays, and, Oh, how hungry I am. I must have something to eat, andthere is nobody around, so I must eat you. "

"But that wouldn't be fair, " said the man with a trembling voice. "Butfor me you would never have come out from under the stone. "

"I do not care for that, " said the snake. "Self-preservation is thefirst law of life; you ask anybody if that isn't so. "

"Any one will tell you, " said the man, "that gratitude is a person'sfirst duty, and surely you owe me thanks for saving your life. "

"But you haven't saved my life, if I am to die of hunger, " said thesnake. 

"Oh yes, I have, " said the man; "all you have to do is to wait tillyou find something to eat. "

"Meanwhile I shall die, and what's the use of being saved!"

So they disputed and they disputed whether the case was to be decidedby the claims of gratitude or the rights of self-preservation, tillthey did not know what to do. 

"I tell you what I'll do, " said the snake, "I'll let the firstpasser-by decide which is right. "

"But I can't let my life depend upon the word of the first comer. "

"Well, we'll ask the first two that pass by. "

"Perhaps they won't agree, " said the man; "what are we to do then? Weshall be as badly off as we are now. "

"Ah, well, " said the snake, "let it be the first three. In all lawcourts it takes three judges to make a session. We'll follow themajority of votes. "

So they waited till at last there came along an old, old horse. Andthey put the case to him, whether gratitude should ward off death. 

"I don't see why it should, " said the horse. "Here have I been slavingfor my master for the last fifteen years, till I am thoroughly wornout, and only this morning I heard him say, 'Roger'--that's myname--'is no use to me any longer; I shall have to send him to theknacker's and get a few pence for his hide and his hoofs. ' There'sgratitude for you. "

So the horse's vote was in favour of the snake. And they waited tillat last an old hound passed by limping on three legs, half blind withscarcely any teeth. So they put the case to him. 

"Look at me, " said he; "I have slaved for my master for ten years, andthis very day he has kicked me out of his house because I am no use tohim any longer, and he grudged me a few bones to eat. So far as I cansee nobody acts from gratitude. "

"Well, " said the snake, "there's two votes for me. What's the use ofwaiting for the third? he's sure to decide in my favour, and if hedoesn't it's two to one. Come here and I'll eat you!"

"No, no, " said the man, "a bargain's a bargain; perhaps the thirdjudge will be able to convince the other two and my life will besaved. "

So they waited and they waited, till at last a fox came trottingalong; and they stopped him and explained to him both sides of thecase. He sat up and scratched his left ear with his hind paw, andafter a while he beckons the man to come near him. And when he did sothe fox whispered, "What will you give me if I get you out of this?"

The man whispered back, "A pair of fat chickens. "

"Well, " said the fox, "if I am to decide this case I must clearlyunderstand the situation. Let me see! If I comprehend aright, the manwas lying under the stone and the snake----"

"No, no, " cried out the horse and the hound and the snake. "It was theother way. "

"Ah, ha, I see! The stone was rolling down and the man sat on it, andthen----"

"Oh, how stupid you are, " they all cried; "it wasn't that way at all. "

"Dear me, you are quite right. I am very stupid, but, really, youhaven't explained the case quite clearly to me. "

"I'll show you, " said the snake, impatient from his long hunger; andhe twisted himself again under the stone and wriggled his tail till atlast the stone settled down upon him and he couldn't move out. "That'sthe way it was. "

"And that's the way it will be, " said the fox, and, taking the man'sarm, he walked off, followed by the horse and the hound. "And now formy chickens. "

"I'll go and get them for you, " said the man, and went up to hishouse, which was near, and told his wife all about it. 

"But, " she said, "why waste a pair of chickens on a foxy old fox! Iknow what I'll do. "

So she went into the back yard and unloosed the dog and put it into ameal-bag and gave it to the man, who took it down and gave it to thefox, who trotted off with it to his den. 

But when he opened the bag out sprung the dog and gobbled him all up. 

There's gratitude for you. 

[Illustration: The Three Ravens]

JOHN THE TRUE

There was once a king who had long been unmarried. Now one day, goingthrough his palace, he came to a room that he had never opened before. So he sent for the key and entered it, and opposite the door was thepicture of a most beautiful princess with skin white as snow andcheeks red as blood and hair black as ebony. No sooner had he seenthis picture than he fell in love with it and asked who she was. 

His chamberlain said, "That is the Princess of the Golden Horde, withwhich your Majesty's kingdom has been at war these last twenty years. Only three years ago, when your Majesty's father was alive, there wassome talk of peace and of betrothing you to her, and that was when herportrait was sent here. But now the two kingdoms are at war and itdoes not seem that peace will ever come. "

But though there was no hope of marrying her the King could not helpbut think of the Princess of the Golden Horde, and thought and thoughttill he became quite pale and sick with love for her. Now he had afaithful servant, the son of his own nurse, and thus hisfoster-brother, and he was so devoted to the King that everybodycalled him John the True. 

When John the True saw his foster-brother pining away he went to himand said:

"What ails thee, Oh sire?" for he alone had the right of calling theKing "thou. "

Then said the King to John the True:

"Come and I will show thee, John. " And he took him to the closedchamber and showed him the portrait and told him how he felt towardsthe Princess of the Golden Horde. 

"Be of good cheer, " said John the True; "I will go and fetch her forthee. "

"How can that be?" said the King; "we are at war with the GoldenHorde, and they would never give her to be my bride. "

"Leave that to me, " said John the True; "give me only a ship full ofmerchandise and put in it a complete set of furniture made all ofgold, and see if I do not bring the Princess back to thee. "

So the King did all that John the True demanded. And he sailed awaywith the ship and its merchandise to the country of the Golden Horde. And when he came there to the chief port he did not declare from whatcountry he was but sent up, as tribute to the King of the GoldenHorde, a beautiful chair all made of gold. 

Now when the King saw this he became curious about this merchant andhis wares, and came down with his Queen and the Princess to view therarities. And when he saw the set of furniture all made of gold heasked John the True what its price was. 

But John said it was not for sale, but that he kept it to make giftsof tribute to the kings whose realm he was visiting. 

But the Princess had set her heart upon one dressing-table all ofgold, with crystal mirrors and lovely fittings, and asked John if hecould not sell it to her. 

But John said, "No, that is kept for a special purpose, which I am notallowed to tell. "

This aroused the curiosity of the Princess, and later on towards theevening she came down with only one maid to see if she could notpersuade John to let her have the dressing-table. 

When she came on board John went to the captain and told him to setsail as soon as the Princess went down into the cabin. And when shecame there he began telling her a long story, how that his master theKing had sent him to visit all the kingdoms of the earth, and thatthis dressing-table was intended for the most beautiful princess whomhe should come across in his travels. 

And then the Princess wanted to know whether he would have to finishhis travels before giving the table, and what the King expected fromthe Princess. 

John told her that everything was left to him and that, when he founda princess with skin as white as snow, and cheeks as red as blood, andhair as black as ebony, he was to present the table to her. 

Then the Princess looked in the mirror and said:

"Have I not skin as white as snow, and cheeks as red as blood, andhair as black as ebony? Then give me the table. "

But just then she began to feel the motion of the ship and knew thatit was sailing away, and commenced to shriek and cry. But John toldher all that had happened, and how that he had come only for her, andthat his foster-brother the King was dying for love of her, and couldnot come himself because the two countries were at war. So at last thePrincess became content, and they sailed on and on towards the countryof John the True. 

As they were nearing land John was sitting in the prow, and thePrincess was reclining on a couch on deck, and three black ravens wereflying about the mast of the vessel. Now John, being the son of ahuntsman, knew the language of birds; and he listened to what theysaid, and this was it:

"Caw, caw!" said the first raven. "There sits the Princess of theGolden Horde, thinking that she will marry John's master the King. ButI know something which will prevent that. "

"What is that?" asked the second raven. 

"Why, " said the first, "when the Princess lands and the King meets herthey will bring out to him a bay horse richly caparisoned, with apillion for the Princess. And if the King takes her with him on thehorse he will run away with them and dash them both to pieces. Caw, caw!"

"But is there no remedy for that?" said the third raven. 

"Only if some one cuts off the head of the horse, or tells the King;but woe unto him if he does that, for as soon as he has told he willbecome marble up to his knees. Caw, caw!"

"Even if he escapes that, " said the second raven, "the King wouldnever marry the Princess, for at the wedding feast wine will bepresented to him, in a glass goblet, and at the first drop of it hedrinks he will fall down dead. Caw, caw!"

"But is there nothing to remedy that?" asked the first raven. 

"Only if some one dashes the glass from his hand, or tells of thedanger; but if he tells he will become marble up to his waist. Caw, caw!"

"Caw, caw!" said the third raven. "There is still another danger. Onthe wedding night a dreadful dragon will creep into the bridal chamberand kill both King and Princess. And there is no remedy against thatunless some one drives off the dragon or tells of the danger. But ifhe tells he will become marble from head to foot. Caw, caw!"

When John the True heard all this he made up his mind he would savehis brother the King without telling him of the dangers thatthreatened him. And when they neared the shore he caused a trumpet tobe sounded three times, which was the signal agreed upon betweenhimself and the King, that he had succeeded in bringing back thePrincess of the Golden Horde. 

So the King came quickly down to the ship in all his glory andreceived with joy the Princess, and thanked John the True for hisfaithful service. 

When it came time for the King to lead the Princess to his palace, some one brought forth a noble bay horse richly caparisoned and with apillion at the back of the saddle for the Princess to ride on. Andjust as the King gave her his hand and was about to mount the horse, John the True drew his sword and cut off the head of the bay horse. 

"Treason, treason!" cried the courtiers. "John the True has drawn hissword in the King's presence. "

But the King said, "What John the True does is done for me. Let acoach be brought and we will return to the palace. "

So the King and the Princess and John the True went to the palace, andpreparations were made for a grand wedding. And on the day of thewedding there was a great banquet held, and at the beginning a glassof wine was brought forth and presented to the King, and just as hewas lifting it to his lips John the True, who stood behind the King'sthrone, rushed forward and dashed the goblet to the ground. 

"Treason, treason!" cried the courtiers. "John the True is mad. "

"Nay, nay, " said the King; "what John the True does is for our good. Wherefore did'st thou do that, John?"

"That I must not say, " said John the True. 

"Well, well, " said the King; "doubtless thou hadst thy reasons; letthe banquet proceed. "

On the night of the wedding John the True took his place with drawnsword before the bridal chamber, and watched and watched and watched. Towards midnight he heard a rustling in the bridal chamber and, rushing in, saw a winged dragon coming through the window towards theKing and Princess. He dashed towards it and wounded it with his sword, so that it flew out of the window, dropping blood on the way. 

But the noise that John the True had made awakened the King and Queen, and they saw him before them with sword dripping with blood. And notrecognizing him at first, the King called out for his guard, who camein quickly and seized John the True. 

When the King saw who it was he asked John if he had any explanationof his conduct, and John said:

"That I may not say. "

"This is more than I can bear, " said the King. "Perhaps love hasturned thy brain. "

And turning to the captain of his guard, the King said, "Let him beexecuted in the morning in our presence. "

When the morning came everything was ready for John's execution, whenhe stood forth and said to the King:

"If your Majesty wills, I will explain my conduct. "

"So be it, " said the King; "I trust thou wilt prove that thou artindeed John the True. "

And John the True told the King and the Queen and the courtiers allthat had occurred and what he had heard from the ravens, and how hehad saved the life of the King and the Queen by wounding the dragon onthe preceding night. But as he told why he killed the horse his legsbecame marble up to the knees. And when he explained why he had dashedthe poisoned wine-cup from the King's hand, the marble came up to hiswaist. And when he explained how he had turned the dragon from thebridal chamber, his whole body became marble from head to foot. 

Then the King knew what a faithful servant he had in John the True;and he bade his men to place the marble body on a golden stand onwhich was written, "This is John the True who gave his life for hisKing. " And whenever the soldiers and the courtiers passed it they gaveit a salute. 

Now after a time there came to the Queen two little twin boys, whomshe loved better than all the world. And they grew and they grew, tillthey learned to speak. And every time they passed the statue of Johnthe True they would raise their little hands and give it a salute, forthe Queen, their mother, had told them what John the True had done fortheir father and her. 

But one night the Queen dreamed that a voice from Heaven said to her, "John the True can live again if the two Princes be slain for his sakeand his body smeared with their blood. "

The Queen told this dream to the King, and they were terrified at it, but thought it only a dream. But twice again the same dream came tothe Queen on the following two nights; and then she said to herhusband the King, "John the True gave his life for us; I feel we ought to give ourchildren for him. "

The King at last agreed to the terrible sacrifice, and the heads ofthe two Princes were cut off, and the statue of John smeared withtheir blood, when it came to life and John the True lived again. 

But when he learned how he had been brought to life again, he askedto have the bodies of the Princes brought to his chamber, and, goingto the bridal chamber, scraped from the floor some of the dragon'sblood that had fallen there, and went back into his chamber and closedthe door. 

Shortly after, the King and the Queen heard the voices of their sonscalling out for them; and when the door was opened there they werealive again. 

So the King and the Queen and the Princes lived together in all joy, with their faithful servant John the True. 

[Illustration: The Wounded Dragon]

[Illustration: The Witch]

JOHNNIE AND GRIZZLE

There was once a poor farmer who had two children named Johnnie andGrizzle. Now things grew worse and worse for the farmer till he couldscarcely earn enough to eat and drink. All his crops went to pay rentand taxes. So one night he said to his wife, "Betty, my dear, I really do not know what to do; there is scarcelyanything in the house to eat, and in a few days we shall all bestarving. What I think of doing is to take the poor lad and lassieinto the forest and leave them there; if somebody finds them they willsurely keep them alive, and if nobody finds them they might as welldie there as here; I cannot see any other way; it is their lives orours; and if we die what can become of them?"

"No, no, father, " said the farmer's wife; "wait but a few days andperhaps something will turn up. "

"We have waited and have waited and things are getting worse everyday; if we wait much longer we shall all be dead. No, I am determinedon it; to-morrow the children to the forest. "

Now it happened that Johnnie was awake in the next room and heard hisfather and his mother talking. He said nothing but thought and thoughtand thought; and early next morning he went out and picked a largenumber of bright-coloured pebbles and put them in his pocket. Afterbreakfast, which consisted of bread and water, the farmer said toJohnnie and Grizzle, "Come, my dears, I am going to take you for a walk, " and with that hewent with them into the forest near-by. 

Johnnie said nothing, but dropped one of his pebbles at every turning, which would show him the way back. When they got far into the forestthe farmer said to the children, "My dears, I have to go and get something. Stay here and don't goaway, and I'll soon come back. Give me a kiss, children, " and withthat he hurried away and went back home by another road. 

After a time Grizzle began to cry and said, "Where's father? Where's father? We can't get home. We can't gethome. "

But Johnnie said, "Never mind, Grizzle, I can take you home; you justfollow me. "

So Johnnie looked out for the pebbles he had dropped, and found themat each turn of the road, and a little after midday got home and askedtheir mother for their dinner. 

