{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_60095/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_60095","id":"gutenberg_60095","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60095","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Fairy tales -- Croatia","Tales -- Croatia"],"text":"CROATIAN TALES\n                              OF LONG AGO\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n                       Croatian Tales of Long Ago\n\n                                   BY\n                         IVANA BRLI\u0106-MA\u017dURANI\u0106\n\n[Illustration]\n\n                             TRANSLATED BY\n                             F. S. COPELAND\n\n\n                                NEW YORK\n                      FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY\n                               PUBLISHERS\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                        (_All rights reserved_)\n\n                       _Printed in Great Britain_\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                CONTENTS\n\n\n                                                    Page\n\n               How Quest Sought the Truth              9\n\n               Fisherman Plunk and His Wife           55\n\n               Reygoch                                93\n\n               Bridesman Sun and Bride Bridekins     137\n\n               Stribor\u2019s Forest                      161\n\n               Little Brother Primrose and Sister    185\n                 Lavender\n\n               Notes                                 255\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                             ILLUSTRATIONS\n                                   BY\n                             VLADIMIR KIRIN\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                       How Quest Sought the Truth\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                       How Quest Sought the Truth\n\n\n                                   I\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nONCE upon a time very long ago there lived an old man in a glade in the\nmidst of an ancient forest. His name was Witting, and he lived there\nwith his three grandsons. Now this old man was all alone in the world\nsave for these three grandsons, and he had been father and mother to\nthem from the time when they were quite little. But now they were\nfull-grown lads, so tall that they came up to their grandfather\u2019s\nshoulder, and even taller. Their names were Bluster, Careful and Quest.\n\nOne spring morning old Witting got up early, before the sun had risen,\ncalled his three grandsons and told them to go into the wood where they\nhad gathered honey last year; to see how the little bees had come\nthrough the winter, and whether they had waked up yet from their winter\nsleep. Careful, Bluster and Quest got up, dressed, and went out.\n\nIt was a good way to the place where the bees lived. Now all three\nbrothers knew every pathway in the woods, and so they strode cheerily\nand boldly along through the great forest. All the same it was somewhat\ndark and eerie under the trees, for the sun was not yet up and neither\nbird nor beast stirring. Presently the lads began to feel a little\nscared in that great silence, because just at dawn, before sunrise, the\nwicked Rampogusto, King of Forest Goblins, loves to range the forest,\ngliding softly from tree to tree in the gloom.\n\nSo the brothers started to ask one another about all the wonderful\nthings there might be in the world. But as not one of them had ever been\noutside the forest, none could tell the others anything about the world;\nand so they only became more and more depressed. At last, to keep up\ntheir courage a bit, they began to sing and call upon All-Rosy to bring\nout the Sun:\n\n                   Little lord All-Rosy bright.\n                   Bring golden Sun to give us light;\n                   Show thyself, All-Rosy bright,\n                   Loora-la, Loora-la lay!\n\nSinging at the top of their voices, the lads walked through the woods\ntowards a spot from where they could see a second range of mountains. As\nthey neared the spot they saw a light above those mountains brighter\nthan they had ever seen before, and it fluttered like a golden banner.\n\nThe lads were dumbfounded with amazement, when all of a sudden the light\nvanished from off the mountain and reappeared above a great rock nearer\nat hand, then still nearer, above an old limetree, and at last shone\nlike burnished gold right in front of them. And then they saw that it\nwas a lovely youth in glittering raiment, and that it was his golden\ncloak which fluttered like a golden banner. They could not bear to look\nupon the face of the youth, but covered their eyes with their hands for\nvery fear.\n\n\u201cWhy do you call me, if you are afraid of me, you silly fellows?\u201d\nlaughed the golden youth\u2014for he was All-Rosy. \u201cYou call on All-Rosy, and\nthen you are afraid of All-Rosy. You talk about the wide world, but you\ndo not know the wide world. Come along with me and I will show you the\nworld, both earth and heaven, and tell you what is in store for you.\u201d\n\nThus spoke All-Rosy, and twirled his golden cloak so that he caught up\nBluster, Careful and Quest, all three in its shimmering folds. Round\nwent All-Rosy and round went the cloak, and the brothers, clinging to\nthe hem of the cloak, spun round with it, round and round and round\nagain, and all the world passed before their eyes. First they saw all\nthe treasure and all the lands and all the possessions and the riches\nthat were then in the world. And they went on whirling round and round\nand round again, and saw all the armies, and all spears and all arrows\nand all the captains and all plunder which were then in the world. And\nthe cloak twirled yet more quickly, round and round and round again, and\nall of a sudden they saw all the stars, great and small, and the moon\nand the Seven Sisters and the winds and all the clouds. The brothers\nwere quite dazed with so many sights, and still the cloak went on\ntwirling and whirling with a rustling, rushing sound like a golden\nbanner. At last the golden hem fluttered down; and Bluster, Careful and\nQuest stood once more on the turf. Before them stood the golden youth\nAll-Rosy as before, and said to them:\n\n\u201cThere, my lads, now you have seen all there is to see in the world.\nListen to what is in store for you and what you must do to be lucky.\u201d\n\nAt that the brothers became more scared than ever, yet they pricked up\ntheir ears and paid good heed, so as to remember everything very\ncarefully. But All-Rosy went on at once:\n\n\u201cThere! this is what you must do. Stay in the glade, and don\u2019t leave\nyour grandfather until he leaves you; and do not go into the world,\nneither for good nor for evil, until you have repaid your grandfather\nfor all his love to you.\u201d And as All-Rosy said this, he twirled his\ncloak round and vanished, as though he had never been; and lo, it was\nday in the forest.\n\nBut Rampogusto, King of the Forest Goblins, had seen and heard\neverything. Like a wraith of mist he had slipped from tree to tree and\nkept himself hidden from the brothers among the branches of an old\nbeech-tree.\n\nRampogusto had always hated old Witting. He hated him as a mean\nscoundrel hates an upright man, and above all things he hated him\nbecause the old man had brought the sacred fire to the glade so that it\nmight never go out, and the smoke of that fire made Rampogusto cough\nmost horribly.\n\nSo Rampogusto wasn\u2019t pleased with the idea that the brothers should obey\nAll-Rosy, and stay beside their grandfather and look after him; but he\nbethought himself how he could harm old Witting, and somehow turn his\ngrandsons against him.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nTherefore, no sooner had Bluster, Careful and Quest recovered from their\namazement and turned to go home than Rampogusto slipped swiftly, like a\ncloud before the wind, to a wooded glen where there was a big osier\nclump, which was chock-full of goblins\u2014tiny, ugly, humpy, grubby,\nboss-eyed, and what not, all playing about like mad creatures. They\nsqueaked and they squawked, they jumped and they romped; they were a\npack of harum-scarum imps, no good to anybody and no harm either, so\nlong as a man did not take them into his company. But Rampogusto knew\nhow to manage that.\n\nSo he picked out three of them, and told them to jump each on one of the\nbrothers, and see how they might harm old Witting through his grandsons.\n\nNow while Rampogusto was busy choosing his goblins, Bluster, Careful and\nQuest went on their way; and so scared were they that they clean forgot\nall they had seen during their flight and everything that All-Rosy had\ntold them.\n\nSo they came back to the cabin, and sat down on a stone outside and told\ntheir grandfather what had happened to them.\n\n\u201cAnd what did you see as you were flying round, and what did All-Rosy\ntell you?\u201d Witting asked Careful, his eldest grandson. Now Careful was\nin a real fix, because he had clean forgotten, neither could he remember\nwhat All-Rosy had told him. But from under the stone where they were\nsitting crept a wee hobgoblin\u2014ugly and horned and grey as a mouse.\n\nThe goblin tweaked Careful\u2019s shirt from behind and whispered: \u201cSay: I\nhave seen great riches, hundreds of beehives, a house of carved wood and\nheaps of fine furs. And All-Rosy said to me: \u2018Thou shalt be the richest\nof all the three brothers.\u2019\u201d\n\nCareful never bothered to think whether this was the truth that the imp\nwas suggesting, but just turned and repeated it word for word to his\ngrandfather. No sooner had he spoken than the goblin hopped into his\npouch, curled himself up in a corner of the pouch\u2014and there stopped!\n\nThen Witting asked Bluster, the second grandson, what he might have seen\nin his flight, and what All-Rosy might have told him? And Bluster, too,\nhad noticed nothing and remembered nothing. But from under the stone\ncrept the second hobgoblin, quite small, ill-favoured, horned and smutty\nas a polecat. The goblin plucked Bluster by the shirt and whispered:\n\u201cSay: I saw lots of armed men, many bows and arrows and slaves galore in\nchains. And All-Rosy said to me: \u2018Thou shalt be the mightiest of the\nbrothers.\u2019\u201d\n\nBluster considered no more than Careful had done, but was very pleased,\nand lied to his grandfather even as the goblin had prompted him. And the\ngoblin at once jumped on his neck and crawled down his shirt, hid in his\nbosom, and stopped there.\n\nNow the grandfather asked the youngest grandson, Quest, but he, too,\ncould recall nothing. And from under the stone crept the third\nhobgoblin, the youngest, the ugliest, horned with big horns, and black\nas a mole.\n\nThe hobgoblin tugged Quest by the shirt and whispered: \u201cSay: I have seen\nall the heavens and all the stars and all clouds. And All-Rosy said to\nme: \u2018Thou shalt be the wisest among men and know what the winds say and\nthe stars tell.\u2019\u201d\n\nBut Quest loved the truth, and so he would not listen to the goblin nor\nlie to his grandfather, but kicked the goblin and said to his\ngrandfather:\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know, grandfather, what I saw or what I heard.\u201d\n\nThe goblin gave a squeal, bit Quest\u2019s foot, and then scuttled away under\nthe stone like a lizard. But Quest gathered potent herbs and bound up\nhis foot with them, so that it might heal quickly.\n\n\n                                   II\n\nNow the goblin whom Quest had kicked first scooted away under the stone,\nand then wriggled into the grass, and hopped off through the grass into\nthe woods, and through the woods into the osier clump.\n\nHe went up to Rampogusto all shaking with fright and said: \u201cRampogusto,\ndread sovereign, I wasn\u2019t able to jump on that youth whom you gave into\nmy care.\u201d\n\nThen Rampogusto fell into a frightful rage, because he knew those three\nbrothers well, and most of all he feared Quest, lest he should remember\nthe truth. For if Quest were to remember the truth, why, then Rampogusto\nwould never be able to get rid of old Witting nor the sacred fire.\n\nSo he seized the little goblin by the horns, picked him up and dusted\nhim soundly with a big birchrod.\n\n\u201cGo back!\u201d he roared\u2014\u201cgo back to the young man, and it will be a black\nday for you if ever he remembers the truth!\u201d\n\nWith these words Rampogusto let the goblin go; and the goblin, scared\nhalf out of his wits, squatted for three days in the osier clump and\nconsidered and considered how he might fulfil his difficult task. \u201cI\nshall have as much trouble with Quest, for sure, as Quest with me,\u201d\nreflected the goblin. For he was a scatter-brained little silly, and did\nnot care at all for a tiresome job.