"There's nothing in the house, children, but you can go and get somewater from the well and, please God, we'll have bread in the morning. "

When the farmer came home he was astonished to find that the childrenhad found their way home, and could not imagine how they had done so. But at night he said to his wife, "Betty, my dear, I do not know how the children came home; but thatdoes not make any difference; I cannot bear to see them starve beforemy eyes, better that they should starve in the forest. I will takethem there again to-morrow. "

Johnnie heard all this and crept downstairs and put some more pebblesinto his pocket; and though the farmer took them this time furtherinto the forest the same thing occurred as the day before. But thistime Grizzle said to her mother and father, "Johnnie did such a funny thing; whenever we turned a new road hedropped pebbles. Wasn't that funny? And when we came back he lookedfor the pebbles, and there they were; they had not moved. "

Then the farmer knew how he had been done, and as evening came on helocked all the doors so that Johnnie could not get out to get anypebbles. In the morning he gave them a hunk of bread as before fortheir breakfast and told them he was going to take them into the niceforest again. Grizzle ate her bread, but Johnnie put his into hispocket, and when they got inside the forest at every turning hedropped a few crumbs of his bread. When his father left them he triedto trace his way back by means of these crumbs. But, alas, andalackaday! The little birds had seen the crumbs and eaten them all up, and when Johnnie went to search for them they had all disappeared. 

So they wandered and they wandered, more and more hungry all the time, till they came to a glade in which there was a funny little house; andwhat do you think it was made of? The door was made of butter-scotch, the windows of sugar candy, the bricks were all chocolate creams, thepillars of lollypops, and the roof of gingerbread. 

No sooner had the children seen this funny little house than theyrushed up to it and commenced to pick pieces off the door, and takeout some of the bricks, while Johnnie climbed on Grizzle's back, andtore off some of the roof (what was that made of?). Just as they wereeating all this the door opened and a little old woman, with red eyes, came out and said, "Naughty, naughty children to break up my house like that. Why didn'tyou knock at the door and ask to have something, and I would gladlygive it to you?"

"Please ma'am, " said Johnnie, "I will ask for something; I am so, sohungry, or else I wouldn't have hurt your pretty roof. "

"Come inside my house, " said the old woman, and let them come into herparlour. And that was made all of candies, the chairs and table ofmaple-sugar, and the couch of cocoanut. But as soon as the old womangot them inside her door she seized hold of Johnnie and took himthrough the kitchen and put him in a dark cubby-hole, and left himthere with the door locked. 

Now this old woman was a witch, who looked out for little children, whom she fattened up and ate. So she went back to Grizzle, and said, "You shall be my little servant and do my work for me, and, as forthat brother of yours, he'll make a fine meal when he's fattened up. "

So this witch kept Johnnie and Grizzle with her, making Grizzle do allthe housework, and every morning she went to the cubby-hole in whichshe kept Johnnie and gave him a good breakfast, and later in the day agood dinner, and at night a good supper; but after she gave him hissupper she would say to him, "Put out your forefinger, " and when he put it out the old witch, whowas nearly blind, felt it and muttered, "Not fat enough yet!"

After a while Johnnie felt he was getting real fat and was afraid thewitch would eat him up. So he searched about till he found a stickabout the size of his finger, and when the old witch asked him to putout his finger he put out the stick, and she said, "Goodness gracious me, the boy is as thin as a lath! I must feed himup more. "

So she gave him more and more food, and every day he put out the sticktill at last one day he got careless, and when she took the stick itfell out of his hand, and she felt what it was. So she flew into aterrible rage and called out, "Grizzle, Grizzle, make the oven hot. This lad is fat enough forChristmas. "

Poor Grizzle did not know what to do, but she had to obey the witch. So she piled the wood on under the oven and set it alight. And after awhile the old witch said to her, "Grizzle, Grizzle, is the oven hot?"

And Grizzle said, "I don't know, mum. "

And when the witch asked her again whether it was hot enough, Grizzlesaid, "I do not know how hot an oven ought to be. "

"Get away, get away, " said the old witch; "I know, let me see. " Andshe poked her old head into the oven. Then Grizzle pushed her rightinto the oven and closed the door and rushed out into the back yardand let Johnnie out of the cubby-hole. 

Then Johnnie and Grizzle ran away towards the setting sun where theyknew their own house was, till at last they came to a broad stream toodeep for them to wade. But just at that moment they looked back, andwhat do you think they saw? The old witch, by some means or other, hadgot out of the oven and was rushing after them. What were they to do?What were they to do?

Suddenly Grizzle saw a fine big duck swimming towards them, and shecalled out:

 "Duck, duck, come to me, Johnnie and Grizzle depend upon thee; Take Johnnie and Grizzle on thy back, Or else they'll be eaten--"

And the duck said, "Quack! Quack!"

Then the duck came up to the bank, and Johnnie and Grizzle went intothe water and, by resting their hands on the duck's back, swam acrossthe stream just as the old witch came up. 

At first she tried to make the duck come over and carry her, but theduck said, "Quack! Quack!" and shook its head. 

Then she lay down and commenced swallowing up the stream, so that itshould run dry and she could get across. She drank, and she drank, andshe drank, and she drank, till she drank so much that she burst!

So Johnnie and Grizzle ran back home, and when they got there theyfound that their father the farmer had earned a lot of money and hadbeen searching and searching for them over the forest, and was mightyglad to get back Johnnie and Grizzle again. 

[Illustration: The Duck]

THE CLEVER LASS

Now there was once a farmer who had but one daughter of whom he wasvery proud because she was so clever. So whenever he was in anydifficulty he would go to her and ask her what he should do. Ithappened that he had a dispute with one of his neighbours, and thematter came before the King, and he, after hearing from both of them, did not know how to decide and said:

"You both seem to be right and you both seem to be wrong, and I do notknow how to decide; so I will leave it to yourselves in this way:whichever of you can answer best the three questions I am about to askshall win this trial. What is the most beautiful thing? What is thestrongest thing? and, What is the richest thing? Now go home and thinkover your answers and bring them to me to-morrow morning. "

So the farmer went home and told his daughter what had happened, andshe told him what to answer next day. 

So when the matter came up for trial before the King he asked firstthe farmer's neighbour, "What is the most beautiful thing?"

And he answered, "My wife. "

Then he asked him, "What is the strongest thing?"

"My ox. "

"And what is the richest?"

And he answered, "Myself. "

Then he turned to the farmer and asked him, "What is the most beautiful thing?"

And the farmer answered, "Spring. "

Then he asked him, "What is the strongest?"

"The earth. "

Then he asked, "What is the richest thing?"

He answered, "The harvest. "

Then the King decided that the farmer had answered best, and gavejudgment in his favour. But he had noticed that the farmer hadhesitated in his answers and seemed to be trying to remember things. So he called him up to him and said, "I fancy those arrows did not come from your quiver. Who told you howto answer so cleverly?"

Then the farmer said, "Please your Majesty, it was my daughter who isthe cleverest girl in all the world. "

"Is that so?" said the King. "I should like to test that. "

Shortly afterwards the King sent one of his servants to the farmer'sdaughter with a round cake and thirty small biscuits and a roastcapon, and told him to ask her whether the moon was full, and whatday of the month it was, and whether the rooster had crowed in thenight. On the way the servant ate half the cake and half of thebiscuits and hid the capon away for his supper. And when he haddelivered the rest to the Clever Girl and told his message she gavethis reply to be brought back to the King:

"It is only half-moon and the 15th of the month and the rooster hasflown away to the mill; but spare the pheasant for the sake of thepartridge. "

And when the servant had brought back this message to the King, hecried out, "You have eaten half the cake and fifteen of the biscuits and didn'thand over the capon at all. "

Then the servant confessed that this was all true, and the King said, "I would have punished you severely but that this Clever Girl begs meto forgive the pheasant, by which she meant you, for the sake of thepartridge, by which she meant herself. So you may go unpunished. "

The King was so delighted with the cleverness of the girl that hedetermined to marry her. But, wishing to test her once more beforedoing so, he sent her a message that she should come to him clothed, yet unclothed, neither walking, nor driving, nor riding, neither inshadow nor in sun, and with a gift which is no gift. 

When the farmer's daughter received this message she went near theKing's palace, and having undressed herself wrapped herself up in herlong hair, and then had herself placed in a net which was attached tothe tail of a horse. With one hand she held a sieve over her head toshield herself from the sun; and in the other she held a plattercovered with another platter. 

Thus she came to the King neither clothed nor unclothed, neitherwalking, nor riding, nor driving, neither in sun nor in shadow. 

Now when she was released from the net and a mantle had been placedover her she handed the platter to the King, who took the top platteroff, whereupon a little bird that had been between the two plattersflew away. This was the gift that was no gift. 

The King was so delighted at the way in which the farmer's daughterhad solved the riddle that he immediately married her and made her hisQueen. And they lived very happily together though no children came tothem. The King depended upon her for advice in all his affairs andwould often have her seated by him when he was giving judgment in lawmatters. 

Now it happened that one day at the end of all the other cases therecame two peasants, each of whom claimed a foal that had been born in astable where they had both left their carts, one with a horse and theother with a mare. The King was tired with the day's pleadings, andwithout thinking and without consulting his Queen who sat by hisside, he said, "Let the first man have it, " who happened to be the peasant whose cartwas drawn by the horse. 

Now the Queen was vexed that her husband should have decided sounjustly, and when the court was over she went to the other peasantand told him how he could convince the King that he had made a rashjudgment. So the next day he took a stool outside the King's windowand commenced fishing with a fishing-rod in the road. 

The King looking out of his window saw this and began to laugh andcalled out to the man, "You won't find many fish on a dry road, " to which the peasantanswered, "As many as foals that come from a horse. "

Then the King remembered his judgment of yesterday and, calling themen before him, decided that the foal should belong to the man who hadthe mare and who had fished in front of his windows. But he said tohim as he dismissed them, "That arrow never came from your quiver. "

Then he went to his Queen in a towering rage and said to her, "How dare you interfere in my judgments?"

And she said, "I did not like my dear husband to do what was unjust. "But the King said, "Then you ought to have spoken to me, not shamed me before my people. That is too much. You shall go back to your father who is so proud ofyou. And the only favour I can grant you will be that you can takewith you from the palace whatever you love best. "

"Your Majesty's wish shall be my law, " said the Queen, "but let us atleast not part in anger. Let me have my last dinner as Queen in yourcompany. "

When they dined together the Queen put a sleeping potion in the King'scup, and when he fell asleep she directed the servants to put him inthe carriage that was waiting to take her home, and carried him intoher bed. When he woke up next morning he asked, "Where am I, and why are you still with me?"

Then the Queen said, "You allowed me to take with me that which Iloved best in the palace, and so I took you. "

Then the King recognized the love his Queen had for him, and broughther back to his palace, and they lived together there foreverafterwards. 

THUMBKIN

A woman was once stringing beans in her kitchen, and she thought toherself:

"Oh, why have I not got a little baby boy; if I had only one as big asone of these beans or as big as my thumb I should be content. How Iwould love it, and dress it, and talk to it. "

As she was speaking thus to herself and finishing off the beans, suddenly she thought they all turned into little baby boys, jumpingand writhing about. She was so startled and afraid that she shook outher apron, in which they all lay, into a big bowl of water with whichshe was going to wash the beans. And then she hid her head in herapron so as not to see what happened; and after a while she looked outfrom under her apron and looked at the bowl, and there were all thelittle boys floating and drowned, except one little boy at the top. And she took pity on him and drew him out of the bowl; then she showedhim to her husband when he came home. 

"We have always wanted a boy, " she said to him, "even if it were notbigger than our thumbs, and here we have him. "

So they took him and dressed him up in a little doll's dress and mademuch of him; and he learnt to talk, but he never grew any bigger thantheir thumbs; and so they called him Thumbkin. 

One day the man had to go down into the field, and he said to hiswife:

"My dear, I am going to get ready the horse and cart, and then I amgoing down to the field to reap, and just at eleven o'clock I want youto drive the cart down for me. "

"Isn't that just like a man?" said his wife. "I suppose you'll wantyour dinner at twelve, and how do you expect me to get it ready if Ihave to drive your horse and cart down to the field and then have totrudge back on my ten toes and get your dinner ready? What do youthink I am made of?"

"Well, it has to be done, " said the man, "even if dinner has to belate. "

So they commenced quarrelling, till Thumbkin called out:

"Leave it to me, Father; leave it to me. "

"Why, what can you do?" asked the man. 

"Well, " said Thumbkin, "if mother will only put me in Dobbin's ear, Ican guide him down to the field as well as she could. "

At first they laughed, but then they thought they would try. So theman went off to the field, and at eleven o'clock the woman putThumbkin into the horse's right ear; and he immediately called out, "Gee!"

And the horse began to move. And as it went on towards the fieldThumbkin kept calling out:

"Right! Left! Left! Right!" and so on till they got near the field. 

Now it happened that two men were coming that way, and they saw ahorse and cart coming towards them, with nobody on it, and yet thehorse was picking his way and turning the corners just as if somebodywas guiding him. So they followed the horse and cart till they got tothe field, when they saw the man take Thumbkin out of the horse's earand stroke him and thank him. They looked at one another and said:

"That lad is a wonder; if we could exhibit him we would make ourfortunes. "

So the men went up to the man and said:

"Will you sell that lad?"

But the man said:

"No, not for a fortune; he's the light of our life. "

But Thumbkin, who was seated on the man's shoulder, whispered to him:

"Sell me and I'll soon get back. "

So the man after a time agreed to sell Thumbkin for a great deal ofmoney, and the men took him away with them. 

"How shall we carry him?" said they. 

But Thumbkin called out:

"Put me on the rim of your hat and I shall be able to see thecountry. "

And that is what they did. 

After a time as it got dusk the men sat down by the wayside to eattheir supper. And the man took off his hat and put it on the ground, when Thumbkin jumped off and hid himself in the crevice of a tree. 

When they had finished their supper the men looked about to findThumbkin, but he was not there. And after a while they had to give upthe search and go away without him. 

When they had gone three robbers came and sat down near the tree whereThumbkin was and began to speak of their plans to rob the Squire'shouse. 

"The only way, " said one, "would be to break down the door of thepantry which they always lock at night. "

"But, " said another, "that'll make so much noise it will wake up thewhole house. "

"Then one of us, " said the first robber, "will have to creep inthrough the window and unlock the door. "

"But the window is too small, " said the third robber; "none of uscould get through it. "

"But I can, " called out Thumbkin. 

"What is that? Who was that?" called out the robbers, who commencedthinking of running away. And then Thumbkin called out again:

"Do not be afraid, I'll not hurt you, and I can help you get into theSquire's pantry. "

Then he came out of the hole in the tree, and the robbers weresurprised to see how small he was. So they took him up with them tothe Squire's house, and when they got there they lifted him up and puthim through the window and told him to look out for the silver. 

"I've found it! I've found it!" he called out at the top of his shrillvoice. 

"Not so loud; not so loud, " said they. 

"What shall I hand out first, the spoons or the ladles?" he shoutedout again. 

But this time the butler heard him and came down with his blunderbuss, and the robbers ran off. So when the butler opened the door Thumbkincrept out and went to the stable, and laid down to sleep in a nicecozy bed of hay in the manger. 

But in the morning the cows came into the stable, and one of themwalked up to the manger. And what do you think she did? She swallowedthe hay with little Thumbkin in it, and took him right down into hertummy. 

Shortly afterwards the cows were driven out to the milking place, andthe milkmaid commenced to milk the cow which had swallowed Thumbkin. And when he heard the milk rattling into the pail he called out:

"Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!"

The milkmaid was so startled to hear a voice coming from the cow thatshe upset the milking pail and rushed to her master, and said:

"The cow's bewitched! The cow's bewitched! She's talking through hertummy. "

The farmer came and looked at the cow, and when he heard Thumbkinspeaking out of her tummy he thought the milkmaid was quite right, andgave orders for the cow to be slaughtered. 

And when she was cut up by the butcher he didn't want the paunch--thatis the stomach--so he threw it out into the yard. And a wolf coming byswallowed the paunch and Thumbkin with it. 

When he found himself again in the wolf's stomach he called out asbefore:

"Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!"

But the wolf said to him:

"What'll you do for me if I let you out?"

"I know a place where you can get as many chickens as you like, and ifyou let me out I'll show you the way. "

"No, no, my fine master, " said the wolf; "you can tell me where it is, and if I find you are right then I'll let you out. "

So Thumbkin told him a way to his father's farm, and guided him to ahole in the larder just big enough for the wolf to get through. Whenhe got through there were two fine fat ducks and a noble goose hung upready for the Sunday dinner. So Mr. Wolf set to work and ate the ducksand the goose while Thumbkin kept calling out:

"Don't want any duck or geese. Let me out! Let me out!"

And when the wolf would not he called out:

"Father! Father! Mother! Mother!"

And his father and mother heard him, and they came rushing towards thelarder. Then the wolf tried to get through the hole he had comethrough before, but he had eaten so much that he stuck there, and thefarmer and his wife came up and killed him. 

Then they began to cut the wolf open and Thumbkin called out:

"Be careful! Be careful! I'm here, and you'll cut me up. " And he hadto dodge the knife as it was coming through the wolf. 

But at last the paunch of the wolf was slit open, and Thumbkin jumpedout and went to his mother. And she cleansed him and dressed him innew clothes, and they sat down to supper as happy as could be. 

[Illustration:

 "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the fairest of us all?"]

SNOWWHITE

There was once a queen who had no children, and it grieved her sorely. One winter's afternoon she was sitting by the window sewing when shepricked her finger, and three drops of blood fell on the snow. Thenshe thought to herself:

"Ah, what would I give to have a daughter with skin as white as snowand cheeks as red as blood. "

After a while a little daughter came to her with skin as white assnow and cheeks as red as blood. So they called her Snowwhite. 

But before Snowwhite had grown up, her mother, the Queen, died and herfather married again, a most beautiful princess who was very vain ofher beauty and jealous of all women who might be thought as beautifulas she was. And every morning she used to stand before her mirror andsay:

 "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the fairest of us all?"

And the mirror always used to reply:

 "Queen, Queen, on thy throne, The greatest beauty is thine own. "

But Snowwhite grew fairer and fairer every year, till at last one daywhen the Queen in the morning spoke to her mirror and said:

 "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the fairest of us all?"

the mirror replied:

 "Queen, Queen, on thy throne, Snowwhite's the fairest thou must own. "

Then the Queen grew terribly jealous of Snowwhite and thought andthought how she could get rid of her, till at last she went to ahunter and engaged him for a large sum of money to take Snowwhite outinto the forest and there kill her and bring back her heart. 

But when the hunter had taken Snowwhite out into the forest andthought to kill her, she was so beautiful that his heart failed him, and he let her go, telling her she must not, for his sake and for herown, return to the King's palace. Then he killed a deer and took backthe heart to the Queen, telling her that it was the heart ofSnowwhite. 

Snowwhite wandered on and on till she got through the forest and cameto a mountain hut and knocked at the door, but she got no reply. Shewas so tired that she lifted up the latch and walked in, and there shesaw three little beds and three little chairs and three littlecupboards all ready for use. And she went up to the first bed and laydown upon it, but it was so hard that she couldn't rest; and then shewent up to the second bed and lay down upon that, but that was so softthat she got too hot and couldn't go to sleep. So she tried the thirdbed, but that was neither too hard nor too soft, but suited herexactly; and she fell asleep there. 

In the evening the owners of the hut, who were three little dwarfs whoearned their living by digging coal in the hills, came back to theirhome. And when they came in, after they had washed themselves, theywent to their beds, and the first of them said:

"Somebody has been sleeping in my bed!"

And then the second one said:

"And somebody's been sleeping in my bed!"

And the third one called out in a shrill voice, for he was so excited:

"Somebody is sleeping in my bed, just look how beautiful she is!"

So they waited till she woke up, and asked her how she had come there, and she told them all that the hunter had said to her about the Queenwanting to slay her. 

Then the dwarfs asked her if she would be willing to stop with themand keep house for them; and she said that she would be delighted. 

Next morning the Queen went up as usual to her mirror, and called out:

 "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the fairest of us all?"

And the mirror answered as usual:

 "Queen, Queen, on thy throne, Snowwhite's the fairest thou must own. "

And the Queen knew that Snowwhite had not been slain. So she sent forthe hunter and made him confess that he had let Snowwhite go; and shemade him search about beyond the forest, till at last he brought backword to her that Snowwhite was dwelling in a little hut on the hillwith some coal-miners. 

Then the Queen dressed herself up like an old woman, and, taking apoisoned comb with her, went back the next day to the hut whereSnowwhite was living. Now the dwarfs had warned her not to open thedoor to anybody lest evil might befall her; and she found it verylonesome keeping always within doors. 

When the Queen, disguised as an old woman, came to the door of thehouse she knocked upon it with her stick, but Snowwhite called outfrom within:

"Who is there? Go away! I must not let anybody come in. "

"All right, " answered the Queen. "If you can come to the window we canhave a little chat there, and I can show you my wares. "

So when Snowwhite came to the window the Queen said:

"Oh, what beautiful black hair; you ought to have a comb to bind itup;" and she showed her the comb that she had brought with her. 

But Snowwhite said:

"I have no money and cannot afford to buy so fine a comb. "

Then the Queen said:

"That is no matter; perhaps you have something golden that you cangive me in exchange. "

And Snowwhite thought of a golden ring that her father had given toher, and offered to give it for the comb. The Queen took it and gaveSnowwhite the comb and bade her good-bye, and went back to the palace. 

Snowwhite lost no time in going to the mirror, and binding up her hairand putting the comb into it. But it had scarcely been in her hair afew minutes when she fell down as if she were dead, and all the bloodleft her cheeks, and she was Snowwhite indeed. 

When the dwarfs came home that evening they were surprised to findthat the table was not spread for them, and looking about they soonfound Snowwhite lying upon the ground as if she were dead. But one ofthem listened to her heart and said: "She lives! She lives!"

And they began to consider what caused Snowwhite to fall into such aswoon. They soon found the comb, and when they took it out Snowwhitesoon opened her eyes and became as lively as she ever was before. 

Next morning the Queen went to the mirror on the wall and said to it:

 "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the fairest of us all?"

Then the mirror said as before:

 "Queen, Queen, on thy throne, Snowwhite's the fairest thou must own. "

Then the Queen knew that something had happened to the comb and thatSnowwhite was still alive. So she dressed herself once more as an oldwoman and took with her a poisoned ribbon and went to the hut of thethree dwarfs. And when she got there she knocked at the door, butSnowwhite called out:

"You cannot enter; I must not open the door. "

Then, as before, the Queen called out in reply:

"Then come to the window, and you can see my wares. "

When Snowwhite came to the window the Queen said:

"You are looking more beautiful than ever, but how unbecomingly youarrange your hair. Did you use that comb I gave you yesterday?"

"Yes, indeed, " said Snowwhite, "and I fell into a swoon because of it;I am afraid there is something the matter with it. "

"No, no, that cannot be, " said the Queen; "there must be some mistake. But if you cannot use the comb I will let you have this pretty ribboninstead, " and she held out the poisoned ribbon. Snowwhite took it, andafter the old woman, as she thought she was, had gone away, Snowwhitewent to the mirror and tied up her hair with the piece of ribbon. Butscarcely had she done so when she fell to the ground lifeless and laythere as if she were dead. 

That evening the dwarfs came home and found Snowwhite lying on theground as if dead, but soon discovered the poisoned ribbon and untiedit; and almost as soon as this was done Snowwhite revived again. 

Next morning the Queen went once more to the mirror on the wall, andcalled out:

 "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the fairest of us all?"

to which the mirror replied, without any change:

 "Queen, Queen, on thy throne, Snowwhite's the fairest thou must own. "

And the Queen recognized that once again her plans had failed, andSnowwhite was still alive. So she dressed herself once more and tookwith her a poisoned apple, which was so arranged that only one half ofit was poisoned and the rest of it was left as before. And when theQueen got to the hut of the dwarfs she tried to open the door, butSnowwhite called out:

"You can't come in!"

"Then I'll come to the window, " said the Queen. 

"Ah, you are the old lady that came twice before; you have not broughtme good luck, each time something has befallen me. "

But the Queen said:

"I do not know how that can be; I only brought you something for yourhair; perhaps you tied it too tight. To show you that I have noill-will against you I have brought you this beautiful apple. "

"But my guardians, " said Snowwhite, "told me that I must take nothingmore from you. "

"Oh, this is nothing to wear, " said the Queen, "this is something toeat. To show you that there can be no harm in it I will take half ofit myself and you shall eat the other half. "

So she cut the apple in two and gave the poisoned half to Snowwhite. And the moment she had swallowed the first bite of it she fell downdead. Then the Queen slunk away and went back to the palace and wentat once to her chamber and addressed the mirror on the wall:

 "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the fairest of us all?"

And this time the mirror answered, as it used to do:

 "Queen, Queen, on thy throne, The greatest beauty is thine own. "

Then the Queen knew that Snowwhite was dead at last, and that she waswithout a rival in beauty. 

When the dwarfs came home that night they found Snowwhite lying uponthe ground quite dead, and could not find out what had happened orhow they could cure her. But, though she seemed dead, Snowwhite kepther beautiful white skin and seemed more like a statue than a deadperson. So the dwarfs had a glass coffer made, and put Snowwhite inand locked it up. And she remained there for days and days withoutchanging the slightest, looking oh, so beautiful under the glass case. 

Now a great prince of the neighbouring country happened to be huntingnear the hill of the dwarfs and called at their hut to get a glass ofwater. And when he came in he found nobody there but Snowwhite lyingin her crystal coffer. And he fell at once in love with her and sat byher side till the dwarfs came home, and he asked them who she was. Then they told him her history, and he begged that he might carry thecoffer away so that he might always have her near him. At first theywould not do so. But he showed how much he loved her, so that they atlast yielded, and he called for his men to carry the coffer home tohis palace. 

And when the men commenced carrying the coffer down the mountain theyjolted it so much that the piece of poisoned apple in Snowwhite'sthroat fell out, and she revived and opened her eyes and looked uponthe Prince who was riding by her side. Then he ordered the coffer tobe opened, and told her all that had happened. And he took her home tohis castle and married her. 

After this happened the Queen once more came to her room and spoke tothe mirror on the wall and said:

 "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the fairest of us all?"

And the mirror this time said again:

 "Queen, Queen, on thy throne, Snowwhite's the fairest thou must own. "

And the Queen was so enraged because she had not destroyed Snowwhitethat she rushed to the window and threw herself out of it and died onthe spot. 

[Illustration: Snowwhite and the Three Dwarfs]

[Illustration]

INTRODUCTION TO NOTES

Ever since the Brothers Grimm in 1812 made for the first time a fairlycomplete collection of the folk-tales of a definite local or nationalarea in Europe, the resemblance of many of these tales, not alone inisolated incidents but in continuous plots, has struck inquirers intothese delightful little novels for children, as the Italians call them(_Novelline_). Wilhelm Grimm, in the comparative notes which he addedto successive editions of the _Mährchen_ up to 1859, drew attention tomany of these parallels and especially emphasized the resemblances ofdifferent incidents to similar ones in the Teutonic myths and sagaswhich he and his brother were investigating. Indeed it may be saidthat the very considerable amount of attention that was paid to thecollection of folk tales throughout Europe for the half centurybetween 1840 and 1890 was due to the hope that they would throw somelight upon the origins of mythology. The stories and incidents commonto all the European field were thought likely to be originalmythopoeic productions of the Indo-European peoples just in the samemanner as the common roots of the various Aryan languages indicatedtheir original linguistic store. 

In 1864 J. G. Von Hahn, Austrian Consul for Eastern Greece, in theintroduction to his collection of Greek and Albanian folk tales, madethe first attempt to bring together in systematic form this commonstory-store of Europe and gave an analysis of forty folk-tale and saga"formulæ, " which outlined the plots of the stories found scatteredthrough the German, Greek, Italian, Servian, Roumanian, Lithuanian, and Indian myth and folk-tale areas. These formulæ were translated andadapted by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould in an appendix to Henderson's_Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England_ (London, 1866), and heexpanded them into fifty-two formulæ. Those were the days when MaxMüller's solar and lunar explanations of myths were in the ascendantand Mr. Baring-Gould applied his views to the explanation of folktales. I have myself expanded Hahn's and Baring-Gould's formulæ into alist of seventy-two given in the English Folk-Lore Society's_Hand-Book of Folk-Lore_, London, 1891 (repeated in the secondedition, 1912). 

Meanwhile the erudition of Theodor Benfey, in his introduction to theIndian story book, _Pantschatantra_ (Leipzig, 1859), had suggestedanother explanation of the similarities of European folk-tales. Formany of the incidents and several of the complete tales Benfey showedIndian parallels, and suggested that the stories had originated inIndia and had been transferred by oral tradition to the differentcountries of Europe. This entirely undermined the mythologicaltheories of the Grimms and Max Müller and considerably reduced theimportance of folk tales as throwing light upon the primitivepsychology of the Aryan peoples. Benfey's researches were followed upby E. Cosquin who, in the elaborate notes to his _Contes de Lorraine_, Paris, 1886, largely increased the evidence both for the commonEuropean popularity of many of the tales and incidents as well as forthe parallels to be found in Oriental collections. 

Still a third theory to account for the similarity of folk-taleincidents was started by James A. Farrer and elaborated by Andrew Langin connection with the general movement initiated by Sir Edward Tylorto explain mythology and superstition by the similar processes ofsavage psychology at definite stages of primitive culture. Inintroductions to Perrault and Grimm and elsewhere, Andrew Langpointed out the similarity of some of the incidents of folktales--speaking of animals, transference of human feeling to inanimateobjects and the like--with the mental processes of contemporarysavages. He drew the conclusion that the original composers of fairytales were themselves in a savage state of mind and, by inference, explained the similarities found in folk tales as due to thesimilarity of the states of minds. In a rather elaborate controversyon the subject between Mr. Lang and myself, carried through thetransactions of the Folk-Lore Congress of 1891, the introduction toMiss Roalfe Cox's "Cinderella, " and in various numbers of "Folk-Lore, "I urged the improbability of this explanation as applied to the_plots_ of fairy tales. Similar states of mind might account forsimilar incidents arising in different areas independently, but notfor whole series of incidents artistically woven together to form adefinite plot which must, I contended, arise in a single artist mind. The similarities in plot would thus be simply due to borrowing fromone nation to another, though incidents or series of incidents mightbe inserted or omitted during the process. Mr. Lang ultimately yieldedthis point and indeed insisted that he had never denied thepossibility of the transmission of complete folk-tale formulæ from onenation and language to another. 