\n\nBut while he squatted in the osier clump those other two imps were\nalready at work, the one in Careful\u2019s pouch and the other in Bluster\u2019s\nbosom. From that day forth Careful and Bluster began to rove over hill\nand dale, and even slept but little at home\u2014and all because of the\ngoblins!\n\nThere was the goblin curled up in the bottom of Careful\u2019s pouch, and\nthat goblin loved riches better than the horn over his right eye.\n\nSo all day long he butted Careful in the ribs, teasing and goading him\non: \u201cHurry up, get on! We must seek, we must find! Let\u2019s look for bees,\nlet\u2019s gather honey, and then we will keep a tally with rows and rows of\nscores!\u201d\n\nSo said the goblin, because in those days they reckoned up a man\u2019s\npossessions with tallies.\n\nNow a tally is only a long wooden stick with a notch cut in it for every\nsum that is owing to a man!\n\nBut Bluster\u2019s goblin butted him in the breast, and that goblin wanted to\nbe the strongest of all and lord of all the earth. So he worried and\nworried Bluster, and urged him to roam through the woods looking for\nyoung ash plants and slender maple saplings to make a warrior\u2019s outfit\nand weapons. \u201cHurry up, get on!\u201d teased the goblin. \u201cYou must seek, you\nmust find! Spears, bows and arrows to suit a hero\u2019s mind, so that man\nand beast may tremble before us.\u201d\n\nAnd both Bluster and Careful listened to their goblins, and went off\nafter their own concerns as the goblins led them.\n\nBut Quest stayed with his grandfather that day and yet other three days,\nand all the time he puzzled and puzzled over whatever it was that\nAll-Rosy might have told him; because Quest wanted to tell his\ngrandfather the truth; but, alas! he could not remember it at all!\n\nSo that day went by, and the next, and so three days; and on the third\nday Quest said to his grandfather:\n\n\u201cGood-bye, grandfather. I am going to the hills, and shall not come back\nuntil I remember the truth, if it should take me ten years.\u201d\n\nNow Witting\u2019s hair was grey, and there was little he cared for in this\nworld except his grandson Quest, and him he loved and cherished as a\nwithered leaf cherishes a drop of dew. So the old man started sadly and\nsaid:\n\n\u201cWhat good will the truth be to me, my boy, when I may be dead and gone\nlong before you remember it?\u201d\n\nThis he said, and in his heart he grieved far more even than he showed\nin his words; and he thought: \u201cHow could the boy leave me!\u201d\n\nBut Quest replied:\n\n\u201cI must go, grandfather, because I have thought it out, and that seems\nthe right thing to me.\u201d\n\nWitting was a wise old man, and considered: \u201cPerhaps there is more\nwisdom in a young head than in an old one; only if the poor lad is doing\nwrong it\u2019s a sad weird he will have to dree\u2014because he is so gentle and\nupright.\u201d And as Witting thought of that he grew sadder than ever, but\nsaid nothing more. He just kissed his grandson good-bye and bade him go\nwhere he wished.\n\nBut Quest\u2019s heart sadly misgave him because of his grandfather, and he\nvery, very nearly changed his mind on the threshold and stayed beside\nhim. But he forced himself to do as he had made up his mind to, and went\nout and away into the hills.\n\nJust as Quest parted from his grandfather his imp thought he might as\nwell get out of the osier clump and tackle that tiresome job; and he\nreached the clearing just as Quest was hurrying away.\n\nSo Quest went off to the hills, very downcast and sad; and when he came\nto the first rock, lo and behold, there was the goblin, gibbering.\n\n\u201cWhy,\u201d thought Quest, \u201cit\u2019s the very same one\u2014quite small, misshapen,\nblack as a mole and with big horns.\u201d\n\nThe goblin stood right in Quest\u2019s way, and would not let him pass. So\nQuest got angry with the little monster for hindering him like this; he\npicked up a stone, threw it at the goblin, and hit him squarely between\nthe horns. \u201cNow I\u2019ve killed him,\u201d thought Quest.\n\nBut when he looked again there was the goblin as spry as ever, and two\nmore horns had sprouted where the stone had hit him!\n\n\u201cWell, evidently stones won\u2019t drive him off,\u201d said Quest. So he went\nround the goblin and forward on his way. But the imp scuttled on in\nfront of him, to the right and to the left, and then straight in front,\nfor all the world like a rabbit.\n\nAt last they came to a little level spot between cliffs\u2014a very stony\nplace; and on one side of it there was a deep well-spring. \u201cHere will I\nstay,\u201d said Quest; and he at once spread out his sheep-skin coat under a\ncrab-tree and sat down, so that he might reflect in peace and remember\nwhat All-Rosy had verily and truly told him.\n\nBut when the imp saw that, he squatted down straight in front of Quest\nunder the tree, played silly tricks on him, and worried him horribly. He\nchased lizards under Quest\u2019s feet, threw burrs at his shirt, and slipped\ngrasshoppers up his sleeves.\n\n\u201cOh dear, this is most annoying!\u201d thought Quest, when it had gone on for\nsome little time. \u201cI have left my wise old grandfather, my brothers and\nmy home, so that I might be in quiet and remember the truth\u2014and here am\nI wasting my time with this horned imp of mischief!\u201d\n\nBut as he had come out in a good cause, he nevertheless thought it the\nright thing to stay where he was.\n\n\n                                  III\n\nSo Quest and the goblin lived together on that lone ledge between the\ncliffs, and each day was like the first. The goblin worried Quest so\nthat he couldn\u2019t get on with his thinking.\n\nOn a clear morning Quest would rise from sleep and feel happy. \u201cHow\nstill it is, how lovely! Surely to-day I shall remember the truth!\u201d And\nlo, from the branch overhead a handful of crabs would come tumbling\nabout his ears, so that his head buzzed and his thoughts all got mixed.\nAnd there was the little monster mocking him from the crabtree and\nlaughing fit to burst. Or Quest would be lying in the shade, thinking\nmost beautifully, till he felt like saying: \u201cThere, there now, _now_ it\nwill come back to me, _now_ I shall puzzle out the truth!\u201d And then the\ngoblin would squirt him all over with ice-cold water from the spring\nthrough a hollow elder twig\u2014and again Quest would clean forget what he\nhad already thought out.\n\nThere was no silly trick nor idle joke that the goblin did not play on\nQuest on the ledge there. And yet all might have been well, if Quest\nhadn\u2019t found it just a tiny bit amusing to watch these tomfooleries; and\nthough he was thinking hard about his task, yet his eyes _would_ wander\nand look round to see what the imp might be doing next.\n\nQuest was angry with himself over this, because he was wearying more and\nmore for his grandfather, and he saw full well that he would never\nremember the truth while the goblin was about.\n\n\u201cI must get rid of him,\u201d said Quest.\n\nWell, one fine morning the goblin invented a new game. He climbed up the\ncliff where there was a steep water-course in the face of the rock, got\nastride a smooth bit of wood as if it had been a hobby-horse, and then\nscooted down the water-course like a streak of lightning! This prank\npleased the little wretch so mightily that he must needs have company to\nenjoy it the better! So he whistled on a blade of grass till it rang\nover hill and dale, and lo, from scrub and rock and osier clump the\ngoblins came scuttling along, all tiny like himself. He gave orders, and\nevery man-jack of them took a stick and shinned up the cliff with it. My\nword! how they got astride their hobby-horses and hurtled down the\nwater-course! There were all sorts and sizes and kinds of goblins\u2014red as\na robin\u2019s breast, green as greenfinches, woolly as lambs, naked as\nfrogs, horned as snails, bald as mice. They careered down the\nwater-course like a crazy company on crazy horses. Down they flew, each\nclose at the other\u2019s heels, never stopping till they came to the middle\nof the ledge; and there was a great stone all overgrown with moss. There\nthey were brought up short, and what with the bump of stopping so\nsuddenly and sheer high spirits they tumbled and scrambled about all\natop of one another in the moss!\n\nShrieking with glee, the silly crew had made the trip some two or three\ntimes already, and poor Quest was hard put to it between two thoughts.\nFor one thing, he wanted to watch the imps and be amused by them, and\nfor another he was angry with them for making such a hullabaloo that he\ncould not remember the truth. So he shilly-shallied awhile, and at last\nhe said: \u201cWell, this is past a joke. I must get rid of these\ngood-for-nothing loons, because while they are here I might as well have\nstopped at home.\u201d\n\nAnd as Quest considered the matter, he noticed that as they rushed down\nthe water-course they made straight for the spring, and that, but for\nthe big stone, they would all have toppled into it head foremost. So\nQuest crouched behind the stone, and when the imps came dashing down\nagain guffawing and chuckling as before, he quickly rolled the stone\naside, and the whole mad party rushed straight on to the\nwell-spring\u2014right on to it and then into it, head first, each on top of\nthe other\u2014red as robin\u2019s breasts, green as greenfinches, woolly as\nlambs, naked as frogs, horned as snails, bald-headed as mice\u2014and first\nof all the one who had fastened himself on to Quest....\n\nAnd then Quest tipped a big flat stone over the well, and all the\ngoblins were caught inside like flies in a pitcher.\n\nQuest was ever so pleased to have got rid of the goblins, sat down and\nmade sure he would now recollect the truth in good earnest.\n\nBut he had no luck, because down in the well the goblins began to\nwriggle and to ramp as never before. Through every gap and chink shot up\ntiny flames which the goblins gave out in their fright and distress. The\nflames danced and wavered round the spring till Quest\u2019s head was all in\na whirl. He closed his eyes, so that their flashing should not make him\ngiddy.\n\nBut then there arose from the pit such a noise, hubbub, knocking and\nbanging, barking and yowling, such yelling and shrieking for help, that\nQuest\u2019s ears were like to burst; and how could he even try to think\nthrough it? He stopped his ears so as not to hear.\n\nThen a smell of brimstone and sulphur drifted over to him. Through every\ncrack and crevice oozed thick sooty smoke which the imps belched forth\nin their extremity. Smoke and sulphur fumes writhed round Quest; they\nchoked and smothered him.\n\nSo Quest saw there was no help for it. \u201cGoblins shut up,\u201d said he, \u201care\na hundred times worse than goblins at large. So I\u2019ll just go and let\nthem out, since I can\u2019t get rid of them anyhow. After all, I am better\noff with their tomfooleries than with all that yammering.\u201d\n\nSo he went and lifted off the stone; and the terrified goblins scuttled\naway in all directions like so many wild cats, and ran away into the\nwoods and never came back to the ledge any more.\n\nNone stayed behind, but only the one black as a mole and with big horns,\nbecause he did not dare to leave Quest for fear of Rampogusto.\n\nBut even he sobered down a little from that day forward, and had more\nrespect for Quest than before.\n\nAnd so these two came to a sort of arrangement between them; they got\nused to one another and lived side by side on the stony ledge.\n\nIn that way close on to a year slipped by, and Quest was no nearer\nremembering what All-Rosy had really truly told him.\n\nWhen the year was almost gone the goblin began to be most horribly\nbored.\n\n\u201cHow much longer have I got to stick here?\u201d thought he. So one evening,\njust as Quest was about to fall asleep, the imp wriggled up to him and\nsaid:\n\n\u201cWell, my friend, here you\u2019ve been sitting for close on a year and a\nday, and what\u2019s the good of it? Who knows but perhaps in the meantime\nyour old grand-dad has died all alone in his cabin.\u201d\n\n[Illustration]\n\nA pang shot through Quest\u2019s heart as if he had been struck with a knife,\nbut he said: \u201cThere, I have made up my mind not to budge from here until\nI remember the truth, because truth comes before all things.\u201d Thus said\nQuest, because he was upright and of good parts.\n\nBut all the same he was deeply troubled by what the goblin had said\nabout his grandfather. He never slept a wink all night, but racked his\nbrains and thought: \u201cHow is it with the old man, my dear grandfather?\u201d\n\n\n                                   IV\n\nNow all this time the grandfather went on living with Careful and\nBluster in the glade\u2014only life had taken a very sad turn for the old\nman. His grandsons ceased to trouble about him, nor would they stay near\nhim. They bade him neither \u201cGood-morning\u201d nor \u201cGood-night,\u201d and only\nwent about their own affairs and listened to the goblins they harboured,\nthe one in his pouch and the other in his bosom.\n\nEvery day Careful brought more bees from the forest, felled timber,\nshaped rafters, and gradually built a new cabin. He carved himself ten\ntallies, and every day he counted and reckoned over and over again when\nthese tallies would be filled up.\n\nAs for Bluster, he went hunting and reiving, bringing home game and\nfurs, plunder and treasure; and one day he even brought along two slaves\nwhom he had taken, so that they might work for the brothers and wait\nupon them.\n\nAll this was very hard and disagreeable for the old man, and harder and\nmore disagreeable still were the looks he got from his grandsons. What\nuse had they for an old man who would not be served by the slaves, but\ndisgraced his grandsons by cutting wood and drawing water from the well\nfor himself? At last there wasn\u2019t a thing about the old man that didn\u2019t\nannoy his grandsons, even this, that every day he would put a log on the\nsacred fire.\n\nOld Witting saw very well whither all this would lead, and that very\nsoon they would be thinking of getting rid of him altogether. He did not\ncare so much about his life, because life was not much use to him, but\nhe was sorry to die before seeing Quest once more, the dear lad who was\nthe joy of his old age.\n\nOne evening\u2014and it was the very evening when Quest was so troubled in\nhis mind thinking of his grandfather\u2014Careful said to Bluster: \u201cCome\nalong, brother, let\u2019s get rid of grandfather. You have weapons. Wait for\nhim by the well and kill him.\u201d\n\nNow Careful said this because he specially wanted the old cabin at all\ncosts, so as to put up beehives on that spot. \u201cI can\u2019t,\u201d replied\nBluster, whose heart had not grown so hard, amidst bloodshed and\nrobbery, as Careful\u2019s among his riches and his tallies.\n\nBut Careful would not give over, because the imp in his bag went on\nwhispering and nagging. The imp in his pouch knew very well that Careful\nwould be the first to put the old man away, and so gain him great credit\nwith Rampogusto.\n\nCareful tried hard to talk over Bluster, but Bluster could not bring\nhimself to kill his grandfather with his own hand. So at last they\nagreed and arranged that they would that very night burn down the old\nman\u2019s hut\u2014burn it down with the old man inside!\n\nWhen all was quiet in the glade, they sent out the slaves to watch the\ntraps in the woods that night. But the brothers crept up softly to\nWitting\u2019s cabin, shut the outer door tight with a thick wedge, so that\nthe old man might not escape from the flames, and then set fire to the\nfour corners of the house....\n\nWhen all was done they went away and away into the hills so as not to\nhear their poor old grandfather crying out for help. They made up their\nminds to go over the whole of the mountain as far as they could, and not\nto come back until next day, when all would be over, and their\ngrandfather and the cabin would be burnt up together.\n\nSo they went, and the flames began to lick upwards slowly round the\ncorners. But the rafters were of seasoned walnut, hard as stone, and\nthough the fire licked and crept all round them it could not catch\nproperly, and so it was late at night before the flames took hold of the\nroof.\n\nOld Witting awoke, opened his eyes and saw that the roof was ablaze over\nhis head. He got up and went to the door, and when he found that it was\nfastened with a heavy wedge he knew at once whose doing it was.\n\n\u201cOh, my children! my poor darlings!\u201d said the old man, \u201cyou have taken\nfrom your hearts to add to your wretched tallies; and behold, your\ntallies are not even full, and there are many notches still lacking; but\nyour hearts are empty to the bottom already, since you could burn your\nown grandfather and the cabin where you were born.\u201d\n\nThat was all the thought that Father Witting gave to Careful and\nBluster. After that he thought neither good nor bad about them, nor did\nhe grieve over them further, but went and sat down quietly to wait for\ndeath.\n\nHe sat on the oak chest and meditated upon his long life; and whatever\nthere had been in it, there was nothing he was sorry for save only this,\nthat Quest was not with him in his last hour\u2014Quest, his darling child,\nfor whom he had grieved so much.\n\nSo he sat still, while the roof was already blazing away like a torch.\n\nThe rafters burned and burned, the ceiling began to crack. It blazed,\ncracked, then gave way on either side of the old man, and rafters and\nceiling crashed down amid the flames into the cabin. The flames billowed\nround Witting, the roof gaped above his head. Already he saw the dawn\npale in the sky before sunrise. Old Witting rose to his feet, raised his\nhands to heaven, and so waited for the flames to carry him away from\nthis world, the old man and his old homestead together.\n\n\n                                   V\n\nQuest worried terribly that night, and when morning broke he went to the\nspring to cool his burning face.\n\nThe sun was just up in the sky when Quest reached the spring, and when\nhe came there he saw a light shining in the water. It shone, it rose,\nand lo! beside the spring and before Quest stood a lovely youth in\ngolden raiment. It was All-Rosy.\n\nQuest started with joy, and said:\n\n\u201cMy little lord All-Rosy bright, how I have longed for you! Do tell me\nwhat you told me then that I must do? Here I have been racking my brains\nand tormenting myself and calling on all my wits for a year and a\nday\u2014and I cannot remember the truth!\u201d\n\nAs Quest said this, All-Rosy rather crossly shook his head and his\ngolden curls.\n\n\u201cEh, boy, boy! I told you to stay with your grandfather till you had\nrendered him the love you owe him, and not to leave him till he left\nyou,\u201d said All-Rosy.\n\nAnd then he went on:\n\n\u201cI thought you were wiser than your brothers, and there you are the most\nfoolish of the three. Here you have been racking your brains and calling\non your wits to help you for a year and a day so that you might remember\nthe truth; and if you had listened to your heart when it told you on the\nthreshold of your cabin to turn back and not to leave your old\ngrandfather\u2014why then, you silly boy, you would have had the truth, even\nwithout wits!\u201d\n\nThus spoke All-Rosy. Once more he crossly shook his head with the golden\ncurls; then he took his golden cloak about him and vanished.\n\nShamed and troubled, Quest remained alone beside the spring, and from\nbetween the stones he heard the imp giggling\u2014the hobgoblin, quite small,\nmisshapen, and horned with big horns. The little wretch was pleased\nbecause All-Rosy had shamed Quest, who always gave himself such\nrighteous airs; but when Quest roused himself from his first amazement\nhe called out joyfully:\n\n\u201cNow I\u2019ll just wash quickly and then fly to my dear old grandfather.\u201d\nThis he said and knelt by the spring to wash. Quest leaned down to reach\nthe water, leaned down too far, lost his balance, and fell into the\nspring.\n\nFell into the spring and was drowned....\n\n\n                                   VI\n\n[Illustration]\n\nTHE hobgoblin jumped up from among the stones, leaped to the edge of the\nspring, and looked down to see with his own eyes whether it was really\ntrue.\n\nYes, Quest was really truly drowned. There he lay at the bottom of the\nwater, white as wax.\n\n\u201cYoho, yoho, yo hey!\u201d yelled the goblin, who was only a poor silly.\n\u201cYoho, yoho, yo hey! my friend, we\u2019re off to-day!\u201d\n\nThe imp yelled so that all the rocks round the ledge rang with the\nnoise. Then he heaved up the stone that lay by the edge of the spring,\nand the stone toppled over and covered the spring like a lid. Next the\nimp flung Quest\u2019s skin-coat on the top of the stone; last of all he went\nand sat on the coat, and then he began to skip and to frolic.\n\n\u201cYoho, yoho! my job is done!\u201d yelled the goblin.\n\nBut it wasn\u2019t for long that he skipped on the skin; it wasn\u2019t for long\nthat he yelled.\n\nFor when the goblin had tired himself out, he looked round the ledge,\nand a queer feeling came over him.\n\nYou see, the goblin had got used to Quest. Never before had he had such\nan easy time as with that good youth. He had been allowed to fool about\nas he chose, without anybody scolding him or telling him to stop; and\nnow that he came to think of it, he would have to go back to the osier\nclump, to the mire, to his angry King Rampogusto, and go on repeating\nthe old goblin chatter among five hundred other goblins\u2014all of them just\nas he used to be himself.\n\nHe had lost the habit of it. He began to think\u2014to _think_ a very little.\nHe began to feel sad\u2014just a little sad, then more and more miserable;\nand at last he was wringing and beating his hands, and the silly,\nthoughtless goblin, who a minute ago had been yelling with glee, was now\nweeping and wailing with grief and rolling about on the coat all crazy\nwith distress.\n\nHe wept and he howled till all his former yelling was clean nothing in\ncomparison. For a goblin is always a goblin. Once he starts wailing he\nwails with a vengeance. And he pulled the fur out of the skin-coat in\nhandfuls, and rolled about on it as if he had taken leave of his senses.\n\nNow just at that moment Bluster and Careful came to the lone ledge.\n\nThey had wandered all over the mountain, and were now on their way home\nto the glade to see if their grandfather and the cabin were quite burnt\nup. On the way back they came to a lone ledge where they had never been\nbefore.\n\nBluster and Careful heard something wailing, and caught sight of Quest\u2019s\nskin-coat; and they thought at once that Quest must have come to grief\nsomehow.\n\nNot that they felt sorry for their brother because they could not grieve\nfor anybody while the goblins were about them.\n\nBut at that moment their goblins began to wriggle, because they could\nhear that one of their own kind was in trouble. Now there is no sort\nthat sticks more closely together and none more faithful in trouble than\nthe hobgoblins were. In the osier clump they would fight and squabble\nall day; but if there was trouble each would give the skin off his shins\nfor the other!\n\nSo they wriggled and they worried; they pricked up their ears, and then\npeered out, the one from the pouch and the other from the shirt. And as\nthey peered they at once saw a brother of theirs rolling about with\nsomebody or something\u2014rolling and writhing, and nothing to be seen but\nthe fur flying.\n\n\u201cA wild beast is worrying him!\u201d cried the terrified goblins. They jumped\nout, one out of Careful\u2019s pouch and the other out of Bluster\u2019s bosom,\nand scuttled off to help their friend.\n\nBut when they reached him, he would still do nothing but roll about on\nthe skin and howl:\n\n\u201cThe boy is dead!\u2014the boy is dead!\u201d The other two goblins tried to quiet\nhim, and thought: \u201cMaybe a thorn has got into his paw, or a midge into\nhis ear\u201d\u2014because they had never lived with a righteous man, and did not\nknow what it means to lament for others.\n\nBut the first goblin went on wailing so that you couldn\u2019t hear yourself\nspeak, and he wouldn\u2019t be comforted either.\n\nSo the other goblins were in a fine taking as to what they were to do\nwith him? Nor could they leave him there in his sore trouble. At last\nthey had an idea. Each laid hold of the sheep-skin coat by one sleeve,\nand so they dragged along the coat with their brother inside, scuttled\naway into the woods, and out of the woods into the osier clump and home\nto Rampogusto.\n\nSo for the first time for a year and a day Bluster and Careful were quit\nof their goblins. When the imps hopped away from them, the brothers felt\nas though they had walked the world like blind men for a year and a day,\nand were seeing it plainly again now for the first time there on the\nrocky ledge.\n\nFirst they looked at each other in a maze, and then they knew at once\nwhat a terrible wrong they had done their grandfather.\n\n\u201cBrother! kinsman!\u201d each cried to the other, \u201clet us fly and save our\ngrandfather.\u201d And they flew as if they had falcon\u2019s wings, home to the\nclearing.\n\nWhen they came to the glade the cabin was roofless. Flames were rising\nlike a column from the hut. Only the walls and the door were still\nstanding, and the door was still tightly wedged.