During all this discussion as to the causes of the similarity offolk-tale plots no attempt has been made to reconstitute any of theseformulæ in their original shape. Inquirers have been content to pointout the parallelisms to be found in the various folk-tale collections, and of course these parallelisms have bred and mustered with thegrowth of the collections. In some cases the parallels have run intothe hundreds. (See "Reynard and Bruin. ") In only one case havepractically all the parallels been brought together in a single volumeby Miss Roalfe Cox on Cinderella (Folk-Lore Society Publication for1893; see notes on "Cinder-Maid"). These variants of incidentsobviously resemble the _variæ lectiones_ of MSS. And naturally suggestthe possibility of getting what may be termed the original readings. In 1889 the following suggestion was made by Mr. (now Sir) James G. Frazer in an essay on the "Language of Animals, " in the _ArchæologicalReview_, i. , p. 84:

"In the case of authors who wrote before the invention of printing, scholars are familiar with the process of comparing the various MSS. Of a single work in order from such a comparison to reconstruct thearchetype or original MS. , from which the various existing MSS. Arederived. Similarly in Folk-Lore, by comparing the different versionsof a single tale, it may be possible to arrive, with tolerablecertainty, at the original story, of which the different versions aremore or less imperfect and incorrect representations. "

Independently of Sir James Frazer's suggestion, which I have onlyrecently come across, I have endeavoured in the present book to carryit out as applied to a considerable number of the common formulas ofEuropean folk-tales, and I hope in a succeeding volume to complete thetask and thus give to the students of the folk-tale as close approachas possible to the original form of the common folk-tales of Europe asthe materials at our disposal permit. 

My procedure has been entirely similar to that of an editor of a text. Having collected together all the variants, I have reduced them tofamilies of types and from these families have conjectured theoriginal concatenation of incidents into plot. I have assumed that theoriginal teller of the tale was animated by the same artistic logic asthe contemporary writers of _Contes_ (see notes on "Cinder-Maid, ""Language of Animals"), and have thus occasionally introduced anincident which seemed vital to the plot, though it occurs only in someof the families of the variants. My procedure can only be justified bythe success of my versions and their internal coherence. As regardsthe actual form of the narrative, this does not profess to be Europeanbut follows the general style of the English fairy tale, of which Ihave published two collections (_English Fairy Tales_, 1890; _MoreEnglish Fairy Tales_, 1894). 

In the following notes I have not wasted space on proving the Europeancharacter of the various tales by enumerating the different variants, being content for the most part to give references to specialdiscussions of the story where the requisite bibliography is given. With the more serious tales I have rather concerned myself with tryingto restore the original formula and to establish its artisticcoherence. Though I have occasionally discussed an incident ofprimitive character, I have not made a point of drawing attention tosavage parallels, nor again have I systematically given references tothe appearance of whole tales or separate incidents in mediævalliterature or in the Indian collections. For the time being I haveconcentrated myself on the task of getting back as near as possible tothe original form of the fairy tales common to all Europe. Only whenthat has been done satisfactorily can we begin to argue as to thecauses or origin of the separate items in these originals. It must, ofcourse, always be remembered that, outside this common nucleus, eachcountry or linguistic area has its own story-store, which is equallydeserving of special investigation by the serious student of thefolk-tale. I have myself dealt with some of these non-European ornational folk-tales for the English, Celtic and Indian areas and hopein the near future to treat of other folk-tale districts, like theFrench, the Scandinavian, the Teutonic or the Slavonian. 

I had gone through three-quarters of the tales and notes contained inthe present book before I became acquainted with the modestly named_Anmerkungen zu Grimm's Mährchen_, 2 vols. , 1913-15, by J. Bolte andE. Polivka. This is one of those works of colossal erudition of whichGerman savants alone seem to have the secret. It sums up the enormousamount of research that has been going on in Europe for the lasthundred years, on the parallelism and provenance of the folk-tales ofEurope, and in a measure does for all the Grimm stories what MissRoalfe Cox did for Cinderella. Only two volumes have as yet appeareddealing with the first 120 numbers of the Grimm collection in over athousand pages crammed with references and filled with details as tovariants. The book has obviously been planned and worked out by Dr. Bolte, who had previously edited the collected works of his chiefpredecessor, R. Koehler. Dr. Polivka's contribution mainly consists inthe collection and collation of the Slavonic variants, which are heremade accessible for the first time. I therefore refer to the volumehenceforth by Dr. Bolte's name. The book is indispensable for theserious students of the folk-tale, and would have saved me an immenseamount of trouble if I had become acquainted with it earlier. 

In thirty-eight or nearly a third of the tales Dr. Bolte gives aformula, or radicle, summing up the "common form" of the story, and Iam happy to find that in those cases, which occur in the early part ofthe present volume, my own formulæ, agree with his, though of coursefor the purposes of this book I have had to go into more detail. Dr. Bolte has not as yet expounded any theory of the origin of the FolkTale, but, with true scientific caution, judges each case on itsmerits. But his whole treatment assumes the organic unity of eachparticular formula, and one cannot conceive him regarding thesimilarities of the tales as due to similar mental workings of thefolk mind at a particular stage of social development. 

Finally, I should perhaps explain that in my selection of typicalfolk-tales for the present volume, I have included not only thosewhich could possibly be traced back to real primitive times and mentalconditions, like the "Cupid and Psyche" formula, but others of morerecent date and composition, provided they have spread throughoutEurope, which is my criterion. For instance "Beauty and the Beast" inits current shape was composed in the eighteenth century, but hasfound its place in the story-store of European children. A couple, like "Androcles and the Lion" and "Day Dreaming, " owe a similar spreadto literary communication even though in the latter case it is thepopular literature of the _Arabian Nights_. These must be regarded asspecimens only of a large class of stories that are found among thefolk and can be traced in the popular mediæval collections likeAlfonsi's _Disciplina-Clericalis_ or Jacques de Vitry's _Exempla_, notto speak of the _Fables of Bidpai_ or _The Seven Wise Masters ofRome_. These form quite a class by themselves and though they havecome to be in many cases Folk-Lore of European spread, they differ inquality from the ordinary folk-tale which is characterized by itstendency to variation as it passes from mouth to mouth. Still one hasto recognize that they are now European and take their place among thefolk and for that reason I have given a couple of specimens of them, but of course my main attention has been directed to attempting toreconstruct the original form of the true folk-tale from theinnumerable variants now current among the folk. 

I. CINDER-MAID

_Source. _--Miss Roalfe Cox's volume on Cinderella, published by theFolk-Lore Society (London: David Nutt, 1893), contains 130 abstractsand tabulations of the pure Cinderella "formula, " found in Finland, the Riviera, Scotland, Italy, Armenia, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, France, Greece, Germany, Spain, Calcutta, Ireland, Servia, Poland, Russia, Denmark, Albania, Cyprus, Galicia Lithuania, Catalonia, Portugal, Sicily, Hungary, Martinique, Holland, Bohemia, Bulgaria, and the Tyrol. Besides these there are 31 intermediate storiesapproximating to the Cinderella type, from Russia, Asia Minor, Italy, Lorraine, The Deccan, Poland, Hungary, Catalonia, Corsica, Finland, Switzerland, and in Basque, Spain. The earliest form in which the puretype occurs is in Basile's _Pentamerone_, 1634, and of theindeterminate type in Bonaventure des Periers _Nouvelles Récréations_, 1557, though the latter seems more cognate to the Catskin formula. 

In many of the variants there is an introductory series of incidentsin which the heroine, after the loss of her mother, is set tasks bythe envious step-mother and sisters, which she is aided to perform bymeans of an animal helper, mainly sheep or cow, which, in some of theversions, is clearly identified with her mother either in atransformed or a natural state. In these versions the magic dresses, for example, are taken out of the ear of the cow or sheep! Theseincidents however seem to me to be incongruous with the rest of thestory, which involves a monogamous society with fairly fixed socialgrades and with the wearing of shoes at least among the upper strataof society. They belong rather to the type of story represented by theGrimm's "One eye, Two eyes, Three eyes"; and I have therefore reservedthem for my retelling of this formula. In a similar way, in some ofthe Celtic versions, a long series of incidents is inserted, clearlytaken from the Sea Maiden story (see _Celtic Fairy Tales_, xvii. ). 

The central incident of the Cinder-Maid formula is clearly the ShoeMarriage Test, up to which everything leads and upon which themutilation incidents at the end depends. The mutilation again impliesthat the shoe in question must have been of a hard or metallicsubstance which could not be pressed out of shape. In the formendeared to most European children of the upper classes by CharlesPerrault, the slipper is made of glass. It was first suggested byBalzac that Perrault's _pantoffles de verre_ was due to hismisunderstanding of the _pantoffles de vair_, or fur (the word _vair_is still used to indicate this in heraldry), which he had heard fromhis nurse or other folk-tale informant. But the step-sisters would nothave been compelled to hack their heels to get inside a fur slipper, and, from this point of view, the glass shoe would be preferable. Ihave had, however, to reject it because it occurs in only six of thevariants obviously derived directly, or indirectly, from Perrault. Themajority of the versions prefer _gold_ (see Miss Roalfe Cox'senumeration p. 342). 

The Shoe Marriage Test again involves the previous meetings of thehigh-born lover and the menial heroine, transformed for the nonce byher dress into a dame of equal standing. In some of the variants thesemeetings are in church and not at a ball, royal or otherwise. But theShoe Marriage Test involves a highly desirable _parti_ who canpractically command any wife he desires; this points to somesuper-chief or king. I have, therefore, reserved the church meetingsfor the Catskin type of story in which the heroine is scullery-maid inthe young lord's own household. The obtaining of the dresses neededfor the Royal Balls involves some animal or supernatural aid (inPerrault it is, of course, a fairy god-mother, unknown to the folkmind), while the menial condition of the heroine is best explained inthe usual folk-tale manner by the envious step-mother or sisters. 

I have pointed out in _English Fairy Tales_ (Note to "Childe Rowland")that in most folk-tales of a romantic type the mode of telling is byprose narrative interspersed with rhyming formulæ analogous to thecante-fable as in "Aucassin and Nicolete. " The Cinderella formulashows clear traces of such rhymes, especially at the stages of thenarrative where incidents are repeated--the appeal for aid at themother's grave (Dress Rhyme), the avoidance of pursuit by the guards(Pursuit Rhyme), and the calling attention of the Prince to themutilated feet of the step-sisters (Feet Rhyme). 

Now some of these rhymes are found in similar and almost identicalshape in collections made in different countries and differentlanguages; thus the Tree Rhyme is found in the _Archivio_ (Cox, p. 139) and in Ive (p. 265), in Bechstein (p. 166), and in Grimm (p. 222), and in Hahn (p. 244), and Moe (p. 322), each pair havingpractically identical rhymes. Thus we have the existence of a TreeRhyme, shown in Italy and Germany, Greece and Denmark. So, too, theFeet Rhyme is found in Scotland and Denmark, Germany and Brittany. Itis scarcely possible to doubt that all these came from one originalform of the story in which similar rhymes occurred at the same stageof the narrative. The possibility of such coincidences arisingcasually may fairly be regarded as out of the question. 

The subordinate incidents growing out of these essential elements ofthe formula are of course more flexible, but the Shoe Marriage Testitself involves some remarkable dresses used to disguise the identityof the Cinder Maid at her meetings with the hero, and this againinvolves, though not so directly, a series of metal carriages. ThePursuit Rhyme might easily give rise to the expedients of the Honeyand Tar Traps though these do not occur in very many of the variants. I have never-the-less inserted them for the sake of the children ifnot for that of Folk-Lore Science. 

Thus, from what may be called the artistic logic of the Cinderellastory, one is enabled to reconstitute its original formula somewhat asfollows:

Noble Father--Single Daughter--Mother's Death--Tree Planted onMother's Grave--Second Marriage--Two Ugly Step-Sisters--MenialHeroine--Cinder-Maid--Prince Coming of Age--Royal Ball--Step-SistersDressing--Tree Rhyme--Bird Aid--Magic Dress (blue heaven withstars)--Copper Chariot from Tree--Copper Shoes--Caution Rhyme--BallSuccess--Pursuit Rhyme--Step-Sisters' Envy--Second Ball--Magic Dress(golden brown earth with flowers)--Silver Chariot--Silver Shoes--Honeytrap--Pursuit Rhyme--Third Ball--Magic Dress (green sea withwaves)--Golden Chariot--Golden Slippers--Tar Trap (lost shoe)--TimeExpired--Shoe Marriage Test--Mutilated Foot--Feet Rhyme (_bis_)--HappyMarriage. 

It is in accordance with the above formula that the version presentedin the preceding pages has been written, the rhymes being, in mostcases, compounded from the various renderings given in Miss Cox'svolume. I have only added the Caution Rhyme about returning atmidnight, which is in prose in the versions; it would be incongruousfor the little bird to change her mode of diction so suddenly. I canonly hope I will not remind the reader of the guide's description ofWallenstein's horse at Prague: "The head, neck, forelegs, lefthind-leg, and part of the back and tail have been restored; all therest is the original horse. "

_Parallels. _--Miss Cox's volume contains all the parallels of theCinder-Maid formulæ, to which reference has been made above, and shehas supplemented these by a few additional ones in _Folk-Lore_ for1907, pages xviii; 191-6. In addition, she gives, in her notes, parallels to the different incidents:

Note 4. (Help by dead parent. ) Note 6. (Pursuit checked by mist. ) Note7. (Magic tree on buried mother's grave. ) Note 8. (Substituted bride. )Note 26. (Sitting on ashes. ) Note 32. (Birds' language. ) Note 38. (Tree or rock treasures. ) Note 48. (Lost shoe. ) Note 50. (Iron shoes, )and further notes on, Helpful, animals, p. 526. Fairy god-mother, p. 527 and Talking birds, p. 527-9. 

Of these the most important for our present purposes is the 48th notedealing with the Lost Shoe, which we have suggested is the centralincident in the "original. " In Strabo xvii. And in Ælian xiii. --33, the myth of Rhodope informs us that, while she was bathing, an eaglesnatched one of her sandals and dropped it in the lap of Psammetichuswho, struck by its neatness, had all Egypt search for its owner, whomhe then took to wife. In other Egyptian and in Indian stories asevered lock of hair of the heroine leads to the same result. JacobGrimm drew attention to the old German custom of using a shoe atbetrothals, which was placed on the bride's foot as a sign of herbeing subjected to the groom's authority. King Rother had two shoesforged, a silver and a golden one, which he fitted on the feet of hisbride, placed on his knee for that purpose. (See _DeutscheRechts-Alterthumer_, Göttingen, 1828, p. 155. ) It is, of course, possible that some reminiscence of the Rhodope myth had spread amongthe folk to which the original teller of Cinder-Maid belonged, and ifthe shoe betrothal was confined to German custom this would seem togive a clue to the original home of the Cinder-Maid. 

 * * * * *

_Remarks. _--The hazardous character of the reconstruction processinvolved in the restoration of the original Cinder-Maid formulacannot, of course, be exaggerated. It is even more precarious than thesimilar procedure gone through by scholars to restore the originalreading of MSS. Or by the Higher Critics in recovering the J. Narrative of Joseph or the E. Narrative of Lot. But I think I haveshown that the incidents selected by me are those which arenecessitated by the artistic logic of the Shoe Marriage Test whichforms the decisive incident in the Cinder-Maid formula. Where themajority of the incidents contained in the reconstruction occurred inthe same order in far distant countries it is practically impossibleto imagine that the resemblance is due to chance. Nor is it pertinentto point out that the separate incidents occur equally widespread inconnection with other formulæ, since it must not be forgotten that nofolk teller ever indulges in a single incident; he tells a tale ofmany incidents. At the same time it is obvious that a series ofincidents may be transferred appropriately (or inappropriately) fromone tale to another; and this has occurred with the Cinderella tales, as is shown abundantly in Miss Cox's notes. It is thus quite easy fora folk teller, who is familiar with other stories, to introduce ananalogous set of incidents in the Cinder-Maid formula, just as RobRoy's son can introduce variations of an air when playing thebagpipes; but the air remains the same throughout. 