\n\nThe brothers hurried up, tore out the wedge, rushed into the cabin, and\ncarried out the old man in their arms from amid the flames, which were\njust going to take hold on his feet.\n\nThey carried him out and laid him on the cool green turf, and then they\nstood beside him and neither dared speak a word.\n\nAfter a while old Witting opened his eyes, and as he saw them he asked\nnothing about them. The only question he put was:\n\n\u201cDid you find Quest anywhere in the mountain?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, grandfather,\u201d answered the brothers. \u201cQuest is dead. He was drowned\nthis morning in the well-spring. But, grandfather, forgive us, and we\nwill serve you and wait upon you like slaves.\u201d\n\nAs they were speaking thus, old Witting arose and stood upon his feet.\n\n\u201cI see that you are already forgiven, my children,\u201d said he, \u201csince you\nare standing here alive. But he who was the most upright of you three\nhad to pay with his life for his fault. Come, children, take me to the\nplace where he died.\u201d\n\nHumbly penitent, Careful and Bluster supported their grandfather as they\nled him to the ledge.\n\nBut when they had walked a little while they saw that they had gone\nastray, and had never been that way before. They told their grandfather;\nbut he just bade them keep on in that path.\n\nSo they came to a steep slope, and the road led up the slope right to\nthe crest of the mountain.\n\n\u201cOur grandfather will die,\u201d whispered the brothers, \u201cwith him so feeble\nand the hillside so steep.\u201d\n\nBut old Witting only said: \u201cOn, children, on\u2014follow the path.\u201d\n\nSo they began to climb up the track, and the old man grew ever more grey\nand pallid in the face. And on the mountain\u2019s crest there was something\nfair that rustled and crooned and sparkled and shone.\n\nAnd when they reached the crest, they stood silent and stone still for\nvery wonder and awe.\n\nFor before them was neither hill nor dale, nor mountain nor plain, nor\nanything at all, but only a great white cloud stretched out before them\nlike a great white sea\u2014a white cloud, and on the white cloud a pink\ncloud. Upon the pink cloud stood a glass mountain, and on the glass\nmountain a golden castle with wide steps leading up to the gates.\n\nThat was the Golden Castle of All-Rosy. A soft light streamed from the\nCastle\u2014some of it from the pink cloud, some from the glass mountain, and\nsome from the pure gold walls; but most of all from the windows of the\nCastle itself. For there sit the guests of All-Rosy, drinking from\ngolden goblets health and welcome to each new-comer.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nBut All-Rosy does not enjoy the company of such as harbour any guilt in\ntheir souls, nor will he let them into his Castle. Wherefore it is a\nnoble and chosen company that is assembled in his courts, and from them\nstreams the light through the windows.\n\nUpon the ridge stood old Witting with his grandsons, all speechless as\nthey gazed at the marvel. They looked\u2014and of a sudden they saw someone\nsitting on the steps that led to the Castle. His face was hidden in his\nhands and he wept.\n\nThe old man looked and knew him\u2014knew him for Quest.\n\nThe old man\u2019s soul was shaken within him. He roused himself and called\nout across the cloud:\n\n\u201cWhat ails you, my child?\u201d\n\n\u201cI am here, grandfather,\u201d answered Quest. \u201cA great light lifted me up\nout of the well-spring and brought me here. So far have I come; but they\nwon\u2019t let me into the Castle, because I have sinned against you.\u201d\n\nTears ran down the old man\u2019s cheeks. His hands and heart went out to\ncaress his dear child, to comfort him, to help him, to set his darling\nfree.\n\nCareful and Bluster looked at their grandfather, but his face was\naltogether changed. It was ashen, it was haggard, and not at all like\nthe face of a living man.\n\n\u201cThe old man will die of these terrors,\u201d whispered the brothers to each\nother.\n\nBut the old man drew himself up to his full height, and already he was\nmoving away from them, when he looked back once more and said:\n\n\u201cGo home, children, back to the glade, since you are forgiven. Live and\nenjoy in all righteousness what shall fall to your part. But I go to\nhelp him to whom has been given the best part at the greatest cost.\u201d\n\nOld Witting\u2019s voice was quite faint, but he stood before them upright as\na dart.\n\nBluster and Careful looked at one another. Had their grandfather gone\ncrazy, that he thought of walking across the clouds when he had no\nbreath even for speech?\n\nBut already the old man had left them. He left them, went on and stepped\nout upon the cloud as though it were a meadow. And as he stepped out he\nwent forward. On he walked, the old man, and his feet carried him as\nthough he were a feather, and his cloak fluttered in the wind as if it\nwere a cloud upon that cloud. Thus he came to the pink cloud, and to the\nglass mountain, and to the broad steps. He flew up the steps to his\ngrandson. Oh the joy of it, when the old man clasped his grandson! He\nhugged him and he held him close as if he would never let him go. And\nCareful and Bluster heard it all. Across the cloud they could hear the\nold man and his grandchild weeping in each other\u2019s arms for pure joy!\n\nThen the old man took Quest by the hand and led him up to the Castle\ngates. With his left hand he led his grandson, and with his right he\nknocked at the gate.\n\nAnd lo, a wonder! At once the great gates flew open, all the splendour\nof the Castle was thrown open, and the company within, the noble guests,\nwelcomed grandfather Witting and grandson Quest upon the threshold.\n\nThey welcomed them, held out their hands to them, and led them in.\n\nCareful and Bluster just saw them pass by the window, and saw where they\nwere placed at the table. The first place of all was given to old\nWitting, and beside him sat Quest, where All-Rosy, the golden youth,\ndrinks welcome to his guests from a goblet of gold.\n\nA great fear fell upon Bluster and Careful when they were left alone\nwith these awesome sights.\n\n\u201cCome away, brother, to our clearing,\u201d whispered Careful; and they\nturned and went. Bewildered by many marvels, they got back to their\nclearing, and never again could they find either the path or the slope\nthat led to the mountain\u2019s crest.\n\n\n                                  VII\n\nThus it was and thus it befell.\n\nCareful and Bluster went on living in the glade. They lived long as\nvaliant men and true, and brought up goodly families, sons and\ngrandsons. All good parts went down from father to son, and, of course,\nalso the sacred fire, which was fed with a fresh log every day so that\nit might never go out.\n\nSo, you see, Rampogusto was right in being afraid of Quest, because if\nQuest had not died in his search for truth those goblins would never\nhave left Careful and Bluster, and in the glade there would have been\nneither righteous men nor sacred fire.\n\nBut so everything fell out. To the great shame and discomfiture of\nRampogusto and all his crew.\n\nWhen those two goblins dragged Quest\u2019s sheep-skin before Rampogusto, and\ninside it the third goblin, who was still yammering and carrying on like\none demented, Rampogusto flew into a furious rage, for he knew that all\nthree youths had escaped him. In his great wrath he gave orders that all\nthree goblins should have their horns cropped close, and so run about\nfor everyone to make fun of!\n\nBut the worst of Rampogusto\u2019s discomfiture was this: Every day the\nsacred smoke gets into his throat and makes him cough most horribly.\nMoreover, he never dare venture out into the woods for fear of meeting\nsome one of the valiant people.\n\nSo Rampogusto got nothing out of it but Quest\u2019s cast-off sheep-skin; and\nI\u2019m sure he is welcome to that, for Quest doesn\u2019t want a sheep-skin coat\nanyhow in All-Rosy\u2019s Golden Halls.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                      Fisherman Plunk and his Wife\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                      Fisherman Plunk and His Wife\n\n\n                                   I\n\n\nFISHERMAN PLUNK was sick and tired of his miserable life. He lived alone\nby the desolate sea-shore, and every day he caught fish with a bone\nhook, because they didn\u2019t know about nets in those parts at that time.\nAnd how much fish can you catch with a hook, anyhow?\n\n\u201cWhat a dog\u2019s life it is, to be sure!\u201d cried Plunk to himself. \u201cWhat I\ncatch in the morning I eat up at night, and there\u2019s no joy for me in\nthis world at all, at all.\u201d\n\nAnd then Plunk heard that there were also rich sheriffs in the land, and\nmen of great power and might, who lived in luxury and comfort, lapped in\ngold and fed on truffles. Then Plunk fell a-thinking how he too might\ncome to look upon such riches and live in the midst of them. So he made\nup his mind that for three whole days he would sit still in his boat on\nthe sea and not take any fish at all, but see if that spell would help\nhim.\n\nSo Plunk sat for three days and nights in his boat on the face of the\nsea\u2014three days he sat there, three days he fasted, for three days he\ncaught no fish. When the third day began to dawn, lo and behold, a\nsilver boat arose from the sea\u2014a silver boat with golden oars\u2014and in the\nboat, fair as a king\u2019s daughter, stood the Pale Dawn-Maiden.\n\n\u201cFor three days you have spared my little fishes\u2019 lives,\u201d said the\nDawn-Maiden, \u201cand now tell me what you would like me to do for you?\u201d\n\n\u201cHelp me out of this miserable and dreary life. Here am I all day long\nslaving away in this desolate place. What I catch during the day I eat\nup at night, and there is no joy for me in the world at all, at all,\u201d\nsaid Plunk.\n\n\u201cGo home,\u201d said the Dawn-Maiden, \u201cand you will find what you need.\u201d And\nas she spoke, she sank in the sea, silver boat and all.\n\nPlunk hurried back to the shore and then home. When he came to the\nhouse, a poor orphan girl came out to meet him, all weary with the long\ntramp across the hills. The girl said: \u201cMy mother is dead, and I am all\nalone in the world. Take me for your wife, Plunk.\u201d\n\nPlunk hardly knew what to do. \u201cIs this the good fortune which the\nDawn-Maiden has sent me?\u201d Plunk could see that the girl was just a poor\nbody like himself; on the other hand, he was afraid of making a mistake\nand turning away his luck. So he consented, and took the poor girl to be\nhis wife; and she, being very tired, lay down and slept till the\nmorning.\n\nPlunk could scarcely await the next day for wondering how his good\nfortune would show itself. But nothing happened that day except that\nPlunk took his hook and went out fishing, and the Woman went up the hill\nto gather wild spinach. Plunk came home at night, and so did the Woman,\nand they supped upon fish and wild spinach. \u201cEh, if that is all the good\nluck there is to it, I could just as well have done without,\u201d thought\nPlunk.\n\nAs the evening wore on, the Woman sat down beside Plunk to tell him\nstories, to wile away the time for him. She told him about nabobs and\nkings\u2019 castles, about dragons that watch treasure-hoards, and kings\u2019\ndaughters who sow their gardens with pearls and reap gems. Plunk\nlistened, and his heart within him began to sing for joy. Plunk forgot\nthat he was poor; he could have sat and listened to her for three years\ntogether. But Plunk was still better pleased when he considered: \u201cShe is\na fairy wife. She can show me the way to the dragons\u2019 hoards or the\nkings\u2019 gardens. I need only be patient and not make her angry.\u201d\n\nSo Plunk waited; and day after day went by, a year went by, two years\npassed. A little son was born to them; they called him little Winpeace.\nYet all went on as usual. Plunk caught fish, and his wife gathered wild\nspinach in the mountains. In the evening she cooked the supper, and\nafter supper she rocked the baby and told Plunk stories. Her stories\ngrew prettier and prettier, and Plunk found it harder and harder to\nwait, till at last, one evening, he had had enough of it; and just as\nhis wife was telling him about the immense treasures of the Sea King,\nPlunk jumped up in a rage, shook her by the arm and cried:\n\n\u201cI tell you I\u2019ll wait no longer. To-morrow in the morning you shall take\nme down to the Sea King\u2019s Castle!\u201d\n\nThe Woman was quite frightened when Plunk jumped up like that. She told\nhim that she did not know where the Sea King had his Castle; but Plunk\nbegan to beat his poor wife most unmercifully, and threatened to kill\nher unless she told him her fairy secret.\n\nThen the poor girl understood that Plunk had taken her for a fairy. She\nburst into tears and cried:\n\n\u201cTruly I am no fairy, but a poor orphan girl who knows no spells nor\nmagic. And for the tales I have told you, I had them from my own heart\nto beguile your weariness.\u201d\n\nNow this only put Plunk all the more in a rage, because he had lived in\na fool\u2019s paradise for over two years; and he angrily bade the Woman go\naway next morning ere dawn with the child, along the sea-shore to the\nright-hand side, and he, Plunk, would go to the left, and she was not to\ncome back again till she had found the way to the Sea King\u2019s Castle.\n\nWhen the dawn came, the Woman wept and begged Plunk not to send her\naway. \u201cWho knows where one of us may be destroyed on this desolate\nsea-shore?\u201d said she. But Plunk fell upon her again, so that she took up\nher child and went away crying whither her husband had bidden her. And\nPlunk went off in the opposite direction.\n\nSo the Woman went on with her baby, little Winpeace. She went on for a\nweek; she went on for a fortnight, and nowhere did she find the way to\nthe Sea King. She grew so terribly tired that one day she fell asleep on\na stone beside the sea. When she woke up, her baby was gone\u2014her little\nWinpeace.\n\nHer grief was so great that the tears froze fast in her heart, and not a\nword could she speak for sorrow, but became dumb from that hour.\n\nSo the poor dumb creature wandered back along the sea-shore and home.\nAnd next day Plunk came home, too. He had not found the way to the Sea\nKing, and he came back disappointed and cross.\n\nWhen he got home, there was no baby Winpeace, and his wife had gone\ndumb. She could not tell him what had happened, but was all haggard with\nthe great trouble.\n\nAnd so it was with them from that day forward. The Woman neither wept\nnor complained, but did her housework and waited upon Plunk in silence;\nand the house was still and quiet as the grave. For some time Plunk\nstood it, but in the end he got thoroughly weary. He had just felt\nalmost sure of the Sea King\u2019s treasure, and lo! all this trouble and\nworry had come upon him.\n\nSo Plunk made up his mind to try his sea-spell once more. Again for\nthree whole days he sat in his boat on the sea, for three days he\nfasted, for three days he caught no fish. At the third day, at daybreak,\nthe Dawn-Maiden arose before him.\n\nPlunk told her what had happened, and complained bitterly.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m worse off than ever before. The baby is gone, the wife is dumb, and\nmy house dreary as the grave, and I\u2019m just about bursting with trouble.\u201d\n\nTo this the Dawn-Maiden said never a word, but just asked Plunk a\nquestion:\n\n\u201cWhat do you want? I will help you just this once more.\u201d\n\nBut Plunk was such a zany that he couldn\u2019t think of anything else but\njust this, that he was set on seeing and enjoying the Sea King\u2019s\ntreasure; and so he didn\u2019t wish for his child back again, or that his\nwife should regain the power of speech, but he begged the Dawn-Maiden:\n\n\u201cFair Dawn-Maiden,\u201d said he, \u201cshow me the way to the Sea King.\u201d\n\nAnd again the Dawn-Maiden said nothing, but very kindly set Plunk on his\nway:\n\n\u201cWhen day dawns at the next New Moon, get into your boat, wait for the\nwind, and then drift eastward with the wind. The wind will carry you to\nthe Isle Bountiful, to the stone Gold-a-Fire. And there I shall be\nwaiting for you to show you the way to the Sea King.\u201d\n\nPlunk went joyfully home.\n\nWhen it was about the New Moon (but he never told his wife anything) he\nwent out at the streak of dawn, got into his boat, waited for the wind,\nand let the wind carry him away toward the east.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe wind caught the boat and carried it along to the Unknown Sea, to the\nIsle Bountiful. Like a green garden the fruitful island floats upon the\nsea. The grass grows rank, and the meadows lush, the vines are full of\ngrapes and the almondtrees pink with blossom. In the midst of the island\nthere is precious stone, the white blazing stone Gold-a-Fire. One half\nof the stone sheds its glow upon the island, and the other half lights\nup the sea under the island. And there on the Isle Bountiful, on the\nstone Gold-a-Fire, sits the Dawn-Maiden.\n\nVery kindly did the Dawn-Maiden receive Plunk, very kindly she set him\non his way. She showed him a mill-wheel drifting on the sea towards the\nisland, and the mermaids dancing in a ring around the wheel. Then she\ntold him\u2014always very kindly\u2014how he must ask the mill-wheel politely to\ntake him down to the Sea King and not let the Dark Deeps of the Sea\nswallow him.\n\nLast of all the Dawn-Maiden said:\n\n\u201cGreat store of gold and treasure will you enjoy in the Sea King\u2019s\ndomain. But mark\u2014to earth you cannot return, for three terrible watchers\nbar the way. One troubles the waves, the second raises the storm, and\nthe third wields the lightning.\u201d\n\nBut Plunk was happy as a grig in his boat as he paddled towards the\nmill-wheel, and thought to himself:\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s easy to see, fair Dawn-Maiden, that you\u2019ve never known want in\nthis world. I shan\u2019t hanker back after this earth, where I\u2019m leaving\nnothing but ill-luck behind!\u201d\n\nSo he paddled up to the mill-wheel, where round the mill-wheel the\nmermaids were playing their foolish games. They dived and chased each\nother through the water; their long hair floated on the waves, their\nsilver fins glittered, and their red lips smiled. And they sat on the\nmill-wheel and made the sea all foamy around it.\n\nThe boat reached the mill-wheel, and Plunk did as the Dawn-Maiden had\ntold him. He held his paddle aloft so that the Dark Deeps should not\nswallow him, and he politely asked the mill-wheel:\n\n\u201cRound wheel giddy-go-round, please take me down, either to the Dead\nDark Deep or to the Sea King\u2019s Palace.\u201d\n\nAs Plunk said this, the mermaids came swishing along like so many silver\nfish, swarmed round the mill-wheel, seized the spokes in their snowy\nhands, and began to turn the wheel\u2014swiftly, giddily.\n\nAn eddy formed in the sea\u2014a fierce eddy, a terrible whirlpool. The\nwhirlpool caught Plunk; it swept him round like a twig, and sucked him\ndown to the Sea King\u2019s fastness.\n\nPlunk\u2019s ears were still ringing with the swirl of the sea and the\nmermaids\u2019 silly laughter when he suddenly found himself sitting on\nbeautiful sand\u2014fine sand of pure gold.\n\nPlunk looked round and cried out: \u201cHo, there\u2019s a wonder for you! A whole\nfield of golden sand.\u201d\n\nNow what Plunk had taken to be a big field was only the great Hall of\nthe Sea King. Round the Hall stood the sea like a marble wall, and above\nthe Hall hung the sea, like a glass dome. Down from the stone\nGold-a-Fire streamed a bluish glare, livid and pale as moonlight. From\nthe ceiling hung festoons of pearls, and on the floor below stood tables\nof coral.\n\nAnd at the end\u2014the far end, where slender pipes were piping and tiny\nbells tinkling\u2014there lazed and lounged the Sea King himself; he\nstretched his limbs on the golden sand, raising only his great bullock\u2019s\nhead, beside him a coral table, and behind him a golden hedge.\n\nWhat with the quick, shrill music of the pipes, the tinkling of the\nbells, and the sheen and glimmer all around him, Plunk wouldn\u2019t have\nbelieved there could be so much pleasure or wealth in the world!\n\nPlunk went clean mad for pure joy\u2014joy went to his head like strong wine;\nhis heart sang; he clapped his hands; he skipped about the golden sand\nlike a frolicsome child; he turned head over heels once, twice, and\nagain\u2014just like a jolly boy.\n\nNow this amused the Sea King vastly. For the Sea King\u2019s feet are\nheavy\u2014far too heavy\u2014and his great bullock\u2019s head is heavier still. The\nSea King guffawed as he lounged on the golden sand; he laughed so\nheartily that the golden sand blew up all round him.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re fine and light on your feet, my boy,\u201d said the Sea King, and he\nreached up and pulled down a branch of pearls and gave it to Plunk. And\nthen the Sea King ordered the Under Seas Fairies to bring choice viands\nand honeyed drink in golden vessels. And Plunk had leave to sit beside\nthe Sea King at the coral table, and surely that was a great honour!\n\nWhen Plunk had dined, the Sea King asked him:\n\n\u201cIs there anything else you would like, my man?\u201d\n\nNow what should a poor man ask for, who had never known what it is to\nhave a good time? But Plunk was hungry from his long journey, and he had\nmade but a poor meal of it off the choice viands and the honeyed drinks.\nSo he said to the Sea King:\n\n\u201cJust as you were saying that, O King of the Sea, I was wishing that I\nhad a good helping of boiled wild spinach.\u201d\n\nThe Sea King was rather surprised, but he recovered himself quickly,\nlaughed and said to Plunk:\n\n\u201cEh, brother of mine, wild spinach is very dear down here, dearer than\npearls and mother-o\u2019-pearl, because it\u2019s a long way from here to the\nplace where it grows. But since you have just asked for it, I will send\na Foam Fairy to bring you some from the land where the wild spinach\ngrows. But you must turn three more coach-wheels for me.\u201d\n\nAs Plunk was already in the best of humours he didn\u2019t find that hard\neither. Lightly he leapt to his feet, and quickly they all flocked round\nhim, the mermaids and the tiny folk in the Palace, and all for to see\nthat wonder!\n\nPlunk took a run over the golden sand, turned a beautiful coach-wheel,\nthen a second and a third, light as a squirrel, and the Sea King and all\nthe tiny folk rocked with laughter at such cunning.\n\nBut heartiest of all laughed a little baby, and that was the little King\nwhom the mermaids themselves had crowned King for fun and idle sport.\nThe wee baby was sitting up in a golden cradle. His little shirt was of\nsilk, the cradle was hung with tiny bells of pearl, and in his hands the\nchild held a golden apple.\n\nWhile Plunk was turning coach-wheels and the little King laughed so\nheartily, Plunk looked round at him. He looked at the little King, and\nthen\u2014Plunk started. It was his own baby boy, little Winpeace.\n\nWell, Plunk was suddenly disgusted. He would never have guessed that he\nwould grow sick of it so soon.\n\nPlunk frowned; he was angry, and when he had got over his shock a bit he\nthought:\n\n\u201cLook at him, the urchin, how he\u2019s got on, lording it here in idleness\nand sport, and his mother at home gone dumb with grieving!\u201d\n\nPlunk was vexed; he hated seeing himself or the child in this Palace;\nyet he dared not say a word, lest they should part him from the boy. So\nhe made himself the servant of his son, of little Winpeace, and thought\nto himself: \u201cPerhaps I shall be left alone with him sometimes. Then I\nwill remind the boy of his Father and Mother; I will run away with him;\nI will carry off the little brat and go back with him to his mother.\u201d\n\nSo thought Plunk, and one fine day, when he happened to be alone with\nthe little King, he whispered to the child: \u201cCome along, my boy; let\u2019s\nrun away with father.\u201d\n\nBut Winpeace was only a baby, and what with living so long under the\nsea, he had quite forgotten his father. He laughed; the little King\nlaughed. He thought: \u201cPlunk is making fun,\u201d and he kicked Plunk with his\nlittle foot.\n\n\u201cYou are not my father; you are the silly-billy who turns head over\nheels before the Sea King.\u201d\n\nThat stung Plunk to the heart, so that he well-nigh died with the pain\nof it. He went out and wept for sheer bitter sorrow. All the Sea King\u2019s\nattendants gathered round him and said one to the other:\n\n\u201cWell, well, he must have been a great lord on earth, to weep amid such\nsplendours.\u201d\n\n\u201cUpon my soul,\u201d cried Plunk wrathfully, \u201cI was the same as your Sea King\nhere. I had a son who tugged my beard, a wife who showed me marvels, and\nwild spinach, brothers, as much as you want\u2014and no need to turn\ncoach-wheels before anybody either.\u201d\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe sea-folk marvelled at such magnificence, and left Plunk to mourn his\nlost greatness. But Plunk went on serving the little King. He did all he\ncould to please the boy, thinking: \u201cI shall get him somehow to run away\nwith me.\u201d But the little King grew sillier and more wayward every day;\nthe days passed, and every day the child only thought Plunk more than\never a zany.