If the formula I have reconstructed for the Cinder-Maid compares atall with the original, one ought to be able to take any variant andsee where the teller of it has diverged from the original, insertednew incidents or adopted new ones to local conditions. When one readsover Miss Cox's variants one can often discern such additions orvariations introduced by the fancy of the teller. It is even possiblethat in Cinderella itself the original folk artist who conceived itmade use of the Catskin formula to embellish the details of the threemeetings of the lovers; even in my own telling I fear there may betraces of the same process. There is still doubt whether the bird inthe hazel tree was meant to represent the soul of the mother in whom, we may even say, there is a double identification involved, as in theGolden Bough. The tree rising from the mother's grave is obviouslyconnected spiritually with her; the relation of the bird in the treeto the Cinder-Maid also implies a similar relation to the mother. Inmy telling of the tale I have purposely avoided emphasizing this, which might lead to inconvenient questionings from the little ones. Inthe scheme of the story the guardian influence of the mother-soul isprominent throughout but need not be too much emphasized for modernchildren. 

II. ALL CHANGE

This nonsense story is found widely spread, especially in Romancetongues, French, Italian, Provencal, and Portuguese; but it is alsofound in Ireland (see _Celtic Fairy Tales_), Hanover, Transylvania, Esthonia, and Russia; so that it has claims to be included in thefairy book of all Europe. Cosquin, ii. , 209-14, gives a number ofOriental stories, Annamite, Kalmuk, Kaffir, which contain the incidentof the girl in the bag, and Indian and Kabyle stories, which gothrough the same exchanges as our story. In the latter case it is ananimal story in which the jackal has a thorn picked out of his paws byan old woman, and gets an egg out of her in exchange for the thornwhich he has "lost. " In this form the jackal helps considerably in thedisappearance of the successive exchanges. It is difficult to saywhether the European or the Indian form was the earlier. The animal_dramatis personæ_ seem less incongruous and turn the scale in favourof India. 

III. KING OF THE FISHES

This is practically the Perseus legend of antiquity, which has beenmade the subject of an elaborate study by Mr. E. Sidney Hartland, _TheLegend of Perseus_, 3 vols. , London, 1894-6. Mr. Hartlanddistinguishes four chains of incidents in the story:

1. The Supernatural Birth. 2. The Life Token. 3. The Rescue of Andromeda. 4. The Medusa Witch. 

Not all the variants, which are very numerous, running from Ireland toCambodia, include all these four incidents. The Greek Perseus legend, for instance, has not the Life Token. Cosquin, i. , 67, knows of onlyeighteen which have the full contingent, one in Brittany, two inGreece, one in Sicily, four in Italy, one each--Basque, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Danish, and Swedish; two German; one Lithuanian;and a Russian variant. There must be many more in Bolte's notes toGrimm, 60. These are sufficient to prove that the whole concatenationof incident is European, though it is difficult to understand how theMedusa incident got tacked on to the preceding three, with which it isvery loosely combined, the only point of connection being with theLife Token. Strangely enough, in the ancient form of the folk-tale, the Gorgon is an almost essential part of the story, though the LifeToken has disappeared, and the Supernatural Birth only applies to thehero and not to his animal companions. In the modern Europeanfolk-tales these animal friends are rather supernumeraries and areoccasionally replaced by the formula of the Grateful Animals, to whomthe hero does some service during his wanderings, in reward for whichthey rescue him from some extremity. In some ancient variants of thePerseus legend there are traces of the Substituted Champion in theform of Pentheus, a former suitor of Andromeda, who had failed to meetthe dragon. 

It would be impossible here to consider the folk-lore analogies of thefour chief incidents of the tale which have occupied Mr. Hartland forthree fairly large volumes to develop, out of which have grown twomore (_Primitive Paternity_, London, 1910). It is only necessary hereto refer to a few points in their relation to the tale itself. TheSupernatural Birth, which is also treated by M. Saintyves (?) is foundattributed to heroes among all nations; it is only of significance inthe story here in its bearing upon the Life Token of the hero, whichis connected with it. With regard to the Life Token, Major Temple hasa full analysis in the notes to _Wide Awake Stories_, 1884, pp. 404-5, under the title of the "Life Index, " and is closely connected withthe idea of the External Soul, which Sir James G. Frazer has studiedin his _Balder_, London, 1913, pp. 95-152. The Fight with the Dragonis celebrated outside folk-tales in the lives of the saints (whenceSt. George, the titular saint of England, gets his emblem) in the sagaof Siegfried, and in the poetry of Schiller, where it is made thesubject of a moral apologue. The Medusa-witch, who transforms intostone, or destroys life in other ways, is quite a familiar figure infolk tales, but is usually thwarted, as here, by some means of cure. 

The chief interest, however, of the "King of the Fishes, " from afolk-tale point of view, is the remarkable similarity of the laterfolk-tales with the Greek legend, from which they are separated by somany centuries. The absence of the Life Token in the Greek version andthe comparative insignificance of Medusa in the modern tales aresufficient evidence that these latter are not directly derived fromthe former. Yet even Mr. Hartland, who is a strong adherent of theanthropological treatment of folk-tales, fully agrees that thisparticular tale must have, at one time, been composed in artisticunity, if not containing all the four chains of incidents at leastcontaining two of them (_Legend of Perseus_, iii. , 151). It should beadded that Rassmann and the Grimms connect the folk-tales with theSiegfried saga (Bolte, i. , 547, 555). 

IV. SCISSORS

This familiar story is found as early as Pauli, "Schimpf und Ernst, "No. 595. It is frequent in Italy, especially in Pitre's Selections. Koehler has references to the other European versions in Bladé, p. 155. Crane, _Italian Popular Tales_, No. Xcvi, has rendered one ofPitre's versions. 

V. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

This rather artificial tale has never-the-less spread through allEurope. One finds it in Italy almost in the same form as in theoriginal French by the Princesse de Beaumont, from whom it has gotinto the ordinary fairy books of England, France and Germany. SeeCrane II. , "Zelinda and the Monster, " pp. 7-11, with note 6, p. 324, which contain a reference to Miss Stokes's _Indian Fairy Tales_, p. 292. The Grimm story No. 108, "Hans the Hedgehog, " is more primitivein character, and we get there the story how the Beast obtained histerrible form. I have, however, rejected this form of it as it is notso widespread as "Beauty and the Beast, " which is one of the fewstories that we can trace, spreading through Europe practically withinour own time. The artificiality of the leading motive is sufficientproof of the late origin of the tale. But, after all, tradition doesnot distinguish between primitive or later strata. Ralston dealt withthe whole formula from the sun-moon point of view in _NineteenthCentury_, Dec. , 1878. 

VI. REYNARD AND BRUIN

The main incidents of "Reynard the Fox" occur in folk-tales throughoutEurope, and it has often been discussed whether the folk-tales werethe foundation of the beast epic or vice versa. Since, however, it hasbeen proven that many other incidents besides those used in the beastsatire are found among the folk, it is generally allowed nowadaysthat, apart from a few Æsopic fables included in the satire, the mainincidents were derived from the folk. On this subject see myintroduction to "Reynard the Fox" in the Cranford Series. 

I have selected a number of the most characteristic of thesefolk-tales relating to the former friendship and later enmity of theFox and the Bear, basing my compilation on the admirable monographsof Prof. K. Krohn of Helsingfors, "Mann und Fuchs, " 1891, "Baer (Wolf)und Fuchs; eine nordische Tiermärchenkette, " in _Journal de la SociétéFinno-Ougrienne_, vi. , Helsingissa, 1889, and "Die geografischeVerbreitung einer nordischen in Finnland, " in _Fennia_, iv. , 4. Thelatter monograph is accompanied by an interesting map of Finland, showing the distribution of the Scandinavian form of these stories, inwhich the Bear is the opponent of the Fox, and the Slavonic form inwhich the Wolf takes that position. As there is obviously amythological tendency at the root of the stories, intending to accountfor the shortness of the Bear's tail and the white tip of the Fox's, it is clear that the Scandinavian form is the more original. 

I have tried to collect together in a logical narrative:

(a) Fox and Bear in partnership--(Top-off, Half-gone, All-gone). (b) Fox in fish cart. (c) Iced Bear's tail. (d) Fox and cream jug. (e) Fox on Bear's back. (f) Fox in briar bush. (g) Man promises Fox two geese for freeing him from Bear. (h) Gives him two dogs. (k) Fox and limbs; sacrifices tail. 

In his article in _Fennia_, Prof. Krohn refers to no less than 708variants of these different episodes, of which, however, 362 are fromthe enormous Finnish collections of folk lore in possession of theFinnish Literary Society at Helsingfors. The others include themajority of European folk-tale collections with a goodly sprinkling ofAsiatic, African and American ones, the last, however, being confinedto "Uncle Remus, " in which four out of the ten incidents occur inisolated adventures of Brer Rabbit. 

Many of the incidents occur separately in early literature; (g) (h)(k) for example, which form one sequence, are found not alone inRenard but also in Alfonsi, 1115, and Waldis. (c) The iced bear's tailoccurs in the Latin _Ysengrimus_, of the twelfth century, in the_Renart_ of the thirteenth, and, strangely enough, in the Hebrew _FoxFables_ of Berachyah ha-Nakadan, whom I have identified with an OxfordJew late in the twelfth century. See my edition of Caxton, _Fables ofEurope_, i. , p. 176. The fact that ice is referred to in the last casewould seem to preclude an Indian origin for this part of thecollection. 

It is not quite certain however that all the above incidents werenecessarily connected together originally. The fish cart (b), and theiced bear's tail (c), are so closely allied that they probably formeda unity in the original conception, though they are often foundseparately nowadays among the folk. Bear and Fox in partnership (a), is found elsewhere told of other animals, notably of the firm of Catand Mouse in Grimm No. 2. It is difficult to determine at presentwhether stories relating to other animals, or even to associations ofmen, have been applied by peasant narrators to the general oppositionof the sly _versus_ the strong animal, which they have dramatized inthe beast satire of Reynard and Bruin. 

For a discussion of the whole subject, see A. Gerber, _Great RussianAnimal Tales_, Baltimore, 1891, who discusses the incidents includedin the above compilation in his notes on v. (a), i. (b), ii. (c), iii. (d), iv. (e), iva. (f), ix. (g), x. (h), xi. (k). It will be foundthat few of the other incidents contained in Gerber can be tracedthroughout Europe except when they are evidently derived from Æsop. 

VII. DANCING WATER

This story has the peculiarity, that it occurs in the Arabian Nightsas well as in so many European folk-tales. Hahn includes it under hisformula No. 4, Genoveva (add Gonz. 5, Dozon 2, Denton 238, Day xix. ), H. Coote, in _Folk-Lore Record_, vol. Iii. , part 2, in a paper on"Folk-Lore, the Source of some of M. Galland's Tales, " contends thatthe "Tale of the Two Sisters who Envied their Cadette, " as well as AliBaba, Aladdin, and Ahmed and Paribanou, were derived from Arabicfolk-lore rather than from any Arabic manuscript version. We know nowthat this is not true of Aladdin; and Zotenberg has traced all theseextra tales of Galland to the oral recitation of his Christiandragoman Hanna. Coote finds the two envious sisters to be an enormousfavorite in Italy and Sicily, being found in Pitre, Berti, Imbriani, Nerucci, and Comparetti. The story of the girl is sometimes toldseparately as a _fiaba_. Coote remarks that Leon Bruno is Greek (seeHahn, p. 131 and F. L. R. , i. , 209), and is derived from the _ArabianNights_ in the story of the princess of the islands of Wakwak; it alsooccurs in Straparola and Madame D'Aulnoy; Brueyre has somethingsimilar in Brittany, p. 93; Kohler in _Melusine_, pp. 213, 214, compares the Breton tale, given there, with the _Arabian Nights_. 

The boy with the moon or the sun on his forehead is a frequentcharacter in Indian folk-tales (see Temple, _Wide Awake Stories_). Thepossibility of Galland's version having passed into the East fromEurope does not seem to have been considered till I suggested it in myIntroduction to the _Arabian Nights_. There is little doubt that OpenSesame is European, and similarly this story occurs in Straparolaearly enough to prevent any possibility of doubt on the subject. Thesequel of incidents appears to be as follows:

Overheard Boasting--Three Marriages--Substituted Children--QuestTasks--Life Token--Speech Taboo--Brother's Failure--Sister'sSuccess--Guilt Revelation--Punishment of Envious Sisters. Some ofthese incidents, like the Life Token, occur in other collocations butare sufficiently appropriate here; Imbriani has three versions, vi. , vii. , viii. , with notes. 

I have mostly followed Crane, pp. 17-25 (see also his notes, pp. 325-6). 

VIII. LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS

_Source. _--Sir J. G. Frazer, in _Archæological Review_, i. , 81-91, 161-81, who made an attempt, the first of its kind, to restore theoriginal archetype of the story of "The Boy Who Became Pope, " on thesame principle as classical scholars restore readings from families ofMSS. He uses Grimm, xxxiii. ; Crane, xliii. ; Sebillot, 2d series xxv. ;and Fleury, 123 _seq. _ I have, on the whole, followed hisreconstruction, but have introduced, from the version in the "SevenWise Masters, " the motive for the father's anger when learning that hewould have, some day, to offer his son water to wash in; Sir James, ina private communication, concurs in the insertion. The folk versionsare, in this instance, peculiarly poor, and I have therefore hadlargely to rewrite, preserving, however, the common incidents. 

_Formula. _--The following formula gives the common elements of thefour parallels used by Sir James Frazer, with my insertion of the birdprophecy (father-water, mother-towel):

Simple Boy--Sent to School--Learns Language of Dogs, Frogs andBirds--Bird Prophecy (Father-Water, Mother-Towel)--HeroExposed--Intended Murderer Brings Back Deer's Heart--Three adventureson Road--Dogs Warn Burglary--Frog Restores Host to Sick Girl--BirdProphesies Papacy (one of three companions)--Pope Election--HeavenlySign (dove and bell)--Bird Prophecy Fulfilled--Father Repentance. 

_Parallels. _--Besides the four sources used by Sir James Frazer, hegives two variants of the Breton from _Melusine_, i. , cols. 300, 374, and the "Seven Wise Masters" version, with six variants: Russian, Masurian, two Basques, and a Turkish one. In the Russian version thefather-water, mother-towel prophecy occurs, which could not havearisen independently. In the Masurian version the prophecy is moreprimitive ("Your mother will wash your feet, and your father willdrink the water"). In the remaining versions the prophecy is morevague, that the parents shall be the son's servants. In the_Pentamerone_ there is a story in which a father has five simple sonswhom he sends into the world to learn experience. The younger returnswith a knowledge of the language of birds. But the rest of the storyis not of our type. 

_Remarks. _--In his second paper (_Arch. Rev. _ i. , 161 _seq. _) SirJames Frazer has many interesting remarks upon the folk conception ofthe means of acquiring a knowledge of the language of animals. This isgenerally done by a gift of magic rings, or by eating magic plants(mainly fern) or eating serpents (generally white). Sir James Frazerconnects the rings with serpents by suggesting that serpents aresupposed to have stones in their head which confer magic powers (_AsYou Like It_, iv. , 2. ) He further connects the notion of eatingserpents with acquiring the language of birds by referring to theviews of Democritus that serpents are generated from the mixed bloodof diverse birds and are therefore in a strict sense blood relationsof them; this idea, he suggests, may have arisen from the fact thatserpents eat birds' eggs. It would be an easy transition infolk-thought to consider that serpents would understand the languageof the birds they ate and that persons eating serpents wouldunderstand the language of both. So Sigurd understands the language ofbirds, after eating the blood of Fafnir the Worm. But all this throwslittle light upon the story itself. 