\n\n\n                                   II\n\nNow all this time Plunk\u2019s wife was at home, all alone and grieving. The\nfirst evening she made up the fire and kept the supper hot for Plunk;\nbut when she gave up expecting Plunk, she let the fire go out, nor did\nshe kindle it again.\n\nSo the poor dumb soul sat on her threshold. She neither worked, nor\ntidied, nor wept, nor lamented, but just pined away with grief and\nsorrow. She could not take counsel with anyone, because she was dumb;\nnor could she cross the sea after Plunk, because she was all broken up\nwith grieving.\n\nWhere could she go, poor soul! but back one day to the far hills, where\nher mother lay buried. And as she stood by her mother\u2019s grave a\nbeautiful Hind up came to her.\n\nAnd as the dumb animals speak, so the Hind spoke to the Woman:\n\n\u201cYou must not sit there and pine away, my daughter, for else your heart\nwill break and your house will perish. But every evening you must get\nPlunk\u2019s supper ready for him, and after supper you must unpick some fine\nhemp. If Plunk does not come home, then you must take his supper in the\nmorning and the fine hemp as well, and also the slender twin pipes, and\ngo up into the rocky mountain. Play upon the twin pipes; the snakes and\ntheir young will come and eat up the supper, and the sea-fowl will line\ntheir nests with the hemp.\u201d\n\nFull well the daughter understood all that her mother said, and as she\nwas bid so did she do. Every evening she cooked supper, and after supper\nshe unpicked hemp. Plunk did not come back; and so the Woman took her\nlittle twin pipes in the morning, and carried both supper and hemp to\nthe rocky mountain. And as she played on her little pipes, played softly\non the right-hand pipe, lo, snakes and baby snakes came out of the\nrocks. They ate up the supper and thanked the Woman in the dumb speech.\nAnd when she played on the left-hand pipe, lo, gulls great and small\ncame flying, carried off the hemp to their nests, and thanked the Woman.\n\nFor three months the Woman went on in this way; thrice the moon waxed\nand waned, and still Plunk had not come home.\n\nAgain grief overcame the poor dumb soul, so that she went again to her\nmother\u2019s grave.\n\nThe Hind came up, and in dumb speech the Woman said to her:\n\n\u201cWell, Mother, I have done all you told me, and Plunk has not come back.\nI am weary of waiting. Shall I throw myself into the sea, or fling\nmyself down from the cliffs?\u201d\n\n\u201cDaughter of mine,\u201d said the Hind, \u201cyou must not fail in your trust.\nYour Plunk is in grievous trouble. Now listen and hear how you may help\nhim. In the Unknown Sea there is a Big Bass, and that Bass has a golden\nfin, and on that fin grows a golden apple. If you catch that Bass by\nmoonlight you will deliver your dear Plunk from his trouble. But on the\nroad to the Unknown Sea you will have to pass three caverns of cloud. In\nthe first there is a monstrous Snake, the Mother of All Snakes\u2014it is she\nwho troubles the sea and stirs up the waves; in the second there is a\nmonstrous Bird, the Mother of All Birds\u2014it is she who raises the storm;\nand in the third there is a Golden Bee\u2014it is she who flashes and wields\nthe lightning. Go, daughter dear, to the Unknown Sea, and take nothing\nwith you but your bone hook and slender twin pipes, and if you should\nfind yourself in great trouble, rip open your right-hand sleeve, all\nwhite and unhemmed.\u201d\n\nThe daughter gave good heed. Next day she took out the boat and put off\nto sea, taking nothing with her but her hook and the slender twin pipes.\n\nShe drifted and sailed on the face of the sea till the waters bore her\nto a far-off place, and there on the sea, lo, three terrible caverns of\nlowering cloud!\n\nFrom the entrance of the first cavern peered the head of a fearsome\nSnake, the Mother of All Snakes. Her grisly head blocked up all the\nentrance, her body lay coiled along the cave, and with her monstrous\ntail she lashed the sea, troubling the waters and stirring up the waves.\n\nThe Woman did not dare go near the terrible sight, but remembered her\nlittle pipes, and began to play upon the right-hand pipe. And as she\nplayed, there came from the far-off, rock-bound lands snakes and baby\nsnakes galore swimming over the sea. Great coloured snakes and tiny\nlittle snakes all came hurrying up and scurrying up and begged the\nfearsome Snake\u2014\n\n\u201cLet the Woman take her boat through your cavern, Mother dear! She has\ndone us a great good turn and fed us every day in the morning.\u201d\n\n\u201cThrough my cavern I may not let her pass,\u201d answered the fearsome Snake,\n\u201cfor to-day I must stir up the waves of the sea. But if she did you such\na good turn, I will repay it with another. Would she rather have a bar\nof gold or six strings of pearls?\u201d\n\nBut a true wife is not to be beguiled with gold or pearls, and so the\nWoman answered in dumb speech:\n\n\u201c\u2019Tis only for a small matter I have come here\u2014for the Bass that lives\nin the Unknown Sea. If I have done you a good turn, let me pass through\nyour cavern, fearsome Snake.\u201d\n\n\u201cLet her pass, Mother dear,\u201d said the snakes and baby snakes again.\n\u201cHere are many of us whom she has fed\u2014full many to whom she gave meat.\nYou just lie down, Mother dear, and take a nap, and we\u2019ll stir up the\nwaters for you.\u201d\n\nNow the Snake couldn\u2019t very well disoblige such a big family, and she\nhad been longing for sleep for a thousand years. So she let the Woman\nthrough the cavern, and then curled up on the floor of the cavern and\nfell into a fearsome sleep. But before she fell asleep she reminded the\nsnakes and baby snakes once more:\n\n\u201cNow, stir me up the waters right properly, children dear, while I rest\na little.\u201d\n\nSo the Woman passed through the cavern, and the snakes and their young\nstayed in the cavern; but instead of stirring up the sea they soothed it\nand made it calm.\n\nThe Woman sailed on, and came to the second cavern. And in the second\ncavern there was a monstrous Bird, the Mother of All Birds. She craned\nher frightful head through the opening, her iron beak gaped wide; she\nspread her vast wings in the cavern and flapped them, and whenever she\nflapped her wings she raised a storm.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Woman took up her twin pipes and sweetly played upon the left-hand\npipe. And from the far shore came flying gulls great and small, and\nbegged the monstrous bird to let the Woman pass with her boat through\nher cavern, for that she had been a good friend to them and unpicked\nhemp for them every day.\n\n\u201cI can\u2019t let her pass through my cavern, for to-day I must raise a\nmighty storm. But if she was so kind to you, I will repay her with even\ngreater kindness. From my iron beak I will give her of the Water of\nLife, so that the power of speech shall be restored to her.\u201d\n\nWell, and wasn\u2019t it a sore temptation for the poor dumb creature who\ndesired above all things that the power of speech should return to her?\nBut she remained steadfast, and this is what she answered the Bird:\n\n\u201c\u2019Tis not for my own good that I came, but for a small matter\u2014for the\nBass that lives in the Unknown Sea. If I have done you a good turn, let\nme pass through your cavern.\u201d\n\nThen the grey gulls all entreated the Mother Bird and also advised her\nto take a little nap, and they would meanwhile raise the storm for her.\nThe Mother Bird listened to her children\u2019s entreaty, clung to the wall\nof the cavern with her iron talons and went to sleep.\n\nBut the gulls great and small, instead of raising the storm, calmed the\nwild winds and soothed them.\n\nSo the dumb Woman sailed through the second cavern and came to the\nthird.\n\nIn the third cavern she found the Golden Bee. The Golden Bee buzzed in\nthe entrance; she wielded the fiery lightning and the rolling thunder.\nSea and cavern resounded; lightnings flashed from the clouds.\n\nFear seized upon the Woman when she found herself all alone with these\nterrors. But she remembered her right sleeve; she ripped it off, her\nsleeve all white and unhemmed, flung it over the Golden Bee and caught\nher in the sleeve!\n\nThe thunder and lightning were stilled at once, and the Golden Bee began\nto coax the Woman:\n\n\u201cSet me free, O Woman! and in return I will show you something. Look out\nover the wide waters, and it\u2019s a joyful sight you will see.\u201d\n\nThe Woman looked out over the wide waters. The sun was just on the\nhorizon. The sky grew pink overhead; the sea grew crimson from the east,\nand from the sea arose a silver boat. And in the boat sat the\nDawn-Maiden, pale and fair as a king\u2019s daughter, and beside her a little\nchild in a silken shirt and with a golden apple in his hand. It was the\nDawn-Maiden taking the little King for his morning sail on the sea.\n\nThe Woman recognised her lost baby.\n\nNow isn\u2019t that a wonder of wonders, that the sea should be so wide that\na mother cannot encompass it, and the sun so high that a mother should\nnot be able to reach it?\n\nHer joy took hold of her like terror. She trembled like the slender\naspen. Should she stretch out her hand to the child? or call to him\ntenderly? or should she just stand and look at him for ever and ever?\n\nThe silver boat glided over the crimson sea. It faded away in the\ndistance; the boat sank under the waves, and the mother roused herself\nwith a start.\n\n\u201cI will show you,\u201d said the Golden Bee to the Woman, \u201chow to get to the\nlittle King, your son, and live with him in joy and happiness. But first\nset me free, that I may wield the lightnings in the cavern\u2014and through\nmy cavern I cannot let you pass!\u201d\n\nA fierce pang overcame the poor mother, overwhelmed and shook her. She\nhad seen her darling; her eyes had beheld her heart\u2019s desire; she had\nseen and beheld him, but not hugged him, not kissed him! The pang shook\nher from head to foot. Should she be true to Plunk or no? Should she let\nthe Bee go and win to her child, or pass through the cavern to the\nUnknown Sea for the sake of the Big Bass?\n\nBut even as the pang shot through the Woman, the tears gushed forth from\nher heart; the power of speech returned to her, and \u2019twas in living\nwords that she answered the Golden Bee:\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t sting me, O Golden Bee! I shall not let you go, because I must\npass through your cavern. I have wept for my child and buried him in my\nheart. I have not come here for my own happiness, but for a small\nmatter\u2014for the Big Bass that lives in the Unknown Sea.\u201d\n\nThus said the Woman, and passed into the cavern. She rested in the\ncavern; she took her ease in the boat, and there she waited for\nnightfall and moonrise.\n\nEh, my dearie, but the sea was quiet that day, with the winds at rest in\nthe sky, and the fearsome Snake asleep in the first cavern, and the\nmonstrous Bird asleep in the second, and the wearied Woman in the third!\n\nSo the day went quietly by; evening came, and the moon rose. When the\nmoon rode high in the heavens, the Woman sailed out upon the Unknown Sea\nat midnight, and in the midst of the Sea she let down her little bone\nhook.\n\n\n                                  III\n\nThat very evening the little King bade Plunk knit him a nice set of\nsilken reins. \u201cFirst thing to-morrow morning I shall harness you to my\nlittle carriage, and you shall give me a ride on the golden sands.\u201d\n\nDearie me, considered poor Plunk, and where was he to hide from the\nDawn-Maiden when she would go down into the sea in the morning and\nbehold him thus to-morrow harnessed to a cart by his own son?\n\nAll the Sea King\u2019s court slept. The Sea King slept. The wilful little\nKing slept\u2014only Plunk was awake and knitting away at the reins. He\nknitted fiercely, like one who is thinking hard. When it seemed to him\nthat the strings were strong enough, Plunk said to himself:\n\n\u201cI never asked anyone\u2019s counsel when I was making a fool of myself, nor\nshall I do so now that I have come to my senses.\u201d\n\nAnd as he said this he went softly up to the cradle where his son lay\nfast asleep, wound the reins round and round the rockers of the cradle,\nlashed the cradle to his own back, and started to run away with his son.\n\nSoftly Plunk strode over the golden sand\u2014strode through the mighty Hall,\nspacious as a wide meadow; slipped through the golden hedge, parting the\nbranches of pearls; and when he came to where the sea stood up like a\nwall, nothing daunted, Plunk dived into the water with his boy.