Bolte gives, i. , 323-4, many folk-tales in which the hero becomes nota pope but a king and compares the story of Joseph in the Bible aspossibly a source of the Prophetic Dream of the father and motherwaiting upon the son. The transference to the pope may have beeninfluenced by the tradition given by Vincent of Beauvais (_Spec. Hist. _, xxiv. , 98) that Sylvester II. Learned at Seville the languageof birds. There was also the tradition that at the election ofInnocent III. , 1198, three doves flew about the cathedral, one ofwhich, a white one, at last settled down upon his shoulder. Raumer, _Gesch. D. Hohenstaufen_, ii. , 595. 

IX. THE THREE SOLDIERS

This tale is widely spread through Europe, being found from Ireland toGreece, from Esthonia to Catalonia. It is generally told of threesoldiers, or often brothers, but more frequently casual comrades. InKohler's notes on Imbriani, p. 356-7, he points out that there arethree different forms, in the first of which the fairy's gifts arerecovered by means of a defect produced, which only one of thesoldiers can cure. In the second form the latter part is wanting, andin the third the two gifts are restored by means of the third, whichis generally in the form of a stick. See _English Fairy Tales_, No. 32. In my reconstruction I have followed the first form. Cosquin, XI. , has a fairly good variant of this, with comparative notes. Crane, XXXI. , gives, from Gonzenbach, the story of the shepherd boy who makesthe princess laugh, which is allied to our formula, mainly by itssecond part. And it is curious to find the three soldiers reproducedin Campbell's Gaelic, No. 10. In this version the magic gifts arewheedled out of the soldiers by the princess, but they get them backand go back to their "girls. "

In the Chinese version of the Buddhist Tripitaka, a monk presents aman who has befriended him with a copper jug, which gives him all hewishes. The king gets this from the monk, but has to return it when hegets another jar which is full of sticks and stones. Aarne in_Fennia_, xxvii. , 1-96, 1909, after a careful study of the numerousvariants of the East and West, declares that the original containedthree gifts and arose in southern Europe. From the three gifts camethree persons and afterwards the form in which only two gifts occur. Against this is the earliest of the Tripitaka versions, 516 A. D. , which has only two magic gifts. Albertus Magnus was credited with abag out of which used to spring lads with cudgels to assail hisenemies. 

X. DOZEN AT ONE BLOW

This story is familiar to English-speaking children as Jack the GiantKiller, but it is equally widespread abroad as told of a little tailoror cobbler. In the former case there is almost invariably theintroduction of the ingenious incident, "Seven at a Blow, " the numbervarying from three to twenty-seven. I have adopted a fair average. Thelatter part of the story is found very early in M. Montanus, _Wegfuehrer_, Strassburg, 1557, though most of the incidents occur infolk tales scattered throughout the European area. Bolte even suggeststhat the source of the whole formula is to be found in Montanus andgives references to early chapbook visions in German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and English (i. , 154-6). But the very numerous versions inEast Europe must in that case have been derived from oral traditionfrom these. Something similar has even spread to Greenland, where thestory of the Giant and the boy is told by Rae, _Great WhitePeninsula_. (See Grimm, tr. Hunt, i. , 364. ) The Dutch version is toldof Kobis the Dauntless. Cosquin, who has two versions (8 and 25), hasmore difficulty than usual in finding the full plot in Orientalsources, though various incidents have obviously trickled through tothe East, as for example the hero Nasnai Bahadur in the Caucasus, whoovercomes his three narts, or giants, very much in the same manner asour tailor. 

XI. EARL OF CATTENBOROUGH

This Puss-in-Boots formula has become universally European fromPerrault's version, to whom we owe the boots that occur in no otherversion, so that I have been reluctantly obliged to take them off. Butapart from this the story in its entirety existed earlier inStraparola, xi. , 1, and in the _Pentamerone_, and is found widelyspread through Italy (Pitre, 88; Imbriani, 10; Gonzenbach, 65, etc. ), as well as in Hungary (Jones and Kropf, No. 1), Germany (Grimm, 33a), and even in Finland (see Jones and Kropf, p. 305). In some of thesecases the cat is a vixen (or female fox), and the incident of thefalse bathing and the marriage occurs before reaching the ogre'scastle, as is indeed more natural. I have, therefore, so far amendedPerrault. In most of the folk versions the miller's son betraysingratitude towards his animal protector, who sometimes reduces him tohis original state. This final incident, unknown to Perrault, showsthe independence of these versions from that contained in his MotherGoose Stories. In Sweden the hero, if one may speak Hibernically, is agirl, who turns up her nose at everything in the palace as not beingso good as in her castle of Cattenburg (Thorpe quoted by Lang, _Perrault_, p. Lxxi. ). In India it is found in Day, _Folk Tales ofBengal_, under the title of "The Matchmaking Jackal, " which hasnumerous Indian touches; thus the jackal remembers the grandeur of theweaver's forefathers and rolls himself in betel leaves. Sultan Darai, in the Swahili version (Steere), has the stripping incident and theno-talking trick, as well as the ingratitude at end. Lang argueselaborately that it is impossible to determine the original home ofPuss-in-Boots, though he seems to own that it had one. His criterionis the absence or presence of a moral in the story, in this case theincident showing the ingratitude of the Marquis. This occurs, as wehave seen, as far south as Madagascar, and as far east as India, but, after all, does not seem to be the essence of the story, though in oneof the versions the cat does his tricks for the miller because he hadpreviously saved him from the hunters. The late Mr. Ralston has aninteresting article on Puss-in-Boots in the _Nineteenth Century_, August, 1883, though in his days there was a tendency to explain allfairy tales as variants of the Sun and Moon myths. 

It is right that I should add that the servant's evening salute hasnothing to do with the story but is a tradition in my own family, where my grandfather's servant used to utter this rhyme in a sort ofchant when bidding the family good-night. 

XII. THE SWAN MAIDENS

The Swan Maidens occur very widely spread and have been studied withgreat diligence by Mr. E. S. Hartland in two chapters (x. , xi. ) of his_Science of Fairy Tales_ (pp. 255-347). In consonance with his generalprinciple of interpretation, Mr. Hartland is mainly concerned with thetraces of primitive thought and custom to be seen in the Swan Maidens. Originally these were, according to him, probably regarded as actualswans, the feathery robe being a later symbolic euphemism, though Iwould incidentally remark that the whole of the story _as a story_depends upon the seizure of a separate dress involving the capture ofthe swan bride. Mr. Hartland is inclined to believe partly with F. Liebrecht in _Zur Volkskunde_, pp. 54-65, that these mysteriousvisitors from another world are really the souls of deceased persons(probably regarded as totemistic ancestresses). In some forms of thestory, enumerated by Mr. Hartland, the captured wife returns to heroriginal home, not when she recovers her robe of feathers but when thehusband breaks some tabu (strikes her, chides her, refers to hersisters, sees her nude, etc. ). 

From the standpoint of "storyology" from which we are mainlyconsidering the stories here purely as stories, the Swan Maidensformula is especially interesting as showing the ease with which asimple theme can be elaborated and contaminated by analogous ones. Theessence of the story is the capture of a bride by a young man whoseizes her garment and thus gets her _in manu_, as the Roman lawyerssay. She bears him children, but, on recovering her garment, fliesaway and is no more heard of. Sometimes she superfluously imposes atabu upon her husband, which he breaks and she disappears (Melusinevariant; compare Lohengrin). This is the effective and affectingincident of which Matthew Arnold makes such good use in his _Merman_. It could obviously be used, as Mr. Hartland points out, in aquasi-mythological manner to account for supernatural ancestry, as inthe cases of the physicians of Myddvai in Wales, or of the Counts ofLusignan. But on this simple basis folk tellers have developedelaborations derived from other formulæ. In several cases, notably inthe _Arabian Nights_ (Jamshah and Hasan of Bassora), the capture ofthe swan maiden is preceded by the Forbidden Chamber formula. Thenwhen the bride flies away there is the Bride-Quest, which is oftenhelped by Thankful Animals and aided by the Magical Weapons. When thehero reaches the home of the bride he has often to undergo aRecognition-Test, or even is made to undertake Acquisition Tasksderived from the Jason formula; and even when he obtains his wishes inmany versions of the story there is the Pursuit with Obstacles alsofamiliar from the same formula. 

Cosquin, ii. , 16, has, with his usual analytical grasp, seen theseparable character of these various series of incidents. He, however, attempts to show that all of them, including the germ of the SwanMaidens, are to be found in the East, and is successful in affiliatingthe Greek of Hahn, No. 15, with the two stories of the _ArabianNights_ mentioned above, as well as the Siberian version given byRadloff, iv. , 321, the hero of which has even derived his name fromthe Jamshah of the _Thousand and One Nights_. 

In my own version I have utilized a few of these incidents but reservemost of them for their proper story environment. I have introduced, from the Campbell version, the phrase "seven Bens, and seven Glens, and seven Mountain Moors, " which so attracted Stevenson's Catriona, inorder to point out as a remarkable coincidence that Hasan of Bassora, in the _Arabian Nights_, flies over "seven Waddys, seven Seas, andseven Mountains. " It is difficult to understand that such a remarkablephrase should recur accidentally in Bagdad and in the West Highlands. Without some actual intermediation, oral or literary, the hypothesisof universal human tendency can scarcely explain such a coincidence. 

XIII. ANDROCLES AND THE LION

This well-known story occurs first in the fables of Phædrus, thoughnot in the extant form, only being preserved in the mediæval proseversion known as _Romulus_. It is also referred to in Appian, AulusGellius, and Seneca (see the references in my _History of Æsop_, p. 243, Ro. III. , i. ). It is told in Caxton's _Esope_, p. 62, from whom Ihave borrowed a few touches. He calls his hero Androclus, whereasPainter, in his _Palace of Pleasure_, ed. Jacobs, i. , 89-90, calls theslave Androdus. We moderns, including Mr. Bernard Shaw, get our"Androcles" from Day's _Sanford and Merton_. It also occurs in _GestaRomanorum_, 104, edit. , Oesterley, who gives a long list of parallelsin almost all the countries of Europe. 

Benfey, in the introduction to his edition of _Pantschatantra_, i. , 112, contends that the story is of Oriental origin, showing Buddhistictraits in the kindly relations between the slave and the lion; but theparallels he gives are by no means convincing, though the generalevidence for Oriental provenance of many of Phædrus' fables gives acertain plausibility to this derivation. From our present standpointthis is of less importance since Androcles, though it has spreadthrough Europe and is current among the folk, is clearly of literaryorigin and is one of the few examples where we can trace such literaryspread. 

XIV. DAY DREAMING

I have given the story of the barber's fifth brother from the _ArabianNights_ as another example of the rare instances of tales that havebecome current among the folk, but which can be definitely traced toliterary sources, though possibly, in the far-off past, it was a folktale arising in the East. The various stages by which the story cameinto Europe have been traced by Benfey in the introduction to hisedition of _Pantschatantra_, § 209, and after him by Max Mueller inhis essay "On the Migration of Fables" (_Chips from a GermanWorkshop_, iv. , 145-209; it was thus a chip from another German'sworkshop). It came to Europe before the _Arabian Nights_ and becamepopular in La Fontaine's fable of Perrette who counted her chickensbefore they were hatched, as the popular phrase puts it. In such acase one can only give a reproduction of the literary _source_, and itis a problem which of the various forms which appear in the folk booksshould be chosen. I have selected that from the _Thousand and OneNights_ because I have given elsewhere the story of Perrette (Jacobs, _Æsop's Fables_, No. 45), and did not care to repeat it in this place. I have made my version a sort of composite from those of Mr. Payne andSir Richard Burton, and have made the few changes necessary to fit thetale to youthful minds. It is from the quasi-literary spread ofstories like this that the claim for an Oriental origin of all folktales has received its chief strength, and it was necessary, therefore, to include one or two of them in _Europa's Fairy Book_(Androcles is another). But the mode of transmission is quitedifferent and definitely traceable and, for the most part, the talesremain entirely unchanged; whereas, in the true folk tale, the popularstory-tellers exercised their choice, modifying incidents and givinglocal colour. 

XV. KEEP COOL

There is no doubt about the European character of this tale, which isfound in Brittany, Picardy, Lorraine, among the Basques, in Spain, Corsica, Italy, Tyrol, Germany (though not in Grimm), amongLithuanians, Moravians, Roumanians, Greeks, Irish, Scotch, Danes, Norwegians (Cosquin, ii. , 50). The central idea of the Rage-Wager isretained throughout, and in many places the punishment is thesame--the loss of a strip of skin. In all but three instances thestory is told of three brothers, which practically proves itsidentity. I have given the Irish version in _More Celtic Fairy Tales_. 

The "sells" however change considerably, though in most of them thefinal dénoument comes with the death or wounding of the wife. Thepigs' tails incident is also very common and is indeed found inanother set of tales, more of the Master Thief type. Campbell's No. 45had an entirely different set, some of them very amusing. Mac-A-Rusgaich has all three meals at once and lies down. He holds theplough and does nothing else; he sees after the mountain; literallycasts ox-eyes at the master, and makes a sheep foot-path out ofsheep's feet. I have taken from Campbell the direction to wash horsesand stable within and without, though it does not occur elsewhere. YetMac-A-Rusgaich has a bout with a giant, in which he slits anartificial stomach, like Jack the Giant Killer; and this incidentoccurs in four other of the European tales, again showing identity. "Keep cool" is thus an interesting example of identity of framework, with variation of incident. 

XVI. THE MASTER THIEF

The sneaking regard of the folk-mind for the clever rogue who canoutwit the guardians of order (the ever-present enemy of the folk) wasshown in early days by the myth of Rhampsinitus in Herodotus, ii. , 121, which is found to this day among the Italians (see Crane, No. 44, and S. Prato, _La Leggenda del Tesoro di Rampsinite_, Como, 1882). Butthe more usual European form is that I have chosen for the text, theformula of which might be summed up as follows:

Apprenticeship in thievery--Purse or life--Hanging "sell"--MasterThief--Three Tests--Horse from Stable--Sheet off bed--Priest inbag--Horse from under (Thumb-Bung). 

Almost the whole of this is found as early as Straparola i. , 2, whereCassandrino is ordered by the provost of Perugia to steal his bed andhis horse and to bring to him in a sack the rector of the village. 

The purse incident occurs in Brittany, Piedmont, Tuscany, and Tyrol;in Iceland (Arnason, p. 609) occurs the man twice hanged which alsooccurs in Norway, Ireland, Saxony, Tuscany, and in Germany (Kuhn andSchwartz, 362); in Servia (Vuk, 46) the Master Thief steals sheep bythrowing two shoes successively in the road, which also occurs inBengal (Day, xi. ); the theft of the horse occurs in Brittany, Norway, Ireland, Tuscany, Scotland (Campbell, 40), Flanders, in Basque andCatalan, Russia and Servia. The third test of kidnapping the priestoccurs in Brittany, Flanders, Norway, Basque, Catalan, Scotland, Ireland, Lithuania, Tuscany. In Iceland the persons carried away are aking and a queen. 

The three tests of the Master Thief, the stealing of bed, horse, andpriest, occur as early as Straparola, i. , 2, who also has a somewhatsimilar story of the "Scholar in Magic, " viii. , 5, which contains thezigzag transformation of the _Arabian Nights_. Both forms occur inGrimm, 68, 192. While the three tests are fairly uniform throughoutEurope, the introduction by which the lad becomes a thief and proveshimself a Master Thief varies considerably; and I have had to make aselection rather than a collation. 