\n\nBut it is far\u2014terribly far\u2014from the Sea King\u2019s fastness to the world of\nday above! Plunk swam and swam; but how was a poor fisherman to swim\nwhen he was weighed down by the little King\u2014golden cradle, golden apple\nand all\u2014on his back?\n\nPlunk felt as if the sea was piling itself up above him, higher and\nhigher, and heavier and heavier!\n\nAnd just as Plunk was at the last gasp, he felt something scrape along\nthe golden cradle, something that caught in the rocker of the cradle;\nand when it had caught fast, it began to haul them along apace!\n\n\u201cNow it\u2019s all up with me!\u201d said poor Plunk to himself. \u201cHere\u2019s a\nsea-monster carrying me away on his tusk.\u201d\n\nBut it wasn\u2019t the tusk of a sea-monster; it was a bone fish-hook, the\nvery hook that Plunk\u2019s wife had let down.\n\nWhen the Woman felt that her hook had caught, she joyfully summoned all\nher strength, pulling and hauling with all her might, for fear of losing\nthe great Big Bass.\n\nAs she began to haul in her catch the golden rocker began to show above\nthe water. The Woman could not distinguish it rightly by moonlight, but\nthought: \u201cIt is the golden fin of the Bass.\u201d\n\nNext came up the child with the golden apple. Again the Woman thought:\n\u201cIt is the golden apple on the fish\u2019s fin.\u201d And when at last Plunk\u2019s\nhead came up, the Woman cried out joyfully: \u201cAnd here is the head of the\ngreat Big Bass.\u201d\n\nAnd as she cried out she hauled in her catch, and when she had hauled it\nclose alongside\u2014why, dearie mine, how am I to tell you rightly how\noverjoyed were those three when they met again in the boat, all in the\nmoonlight, in the middle of the Unknown Sea?\n\nBut they dare not lose any time. They had to pass through the three\ncaverns ere the monstrous watchers should awaken. So they took out the\noars and rowed with all their might and main.\n\nBut oh dear! the bad luck they had! When the little King awoke and saw\nhis mummy, he remembered her at once. He threw both his little arms\nround his mummy\u2019s neck\u2014and the golden apple fell out of his hand. Down\nfell the apple into the sea, down to the very bottom and into the Sea\nKing\u2019s Castle, and hit the Sea King right on his shoulder!\n\nThe Sea King woke up, and bellowed with rage. All the court jumped to\ntheir feet. They saw at once that the little King and his servant were\nmissing!\n\nThey gave chase. The mermaids swam out under the moonlight; the light\nfoam fairies flew out over the water; runners were sent out to rouse the\nwatchers in the caverns.\n\nBut the boat had already passed through the caverns, and so they had to\npursue it farther on. Plunk and the Woman were rowing\u2014rowing for dear\nlife, their pursuers close in their wake. The mermaids whipped up the\nwaters; the swift foam fairies darted after the boat; the angry waves\nrose up in wrath behind them; the wind howled from the clouds. Nearer\nand nearer came the pursuers. The finest ship afloat would not have had\na chance, and how could a tiny two-oared boat? For hours and hours the\nboat flew on before the tempest, and just as the day began to break, lo,\nterror gathered from all sides around the boat.\n\nFor the hurricane beat upon the boat; the crested billows towered above\nit; the mermaids joined in a ring around it. The ring heaved and swayed\naround the boat; the mermaids raised their linked hands high to let the\nmountainous waves pass through, but never let the little craft escape\nthe waves. Sea and storm whistled and roared.\n\nThe fear of death was upon Plunk, and in his dire need he cried out:\n\n\u201cOh, fair Dawn-Maiden, help!\u201d\n\nThe Dawn-Maiden arose from the sea. She saw Plunk, but never looked at\nhim. She looked at the little King, but no gift had she for him; but to\nthe faithful Wife she swiftly gave her gift\u2014a broidered kerchief and a\npin.\n\nQuickly they hoisted the kerchief, and it became a white sail, and the\npin turned into a rudder. The wind filled the sail, so that it bulged\nlike a ripe apple, and the Woman gripped the rudder with a strong hand.\nThe mermaids\u2019 ring round the boat was broken; the boat rode upon the\nazure sea like a star across the blue heavens! A wonder of wonders, it\nflew over the sea before its terrible pursuers; the fiercer the pursuit,\nthe greater help it was to them; for the swifter the wind blew, the more\nswiftly yet flew the boat before the wind, and the swifter the sea, the\nmore swiftly rode the boat upon the sea.\n\nAlready the rock-bound shore loomed afar, and upon the shore Plunk\u2019s\nlittle cottage and the bar of white sand before it.\n\nAs soon as the land hove in sight, the pursuit slackened. The foam\nfairies fear the shore; the mermaids keep away from the coast. Wind and\nwaves stayed on the high seas, and only the boat flew straight ahead to\nland like a child to its mother\u2019s lap.\n\nThe boat flew to land over the white sand bar, and struck on a rock. The\nboat split on the rock. Down went sail and rudder; down went the golden\ncradle; away flew the Golden-winged Bee; and Plunk and his wife and\nchild were left alone on the beach outside their cottage.\n\nWhen they sat down that night to their supper of wild spinach, they had\nclean forgotten all that had happened. And but for those twin pipes,\nthere\u2019s not a soul would remember it now. But whoever starts to play on\nthe pipes, the fat pipe at once begins to drone out about Plunk:\n\n                    Harum-scarum Plunk would go\n                    Where the pearls and corals grow;\n                    There he found but grief and woe.\n\nAnd then the little pipe reminds us of the Woman:\n\n                   Rise, O Dawn, in loveliness!\n                   Here is new-born happiness;\n                   Were it three times drown\u2019d in ill.\n                   Faith and Love would save it still!\n\nAnd that is the twin pipes\u2019 message to the wide, wide world.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                Reygoch\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                Reygoch\n\n\n                                   I\n\nONCE upon a beautiful summer night the men were watching their horses in\nthe meadow. And as they watched, they fell asleep. And as they slept,\nthe fairies flew out of the clouds to have some sport with the horses,\nas is the fairies\u2019 way. Each fairy caught a horse, mounted it, and then\nwhipped it with her golden hair, urging it round and round the dewy\nmeadow.\n\nAmong the fairies there was one quite young and tiny, called Curlylocks,\nwho had come down to earth from the clouds for the first time that\nnight.\n\nCurlylocks thought it lovely to ride through the night like a whirlwind.\nAnd it so happened that she had got hold of the most spirited horse of\nall\u2014a Black\u2014small, but fierce as fire. The Black galloped round and\nround with the other horses, but he was the swiftest of all. Soon he was\nall in a lather of foam.\n\nBut Curlylocks wanted to ride faster still. She bent down and pinched\nthe Black\u2019s right ear. The horse started, reared, and then bolted\nstraight ahead, leaving behind the rest of the horses, the meadow and\nall, as he flew away like the wind with Curlylocks into the wide, wide\nworld.\n\nCurlylocks thoroughly enjoyed her lightning ride. The Black went like\nthe wind, by field and by river, by meadow and mountain, over dale and\nhill. \u201cGood gracious! what a lot of things there are in the world!\u201d\nthought Curlylocks, full of delight as she looked at all the pretty\nsights. But what pleased her best was when they came through a country\nwhere there were mountains all covered with glorious forests, and at the\nfoot of the mountains two golden fields like two great gold kerchiefs,\nand in the midst of them two white villages, like two white doves, and a\nlittle further on a great sheet of water.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nBut the Black would not stop, neither there nor anywhere, but rushed on\nand on as if he were possessed.\n\nSo the Black carried Curlylocks far and far away till at last they came\nto a great plain, with a cold wind blowing over it. The Black galloped\ninto the plain, and there was nothing there but yellow sand, neither\ntrees nor grass, and the further they went into that great waste, the\ncolder it grew. But how large that plain is, I cannot tell you, for the\ngood reason that the man does not live who could cross it.\n\nThe Black ran on with Curlylocks for seven days and seven nights. The\nseventh day, just before sunrise, they reached the centre of the plain,\nand in the centre of the plain they found the ruinous walls of the\nterribly great city of Frosten, and there it is always bitterly cold.\n\nAs the Black raced up to the ancient gates of Frosten, Curlylocks threw\nher magic veil on the wall, and so caught hold of the wall. The Black\ngalloped away from under her, and so continued his wild career up to his\nold age to and fro between the huge walls of Frosten, till at last he\nfound the northern gate and galloped out again into the plain\u2014God knows\nwhither!\n\nBut Curlylocks came down from the wall and began to walk about the city,\nand it was cold as cold! Her magic veil, without which she could not fly\namong the clouds, she wound about her shoulders, for she took great care\nof it. And so Curlylocks walked and walked about the city of Frosten,\nand all the time she felt as if she must come upon something very\nwonderful in this city, which was so marvellous and so great. However,\nnothing did she see but only great crumbling walls, and nothing did she\nhear but now and again a stone cracking with the cold.\n\nSuddenly, just as Curlylocks had turned the corner of the very biggest\nwall, she saw, fast asleep at the foot of the wall, a huge man, bigger\nthan the biggest oak in the biggest forest. The man was dressed in a\nhuge cloak of coarse linen, and the strap he wore for a belt was five\nfathoms long. His head was as big as the biggest barrel, and his beard\nwas like a shock of corn. He was so big, that man, you might have\nthought there was a church tower fallen down beside the wall!\n\nThis giant was called Reygoch, and he lived at Frosten. All he did was\nto count the stones of the city of Frosten. He could never have finished\ncounting them but for that huge head of his, as big as a barrel. But he\ncounted and counted\u2014he had counted for a thousand years, and had already\ncounted thirty walls and five gates of the city.\n\nWhen Curlylocks spied Reygoch, she clasped her hands and wondered. She\nnever thought there could be such an immense creature in the world.\n\nSo Curlylocks sat down by Reygoch\u2019s ear (and Reygoch\u2019s ear was as big as\nthe whole of Curlylocks), and called down his ear:\n\n\u201cAren\u2019t you cold, daddy?\u201d\n\nReygoch woke up, laughed, and looked at Curlylocks.\n\n\u201cCold? I should think I was cold,\u201d answered Reygoch, and his voice was\nas deep as distant thunder. Reygoch\u2019s big nose was all red with the\ncold, and his hair and beard were all thick with hoar-frost.\n\n\u201cDear me!\u201d said Curlylocks, \u201cyou\u2019re such a big man, and you aren\u2019t going\nto build yourself a roof to keep out the cold?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy should I?\u201d said Reygoch, and laughed again. \u201cThe sun will be out\npresently.\u201d\n\nReygoch heaved himself up so as to sit. He sat up. He clapped his left\nshoulder with his right hand, and his right shoulder he clapped with the\nleft hand, so as to beat out the hoar-frost; and the hoar-frost came off\neach shoulder as if it were snow slipping off a roof!\n\n\u201cLook out! look out, daddy! you\u2019ll smother me!\u201d cried Curlylocks. But\nReygoch could scarcely hear her, because it was a long way from\nCurlylocks to his ear, so big was he when he sat up.\n\nSo Reygoch lifted Curlylocks on to his shoulder, told her his name and\nhis business, and she told him how she had come.\n\n\u201cAnd here comes the sun,\u201d said Reygoch, and pointed for Curlylocks to\nsee.\n\nCurlylocks looked, and there was the sun rising, but so pale and feeble,\nas if there were no one for him to warm.\n\n\u201cWell, you are a silly, Reygoch!\u201d said Curlylocks\u2014\u201cyou are really silly\nto live here and spend your life counting these tiresome stones of\nFrosten. Come along, Reygoch, and see how beautiful the world is, and\nfind something more sensible to do.\u201d\n\nNow it had never occurred to Reygoch to want a finer home for himself\nthan Frosten city, nor had he ever thought that there might be better\nwork than his in the world. Reygoch always thought, \u201cI was meant to\ncount the stones of Frosten,\u201d and had never asked for anything better.\n\nCurlylocks, however, gave him no peace, but persuaded him to come out\nand see the world with her.