In some forms the farmer has three sons, of whom the youngest adoptsthievery as a profession, which indeed it was in the Middle Ages (aswe know from the Cul-le-jatte of _The Cloister and the Hearth_). InHahn, 3, the Master Thief has to bring a "Drakos" instead of a priest. Curiously enough, in Gonzenbach, 83, the Master Thief has to bringback a "dragu. "

In many of the variants the Master Thief executes his tricks in orderto gain the King's daughter by a sort of Bride Wager. But in mostcases he does them in order to escape the natural consequences of histhievery. 

XVII. THE UNSEEN BRIDEGROOM

The adult reader will of course recognize that this is the story ofCupid and Psyche, as told by Apuleius, and translated with suchfelicity by Pater in his _Marius_, Pt. I. , ch. 5. Though the names ofthe gods and goddesses--Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Juno, Proserpine, etc. --are scattered through the tale, it is now acknowledged on allhands that it has nothing to do with mythology but is a fairy talepure and simple, as indeed is acknowledged by Apuleius who calls it a"fabella anilis. " From this point of view it is of extreme interest tothe student of the folk-tale as practically the same tale, with theUnseen Bridegroom, the Sight Taboo, the Jealous Mother-in-law, theTasks, and the Visit to the Nether-World, occur in contemporaryfolk-tales scattered throughout Europe, from Norway (Dasent, "East o'the Sun and West o' the Moon") to Italy (Gonzenbach No. 15, Pitre No. 18 given in Crane No. 1, _King of Love_); for the variants elsewheresee Koehler on Gonzenbach. The earliest form of the modern versions isfound in Basile (1637), _Pentamerone_ v. , 4, _The Golden Root_. 

Now there are several circumstances showing the identity of theancient and modern forms of this story. All of them contain thepunishment for curiosity motive, which is doubled both in Apuleius(with the coffer at the end) and in Basile and Crane. In several ofthe folk-tales the Ant-Help occurs in the performance of the tasks, and in Apuleius the successive visits to Juno and Ceres evidentlyrepresent the visits to the Queen-mother's sisters, often known asogresses, found in Dasent, Basile, and in Grimm 88. It is possible, ofcourse, that in some cases dim memories of Apuleius have percolateddown to the folk, as is shown by the name of the hero in Pitre'sversion _Il Re d'Amore_. Kawczynski (Abh. D. Krakauer Akad. 1909, xlv. 1) declares for the derivation of the whole series of folk-tales fromApuleius but against this is the doubt whether this author was at allknown during the Middle Ages. 

But, to prove that the folk-tales were not derived directly or solelyfrom the classical romance they, in almost every case, had a series ofadventures not found there, including the incidents, Obstacles toPursuit, False Bride, and Sale of Bed. Now these incidents reallybelong to another formula, that of the Master-Maid, in which an ogre'sor giant's daughter, helps the hero to perform tasks, flees away withhim, is pursued by the ogre, loses her beloved through an OblivionKiss and has to win him again from his False Bride by purchasing theright of spending three nights with him. These incidents come inlogically in the Master-Maid formula but are dragged in without realrelevance into Cupid and Psyche; yet they occur as early as Basilewhere there is a dim reminiscence of the Oblivion Kiss. Inreconstructing the formula I have therefore omitted these incidents, reserving them for their proper place (see Master-Maid). 

Cupid and Psyche is of special interest to the student of thefolk-tale since it is a means of testing the mythological, theanthropological, and the Indian theories of its origin. Themythological interpretation is nowadays so discredited that it isneedless to discuss it, especially as we have seen that themythological names given by Apuleius are only dragged in perforce. Theanthropological explanation, given most fully by Andrew Lang in hisadmirable introduction to Addington's translation of Apuleius in the_Bibliotheque de Carabas_, gives savage parallels from all quarters ofthe globe to the seven chief incidents making up the tale, but leavesaltogether out of account the artistic concatenation of the incidentsin the tale itself and does not consider the later complications ofthe European folk-tales connected with it. M. Cosquin and others bringin the Vedic myth of Urvasi and Pururavas, but we have seen reason toreject the notion that the tale is, in its essence, mythological, andtherefore need not consider its relation to Indian mythology. Cosquin, however, gives reference to the tale of Tulisa taken down from awasherwoman of Benares in 1833 (_Asiatic Journal_, new series, vol. 2), which has the invisible husband and the breaking of taboo, thejealous mother-in-law, and the tasks. This is indeed a closeparallelism sufficient to raise the general question of relationbetween the Indian and the European folk-tale. But the earlierexistence of the tale in Apuleius and Basile would give the preferenceto European influence on India rather than _vice versa_. 

I should add that I have followed Apuleius in giving a symbolic nameto the heroine of the tale, in order to suggest its relation to theclassical folk-tale of Cupid and Psyche, but not of course to indicatethat it is in any sense mythological. The Descent-to-hell incident, which is found both in the classical and in the modern European formsand therefore in my reconstruction is only, after all, the applicationof a common form to the notion of difficult Tasks, which is of theessence of the story. 

XVIII. THE MASTER-MAID

This is one of the oldest and widest spread tales of the world, andthe resultant formula was, therefore, more than usually difficult toreconstruct. The essence of the tale consists in the MenialHero--Three Tasks--Master-Maid Help--Obstacles to Pursuit--OblivionKiss--False Bride--Sale of Bed--Happy Marriage. In essentials this isthe story of Jason and Medea, where we have the Tasks, the Pursuit, and the False Bride, though the dramatic genius of the Greeks hasgiven a tragic ending to the tale. Lang, in his _Custom and Myth_, pp. 87-102, has pointed out parallels, not alone in modern folk-tales, like Grimm 92, Campbell 2, Dasent 11, and Basile 11, but even inMadagascar (_Folk-Lore Journal_, Aug. , 1883), and Samoa (Turner 102)while the Flight and Obstacles are found in Japan and Zululand. Evenin America there is the Algonquin form of the Tasks (School-craft, Algic Researches ii. , 94-104), and the Flight is given in aninteresting article in the _Century Magazine_, 1884. According toLang's general views, he seems to regard these incidents as beinguniversally human and having no affiliation with one another, thoughhe entitles his essay, "A Far Travelled Tale. "

The modern Folk-Tales, however, make it practically impossible thatthese at least could have arisen independently. Many of them have anintroductory set of incidents, Jephtha-Vow, Herd-Boy, Shepherd-Boy, Prince; this I have adopted in my version. But besides this the Tasksare often identical, Cleaning Stable (Dasent, Campbell), Finger-Ladder(Campbell, trace in Cosquin 32), Building Castle (Grimm 113, Hahn 54);the Oblivion Kiss occurs in Scotland, Germany, Spain, Tyrol, Tuscany, Sicily, and Rome, all in connection with similar stories. 

The tale has been especially popular in Celtdom. I have enumerated noless than fourteen versions in my notes on the "Battle of the Birds"(_Celtic Fairy Tales_, p. 265). There we have the Obstacles to Pursuitmainly in the form of forest, mountain, and river, which the late Mr. Alfred Nutt pointed out to be the natural boundaries of theNether-World in Teutonic Paganism. It is, therefore, possible that ourstory has been "contaminated" or influenced by the notion of the"Descent to Hell. "

Here, as in the parallel case of Cupid and Psyche, we find a classicalstory, with many of the incidents clearly reproduced in modernFolk-Tales, while others have been inserted to make the tale longer ormore of the folk-tale character. 

At the same time the story as a _whole_ is found spread from Americato Samoa, from India to Scotland, with indubitable signs of being thesame story dressed up according to local requirements. The Master-Maidis, accordingly, one of the most instructive of all folk-tales, fromthe point of view of the problem of diffusion. 

XIX. A VISITOR FROM PARADISE

This droll, in its two parts, occurs throughout Europe as has beenshown by Cosquin in his elaborate Notes to No. 22. The Visitor fromParadise, for example, occurs in Brittany, Germany, Norway, andSweden, England, Roumania, Tyrol, and Ireland. In some of the versionsthe silly wife gives some household treasure to a passer-by becauseher husband had said that he was keeping this for Christmas, forEaster, or for "Hereafterthis" and the Visitor claims it in that name. (See _More English Fairy Tales_. ) The idea also occurs in theliterature of jests in Pauli, 1519, Hans Sachs, and in _Trésor duRidicule_, Paris, 1644. Cosquin has also traced it to Ceylon, _Orientalist_, 1884, p. 62. 

The adventure of the door and the robbers is equally widely spread inNormandy, Germany, Austria, Bosnia, Rome, Catalonia, and Sicily. (Gonz. , i. , 251-2. ) It forms part of the tale of "Mr. Vinegar" in_English Fairy Tales_. The two adventures are, however, rarelycombined; Cosquin knows of only two instances. I have, however, ventured to combine them here instead of making two separate tales ofthem. 

In telling the story one has to slur over the pronunciation of"Paradise, " making the last vowel short, so as to explain themisunderstanding about "Paris. " I have retained the Paris _motif_ asall through the Middle Ages, wayfarers from and to Paris (wanderingscholars or clerics) would be familiar sights to the peasantrythroughout Europe. 

Bolte gives in full (ii. , 441-6) a Latin poem by Wickram in 1509entitled, "De Barta et marito eius per studentem Parisiensemsubtiliter deceptis, " which is practically identical with the earlypart of our story and has this misunderstanding about Paris andParadise. It accordingly occurs in most of the German books of Drollsas those by Bebel and Pauli, and it is possible that the folkversions were derived from this, though they stretch as far as Cairoand North India. See Clouston, _Book of Noodles_, pp. 205, 214. Insome of the folk-tales, there is an introduction in which the FoolishWife sells three cows, but keeps one of the three as a pledge. Thereupon her husband leaves her until he can find any one as silly, which he does by posing as a Visitor from Paradise. This is moresuitable for an introduction for "The Three Sillies. "

XX. INSIDE AGAIN

This story is one of the most interesting in the study of the populardiffusion of tales, and I therefore give it here though I have givenan excellent version from Temple and Steel in _Indian Fairy Tales_, ix. , "The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal, " and have therediscussed the original form. Its interest, from the point of view ofdiffusion, lies in the fact that it occurs in India, both early (seeBenfey, i. , 117) and late (Temple, 12, Frere, 14), in Greece, bothclassical (Æsopic fable of the serpent in the bosom) and modern (Hahn, 87, Schmidt, p. 3), and in the earliest mediæval collection of populartales by Petrus Alfonsi (_Disciplina clericalis_, vii. ), as well as inthe Reynard cycle. Besides these quasi-literary sources ranging overmore than two thousand years, there are innumerable folk-versionscollected in the last century and ranging from Burmah (Semeaton, _TheKarens_, 128) to America (Harris, _Uncle Remus_, 86). These are allenumerated by Professor Krohn in an elaborate dissertation, "Mann undFuchs" (Helsingfors, 1891). In essentials the trick by which thefisherman gets the djin inside the bottle again, in the first storywithin the frame of the _Arabian Nights_ (adapted so admirably by Mr. Anstey in his _Brass Bottle_), is practically the same device. RichardI. Is said, by Matthew Paris (ed. Luard, ii. , 413-16), to have toldthe nobles of England, after his return from captivity in the East, asimilar apologue proving the innate ingratitude of man. This isderived from the Karma Jataka, which was possibly the ultimate sourceof the whole series of tales. 

Amid all these hundred variants there is one common idea, that of theingratitude of a rescued animal (crocodile, snake, tiger, etc. ), whichis thwarted by its being placed back in the situation from which itwas rescued. In some cases the bystander who restores equilibrium isalone; in most instances there are three of them; the first two havingsuffered from man's ingratitude see no reason for interfering. This isthe "common form" which I have adopted in my version. In India thesufferer from ingratitude is sometimes a tree (a mulberry tree, in_Indian Fairy Tales_), but the European versions prefer horses ordogs. 

Now it is obvious that such an artificial apologue on man'singratitude could not have been invented twice for that particularpurpose; and thus the hundred different versions (to which Dr. Boltecould probably add another century) must all, in the last resort, haveemanated from a single source. When and where that original wasconcocted is one of the most interesting problems of folk-talediffusion; the moralizing tendency of the tale, the animistic noteunderlying it, all point to India, where we find it in the Bidpailiterature before the Christian era and current among the folk at thepresent day. The case for Indian origin is strongest for drolls ofthis kind. 

I may add that the ingratitude of the man towards the fox at the endis not so universal a tail piece to the story as the rest of it, andis ultimately derived from the Reynard cycle, in which I have alsointroduced it (see "Bruin and Reynard"). 

But it occurs in many of the variants and comes in so appropriatelythat I thought it desirable to add it also here. The substitution ofa dog for something else desired also occurs in the story of theHobyahs in _More English Fairy Tales_, where Mr. Batten's released dogis so fierce (p. 125) that it drives one of the Hobyahs over on to thenext page belonging to altogether another story. 

XXI. JOHN THE TRUE

I have followed Bolte's formula "Anmerkungen" 45, keeping however asfar as possible to the alternatives nearest to Basile, iv. , 9, andwhere that fails making use of the Grimms' "Faithful John, " No. 6, oneof their best told tales. The story is popular in Italy where Crane, 344, refers to six other versions. It is also found in Greece (Hahn29), and Roumania (Schott, p. 144), and indeed throughout the east ofEurope. Traces of it in British Isles are but slight. 

In India, however, there are a number of very close parallels (Day, 17-52; Knowles, 421-41; Frere, 98; and Somadeva; edit. Tawney, i. , 519, ii. , 251, which contains the similar story of Vivara the True);Benfey, i. , 417, draws attention to other Oriental traits in the storyand aptly compares the half-marble figure of the King of the BlackIslands in the Arabian Nights. The probabilities of an Indian originfor this formula are rendered greater by the early age of thePantschatantra and Somadeva parallels. 

On the other hand the sacrifice of the children for the faithfulservant has its closest parallel in the old French romance of Amis andAmilun, where Amis smears Amilun with the blood of his child to curehim of leprosy. The analogy is so close as almost to force theassumption of derivation. Koehler accordingly in his _Aufsaetze_, 1894, pp. 24-35, regards the tale as a development of the Indian storyinfluenced by the romance of Amis. 

XXII. JOHNNIE AND GRIZZLE

I have followed Bolte's formula s. V. Hansel and Gretel, 15, i. , 115, though with some misgivings. Very few of his variants have his sectionF, which he divides into three variants: F 1. Ducks or angels carrythe children over the stream. F 2. Or they throw out obstacles topursuit. F 3. Or the witch drinks up the stream and bursts. F 2 isobviously "contaminated" by the similar incident in the Master Maid, and the existence of such alternatives indicates, to my mind, anabsence of a consistent tradition as to the ending of the story, whichobviously ended with the baking of the witch in the oven. I havecombined, in my ending F 1 and F 2, the former from the Grimms'"Hansel and Gretel"; I have also adapted their title, with areminiscence of Sir James Barrie. 

The predicament of the farmer must have often really occurred in theMiddle Ages when famine was the rule rather than the exception; andthe decision to "expose" the children recalls the general practice inancient Greece and Rome and in Arabia. A touch of comedy, however, isgiven to this grim beginning of our tale by the house made of cookiesand sweetmeats, probably derived from the myth of a Schlarafenland ofthe Germans and similar imaginations of the Celts (see _More CelticFairy Tales_). 

The beginning of the tale occurs early in Basile, v. , 8, "Nennillo andNennila, " in which the three kings' children find their way home twiceby similar devices, but at the third time scatter peas, which thebirds eat up. Perrault has the same beginning in his "Petit Poucet, "which has been Englished as "Hop o' my Thumb, " who shares some of theadventures of Tom Thumb, as well as of the valiant Tailor. Lang has aninteresting but, as usual, inconclusive discussion of the incidents ofour tale in his Perrault civ. -cxi. , and finds many of the incidentsamong the Kaffirs, Zulus, and other savage tribes, but scarcely thewhole set of incidents from A to F, and that is what we want to findin studying the story. Dr. Bolte finds several instances where thefull formula still exists in popular tradition. It is surely easiestto assume that they were once brought together by a folk artist whosebright little tale has spread among various folks, with thealterations suggested by the divergent fancy of the different folkminds. 

XXIII. CLEVER LASS

The Clever Lass is of exceptional interest to the student of theFolk-Tale because of its exceptionally wide spread throughout Europeand Asia, and also because it is one of those tales which have beenmade the basis of the theory of the Eastern origin of all Folk-Tales. Bolte, in his elaborate monograph on the formula ("_Anmerkungen_, "ii. , 349-73), enumerates no less than eighty-six variants, twelve inGermany, six in other Teutonic lands, thirteen in Romance countries, no less than thirty-seven in Slavonic dialects, seven in Finnish, Hungarian and Tartar, six in the Semitic tongues, and also five inIndia, though there the parallelism is only partial. But in theEuropean variants the parallels are so close and the riddles answeredby the Clever Lass are in so many cases identical, and the order ofincidents is so uniform that none can doubt the practical identity ofthe story throughout the Western area. There occurs some variation inthe opening which, at times, takes the form of the father of theClever Girl finding a golden mortar and giving it to the King, againstthe advice of his daughter who foresees that the monarch will demandthe accompanying pestle. This seems however to be confined to theTeutonic lands or those in immediate cultural connection with them. The riddles about strongest, richest, most beautiful, form the openingelsewhere, and I have therefore chosen this alternative. Thevariations, both in questions and answers, are many, as is perhapsnatural considering the popularity of the riddle in the folk mind, which would make it easy for a story-teller to make changes. 

The King or Prince, in some of the variants, discovers the clevernessof the farmer's daughter on a visit to the farmer, when he elaboratelycarves and divides a chicken on a method which the Clever Lassdiscerns. This however does not occur so frequently except in Italy, and I have therefore omitted it. The discovery of the theft by theKing's messenger is much more widely spread. (See Crane, 382, andcompare "Gobborn Seer, " in _More English Fairy Tales_. )

The Grimms, in their notes, point to a remarkable parallel in the Sagaof Aslaug, the daughter of Brunhild and Sigurd. Here the King Ragnardemands that Aslaug should come to him naked yet clothed, eating yetnot eating, not alone but without companion. She uses the fish-net asin the Folk-Tale, bites into an onion, and takes her dog along withher. From the last incident some of the Folk-Tales have possibly takenthe awkward attitude of limping along with one of her feet on the backof a dog. But the first incident, being dragged along in a fish-net, is so unlikely to occur to anybody's mind without prompting, that onecannot help agreeing with the Grimms that the incident was taken intothe Folk-Tale from the Saga, or that both were derived from a commonsource. On the whole subject of the curious ride, R. Kohler has anelaborate treatment in his _Gesammelte Schriften_, i. , 446-56. 

The attraction of the riddle for the folk mind is well known, andbefore the spread of cards appears to have been one of the chief formsof gambling in which even life was staked, as in the case of Samson orthe Sphinx. In the Folk-Tale it often occurs in the form of theRiddle-Bride-Wager, in which a princess is married to him that canguess some elaborate conundrum. The first two of Child's Ballads dealwith similar riddles, and his notes are a mine of erudition on thesubject: on the Clever Lass herself see his elaborate treatment, _English Ballads_, i. , 485 _seq. _

It is perhaps worthy of note that the questions as to the strongest, most beautiful, and richest occur in Plutarch's Symposium, 152 a, andit is a striking coincidence that, in the same treatise, 151 b, occursanother practical riddle, how to drink up the ocean, which occurs inseveral variants of the Clever Lass. But there is no evidence of anystory connection between the two riddles in Plutarch, and one caneasily imagine this sort of verbal amusement spreading from thelearned to the folk. 

The plan by which the Clever Lass becomes reconciled to the King, bycarrying off what is dearest to her, is found in the Midrash probablyas early as the eighth century. A still more remarkable parallel isthat of the True Wives of Weinsberg who, when that town was invested, were allowed by the besiegers to carry off with them whatever theyliked best. When the town gate was opened they tottered forth, each ofthem carrying her husband on her shoulders. But whether the incidentever really occurred, and if it occurred, whether the ruse wassuggested by the Folk-Tale, cannot now be ascertained. 

Benfey, in an elaborate dissertation, first communicated to "Ausland"in 1859, but now included in his _Kleinere Schriften_, ii. , 156-223, argues for the Eastern origin of the whole cycle, which he traces backto the "Seventy Tales of the Parrot" (Suka Saptati) probably as earlyas the sixth century. Here the vizier Sakatala of the King Nanda isreleased from prison in order to determine which of two identicalhorses is mare and which is foal, and which part of a truncated log isroot or branch. Benfey traces this and similar riddlesome difficultiesto a good deal of Eastern literature in Tibet, Mongolia and Persia, and Arabia. But he fails to find any very exact parallels in theEuropean area which, at that time, was very little explored. He findsthe nearest parallel in Wuk, No. 25, but this is by no means a fullvariant of the other European tales and may have even been"contaminated" from the East. Benfey notices the Saga parallel butgoes so far as even to claim this as being influenced by Easternstories. Since his time a much closer parallel has been found inKashmir by Knowles' _Folk Tales of Kashmir_, pages 484-90, repeated in_Indian Fairy Tales_, No. Xxiv. , "Why the Fish Laughed. " But theparallelism here extends only to the cleverness of the girl and theingenuity of her answers to the riddles, not to the actual plot of thestory which is so uniform in Europe. Altogether we must rejectBenfey's contention, at any rate for this particular story. 

XXIV. THUMBKIN

I have followed, for the most part, Bolte's reconstruction, whichpractically consists of a combination of Grimm, 37 and 45. But incombining the two I have found it necessary to omit sections D and Eof Bolte's formula which form the beginning of Grimm, 45, "Thumbkin asJourneyman. "

The notion of a baby the size of a doll might be regarded as"universally human"; even the Greeks knew of manikins no bigger thantheir thumbs and weighing not more than an obolus (Athenæus, xii. , 77); there is an epigram of the same subject in the Greek Anthology, ii. , 350. But the particular adventures of Thumbkin are soconsistently identical throughout Europe, especially with regard tothe adventures in the cow's stomach, that it is impossible to considerthe stories as independent. Cosquin, 53, has more difficulty thanusual in finding real parallels in the Orient. In England, of course, Thumbkin is known as Tom Thumb (see _English Fairy Tales_). In thedays when mythological explanations of folk-tales were popular, GastonParis, in a special monograph ("Petit Poucet, " Paris 1875) tried toprove that Tom Thumb was a stellar hero because his French name wasgiven to the smallest star in the Great Bear. But it is more likelythat the name came from the tale than the tale from the star. 

According to Gaston Paris, the chief variants known to him wereTeutonic and Slav. Those of the Roumanians, Albanians, and Greeks werederived from the Slavs. He concludes that the French form must havebeen borrowed from the Germans, and declares that it is not found inItaly or Spain, but Cosquin, ii. , gives Basque and Catalan variants, as well as a Portuguese one, and Crane gives a Tuscan variant, 242, with other occurrences in Italy in note 3, p. 372. This only shows thedanger of deciding questions of origin on an imperfect induction. 

The opening is not found in Grimm; I have taken it from Andrews; forwhich an excellent parallel is given in Crane, lxxvii. , "LittleChick-pea. " A similar beginning occurs in Hahn, 56, "Pepper-corn. "

XXV. SNOWWHITE

Snowwhite is of special interest to the students of the folk-tale asbeing obviously a late product combining many _motifs_ from different, more primitive, or at least earlier formulæ. E. Boeklen, in his_Schneewitchen Studien_, I, Leipzig 1910, suggests influence by Hanseland Gretel; The Seven Ravens; The Sleeping Beauty; The Maiden withoutHands; One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes; False Bride, etc. ; and Bolte, i. , 453, appears to agree with him. Certainly almost every one of theincidents can be paralleled in other sets of folk-tales. Thecombination "white as snow, " "red as blood, " "black as ebony, " hasalready been given in the present volume (see p. 173). Bringing backan animal's heart instead of the proposed victim's is common form asearly as the Book of Genesis; and the trial of the three beds isfamiliar to English children in Southey's "Three Bears. " It would seemthat a story something like "Snowwhite" was known in Shakespeare'stime, as there appears to be a reference to it in the main plot of"Cymbeline" (see _Germania_, ix. , 458). 

The form I have given to the formula follows very closely that of theGrimms' 53. It is one of their best stories and occurs widely spreadthroughout Germany. Whether that implies original composition inCentral Europe cannot at present be determined, but it certainly looksthat way. I have, however, omitted Bolte's F referring to thepunishment of the Queen, which is wanting in the majority of thevariants. No editor of a text would under similar circumstances takeaccount of so rare a variant. 

 * * * * *

LIST OF INCIDENTS

I give in the following list the chief incidents that occur in thepreceding tales, using for the most part the nomenclature used in thenotes or in the list of incidents attached to my paper on "The Problemof Diffusion" in the _Transactions of the International Folk-LoreCongress_, 1892, pp. 87-98. 

 N. B. Incidents in Drolls are placed in italics. In some few cases, the incidents are referred to only in the notes. 

Acquisition Task, xii. 

Animal Aid, xi. , xvii. 

Apple Speaking, xviii. 

Bean Transformation, xxiv. 

Bird Aid, i. 

Bird Election, viii. 

Bird Prophecy, viii. , xxi. 

Bird Throwing, x. 

Blood Resuscitation, xvi. 

Bread Crumb Track, xxii. 

Bride Quest, xii. 

Captured Bride, xii. , xxi. 

_Casting Sheep's Eyes_, xv. 

Castle Building Task, xviii. 

_Cheese Squeezing_, x. 

Children Sacrifice, xvi. 

Cleansing Stable Task, xviii. 

_Cow's Stomach Refuge_, xxiv. 

Cure by Fruit, ix. 

Descent to Hell, xvii. , xviii. 

Dogs in Bag, vi. , xx. 

_Door Dropping_, xix. 

Dragon Slayer, xxi. 

Dress Rhyme, i. 

Enclosure in Bag, vi. 

Envious Sisters, i. , vii. 

Exchange Series, ii. 

Exposed Hero, viii. , xxii. 

External Soul, iii. 

Fairy Godmother, i. 

_False Bathing_, xi. 

False Bride, xviii. 

_False Sale_, xxiv. 

Feather Dress, vii. 

Feet Rhyme, i. 

Finger Ladder Task, xviii. 

_Flea Bite Blows_, x. 

Flight from Ogre, xviii. 

Forbidden Chamber, xii. 

_Fox in Briar Bush_, vi. 

_Fox in Fish-cart_, vi. 

_Giants Quarrelling_, x. 

_Girl in Bag_, ii. 

Helpful Animals, i. 

Honey Trap, i. 

_Horse from Stable Theft_, xvi. 

_Horse's Ear Guide_, xxiv. 

_Iced Bear's Tail_, vi. 

_Inside Again_, xx. 

Jealous Brother-in-law, xvii. 

Jealous Mother-in-law, xvii. , xxv. 

Jephtha Vow, xviii. 

Language of Animals, viii. 

Life Token, iii. , vii. 

_Lollipop House_, xxii. 

Lost Shoe, i. 

Love at Distance, xxi. 

_Magic Cudgel_, ix. 

Magic Dress, i. 

Magic Purse, ix. 

Magical Weapons, xii. 

Menial Hero, xviii. 

Menial Heroine, i. 

Moon on Forehead, vii. 

Mutilated Foot, i. 

Nobility Test, xi. 

Oblivion Kiss, xviii. 

Obstacle Pursuit, xii. , xviii. , xxii. 

Ogre Transformation, xi. 

Overheard Boasting, vii. 

_Paradise Visitor_, xix. 

Pebble Track, xxii. 

_Planting Pigs' Tails_, xv. 

Poisoned Comb, xxv. 

Poisoned Cup, xvi. 

Poisoned Half-apple, xxv. 

Pride before Fall, xiv. 

_Priest in Bag Ride_, xvi. 

Prince Rescue, xxv. 

Punishment for Curiosity, xvii. 

_Purse or Life_, xvi. 

Pursuit Rhyme, i. 

Quarrel of Limbs, vi. 

Quest Tasks, vii. 

_Rage Wager_, xv. 

Recognition Test, xii. 

Rescue from Dragon, iii. 

Sale of Bed, xviii. 

_Scissors_, iv. 

Seven Bens and Seven Glens, xii. 

Sight Taboo, xvii. 

_Sheet off Bed Theft_, xvi. 

Shoe Marriage Test, i. 

Snow-white, Blood-red, xxv. 

Speech Taboo, vii. 

_Stick Finger_, xxii. 

Substituted Children, vii. 

Substituted Heart, vii. , xxv. 

Supernatural birth, iii. 

Swan Maidens, xii. 

Thankful Animals, xii. , xiii. 

_Thief Apprentice_, xvi. 

Three Beds Trial, xxv. 

_Thumb Bung_, xvi. 

_Thumbkin_, xxiv. 

_Top-off, Half-gone, All-gone_, vi. 

Transformation by Fruit, ix. 

Tree Rhyme, i. 

Turned to Stone, iii. , xxi. 

Ungrateful Animal, xx. 

_Unicorn Captured_, x. 

Unseen Bridegroom, xvii. 

_Visitor from Paradise_, xix. 

_Washing Horses within_, xv. 

_Wolf Caught in Hole_, xxiv. 

_X at a Blow_, x. 

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Stories by Anna Sewell, H. Rider Haggard, Bret Harte, ErnestIngersoll, Charles Dudley Warner, Hezekiah Butterworth, and others. 382 pages. 17 full-page illustrations. Decorative wrapper. 

Stories Grandmother Knew

Little Merchants--Three Cakes--Suspicious Jackdaw--LazyLawrence--Grand Feast--Mad Bull--Birthday Present--Preparing for aRide, and others. 400 pages. 14 full-page illustrations. Decorativewrapper. 

A Little Lame Prince

This little story of "the most beautiful prince that ever was born, "and of his good friends, the fairy god-mother, the magpie, and manyother equally engaging creatures, has now become a classic among talesfor children. 150 pages. Fully illustrated. Handsome Wrapper. 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland _and_ Through the Looking Glass andWhat Alice Found There

By Lewis Carroll

Alice's adventures, and the friends she made among the preposterousand impossible creatures, are now part of the mental furniture ofevery child, and of most children of an older growth as well. 

The two preceding stories are also printed separately. 

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G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York London

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Injun Babies

By

Maynard Dixon

These stories of little red men and women have the flavor ofactuality, with all the wonder and strangeness that children demand. The background of the Western plains when Injun babies lived in tepeesmade of buffalo skins is a new one for children's stories; theadventures of the little Indians with animals and their simple life ofevery day make the collection a unique one for young readers of today. The book is charmingly illustrated with drawings by the author. 

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G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York London

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