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll take you to a lovely country,\u201d said Curlylocks, \u201cwhere there is an\nancient forest, and beside the forest two golden fields.\u201d\n\nCurlylocks talked for a long time. And old Reygoch had never had anybody\nto talk to, and so he couldn\u2019t resist persuasion.\n\n\u201cWell, let\u2019s go!\u201d said he.\n\nCurlylocks was mightily pleased with this.\n\nBut now they had to contrive something, so that Reygoch could carry\nCurlylocks, because Reygoch himself had nothing.\n\nSo Curlylocks drew out from her bosom a little bag of pearls. It was her\nmother who had given Curlylocks these pearls before allowing her to go\ndown to earth, and told her: \u201cIf you ever should need anything, just\nthrow down a pearl, and it will turn into whatever you want. Be very\ncareful of those pearls, because there are so many things in the world\nthat you will want more and more as you go on.\u201d\n\nCurlylocks took out a tiny seed-pearl, threw it down, and lo, before\ntheir eyes there grew a little basket, just as big as Curlylocks, and\nthe basket had a loop attached, just big enough to fit Reygoch\u2019s ear.\n\nCurlylocks jumped into the basket; and Reygoch picked up the basket and\nhung it on his ear like an ear-ring!\n\nWhenever Reygoch laughed, whenever he sneezed or shook his head,\nCurlylocks rocked as if she were in a swing; and she thought it a\ncapital way of travelling.\n\nSo Reygoch started to walk, and had already taken a ten-yard stride,\nwhen Curlylocks stopped him, and begged:\n\n\u201cCouldn\u2019t we go underground, perhaps, Reygoch dear, so that I might see\nwhat there is under the earth?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy not?\u201d answered Reygoch; for he could break into the earth as easy\nas fun, only it had never entered his head to look what might be\nunderground.\n\nBut Curlylocks wanted to know everything about everything, and so they\nagreed to travel underground until they should arrive under the forest\nby the golden fields, and there they would come up.\n\nWhen they had settled that, Reygoch began to break up the earth. He\nlifted up his great feet and stamped for the first time, and at that the\nwhole of the great city of Frosten shook and a great many walls tumbled\ndown. Reygoch raised his feet a second time and stamped again, and the\nwhole plain quaked. Reygoch raised his feet a third time and stamped,\nand lo, half the world trembled, the solid earth gaped under Reygoch,\nand Reygoch and Curlylocks fell into the hole and down under the earth.\n\nWhen they got there, they found the earth all honeycombed with pillars\nand passages on every side, and heaven alone knew where they all led to.\nAnd they could hear waters rushing and the moaning of the winds.\n\nThey followed one of the passages, and for awhile they had light from\nthe hole through which they had fallen. But as they went on it grew\ndarker and darker\u2014black darkness, such as there is nowhere save in the\nbowels of the earth.\n\nReygoch tramped calmly on in the dark. With his great hands he felt his\nway from pillar to pillar.\n\nBut Curlylocks was frightened by the great darkness.\n\nShe clung to Reygoch\u2019s ear and cried: \u201cIt\u2019s dark, Reygoch dear!\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, and why not?\u201d returned Reygoch. \u201cThe dark didn\u2019t come to us. It\u2019s\nwe have come to it.\u201d\n\nThen Curlylocks got cross, because Reygoch never minded anything and she\nhad expected great things from so huge a man.\n\n\u201cI should be in a nice fix with you but for my pearls,\u201d said Curlylocks\nquite angrily.\n\nThen she threw down another pearl, and a tiny lantern grew in her hand,\nbright as if it were lit with gold. The darkness crept back deeper into\nthe earth, and the light shone far through the underground passages.\n\nCurlylocks was delighted with her lantern, because it showed up all the\nmarvels which had been swallowed by the earth in days of old. In one\nplace she saw lordly castles, with doors and windows all fretted with\ngold and framed in red marble. In another place were warriors\u2019 weapons,\nslender-barrelled muskets and heavy scimitars studded with gems and\nprecious stones. In a third place she saw long-buried treasures, golden\ndishes and silver goblets full of gold ducats, and the Emperor\u2019s very\ncrown of gold three times refined. All these treasures had been\nswallowed up by God\u2019s will, and it is God\u2019s secret why so much treasure\nshould lie there undisturbed.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nBut Curlylocks was quite dazzled with all these marvels; and instead of\ngoing straight ahead by the way they had settled upon, she begged\nReygoch to put her down so that she might play about a little and admire\nall the strange things and gaze upon the wonders of God\u2019s secret.\n\nSo Reygoch set Curlylocks down, and Curlylocks took her little lantern\nand ran to the castles, and to the weapons, and to the treasure-hoards.\nAnd lest she might lose her little bag of pearls while she was playing,\nshe laid it down beside a pillar.\n\nAs for Reygoch, he sat down to rest not far off.\n\nCurlylocks began to play with the treasures; she looked at the beautiful\nthings and rummaged among them. With her tiny hands she scattered the\ngolden ducats, examined the goblets chased in silver, and put upon her\nhead the crown of gold three times refined. She played about, looked\nround and admired, and at last caught sight of a very slender little\nivory staff propped up against a mighty pillar.\n\nBut it was just that slender staff that kept the mighty pillar from\ncollapsing, because the pillar was already completely hollowed out by\nthe water. And therefore God had caused that little staff to fall down\nthere, and the staff held up the pillar under the earth.\n\nBut Curlylocks wondered:\n\n\u201cWhy is that little staff just there?\u201d And she went and picked up the\nstaff to look at it.\n\nBut no sooner had Curlylocks taken the staff and moved it than the\nsubterranean passages re-echoed with a terrible rumbling noise. The\ngreat pillar trembled, swayed and crashed down amid a whole mountain of\nfalling earth, closing and blocking up the path between Reygoch and\nCurlylocks. They could neither see nor hear one another, nor could they\nreach one another....\n\nThere was the poor little fairy Curlylocks caught in the bowels of the\nearth! She was buried alive in that vast grave, and perhaps would never\nagain see those golden fields for which she had set out, and all because\nshe would not go straight on by the way they had intended, but would\nloiter and turn aside to the right and to the left to pry into God\u2019s\nsecrets!\n\nCurlylocks wept and cried, and tried to get to Reygoch. But she found\nthat there was no way through, and that her plight was hopeless; and as\nfor the bag of pearls, which might have helped her, it was buried under\nthe landslide.\n\nWhen Curlylocks realised this she stopped crying, for she was proud, and\nshe thought: \u201cThere is no help for it, and I must die. Reygoch won\u2019t\ncome to my rescue, because his wits are too slow even to help himself,\nlet alone to make him remember to help me. So there is nothing for it,\nand I must die.\u201d\n\nSo Curlylocks prepared for death. But in case folk should ever find her\nin her grave she wanted them to know that she came of royal blood. So\nshe set the crown of gold three times refined upon her head, took the\nivory staff in her hand, and lay down to die. There was no one beside\nCurlylocks except her little lantern, burning as if it were lit with\ngold; and as Curlylocks began to grow cold and stiff, so the lantern\nburned low and dim.\n\nReygoch was really an old stupid. When the pillar crashed down and there\nwas the big landslide between him and Curlylocks he never moved, but sat\nstill in the dark. Thus he sat for quite a long time, before it occurred\nto him to go and find out what had happened.\n\nHe felt his way in the dark to the spot where Curlylocks had been,\ngroped about, and realised that the earth had subsided there and that\nthe passage was indeed blocked.\n\n\u201cEh, but that way is choked up now,\u201d considered Reygoch. And nothing\nelse could he think of, but turned round, left the mound of fallen earth\nand Curlylocks beyond it, and went back by the road they had travelled\nfrom Frosten city.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nThus old Reygoch went his way, pillar by pillar. He had already gone a\ngoodish bit; but there was all the time something worrying him. Reygoch\nhimself couldn\u2019t imagine what it was that worried him.\n\nHe arranged the strap around his waist\u2014perhaps it had been too tight;\nand then he stretched his arm\u2014perhaps his arm had gone to sleep. Yet it\nwas neither the one nor the other, but something else that worried.\nReygoch wondered what in the world it could be. He wondered, and as he\nwondered he shook his head.\n\nAnd as Reygoch shook his head, the little basket swung at his ear. And\nwhen Reygoch felt how light the basket was, and that there was no\nCurlylocks inside, a bitter pang shot through his heart and breast,\nand\u2014simpleton though he was\u2014he knew well enough that he was grieved\nbecause he missed Curlylocks, and he realised also that he ought to save\nher.\n\nIt had taken Reygoch a lot of trouble to think out all that; but once he\nhad thought it out, he turned like the wind and flew back to the place\nwhere the landslide was, to find Curlylocks behind the heap of earth. He\nflew, and arrived just in time. Reygoch burrowed away with both hands,\nand in a little while he had burrowed a big hole, so that he could see\nCurlylocks lying there, the crown of fine gold on her head. She was\nalready growing cold and rigid, with her little lantern beside her, and\nthe flame of it as feeble as the tiniest little glow-worm.\n\nIf Reygoch had cried out in his grief the earth would have rocked, and\nthe little lantern would have gone out altogether\u2014even the little\nglow-worm light by the side of Curlylocks would have died away.\n\nBut Reygoch\u2019s throat was all tight with pain, so that he could not cry\nout. He put out his great big hand and gently picked up poor Curlylocks,\nwho was already quite cold, and warmed her between the hollowed palms of\nhis huge hands as you would warm a starved dicky-bird in winter. And lo!\nin a little while Curlylocks moved her little head, and at once the\nlantern burned a little brighter; and then Curlylocks moved her arm, and\nthe lantern burned brighter still. At last Curlylocks opened her eyes,\nand the lantern burned as brightly as if its flame were pure gold!\n\nThen Curlylocks jumped to her feet, caught hold of Reygoch\u2019s beard, and\nthey both of them cried for pure joy. Reygoch\u2019s tears were as big as\npears and Curlylocks\u2019 as tiny as millet-seed, but except for size they\nwere both the same sort; and from that moment these two were mightily\nfond of one another.\n\nWhen they had finished their cry, Curlylocks found her pearls, and then\nthey went on. But they touched no more of the things they saw\nunderground, neither the sunken ships with their hoards of treasure,\nwhich had worked their way down from the bottom of the sea, nor the red\ncoral, nor the yellow amber which twined round the underground pillars.\nThey touched nothing, but went straight along by the way that would take\nthem to the golden fields.\n\nWhen they had gone on thus for a long time, Curlylocks asked Reygoch to\nhold her up; and when he did so, Curlylocks took a handful of earth from\nabove her head.\n\nShe took the earth, looked at her hand, and there, among the soil, she\nfound leaves and fibres.\n\n\u201cHere we are, daddy, under the forest beside the golden fields,\u201d said\nCurlylocks. \u201cLet\u2019s hurry up and get out.\u201d\n\nSo Reygoch stretched himself and began to break through the earth with\nhis head.\n\n\n                                   II\n\nAnd indeed they were under the forest, just underneath a wooded glen\nbetween the two villages and the two counties. No one ever came to this\nglen but the herd boys and girls from both villages and both counties.\n\nNow there was bitter strife between the two villages\u2014strife over the\nthreshing-floors, and the pastures, and the mills, and the\ntimber-felling, and most of all over the staff of headmanship, which one\nof the villages had long claimed as belonging to it by rights, and the\nother would not give up. And so these two villages were at enmity with\none another.\n\nBut the herd boys and girls of both villages were just simple young\nfolk, who understood nothing about the rights of their elders, and cared\nless, but met every day on the boundary between the two villages and the\ntwo counties. Their flocks mingled and fed together, while the boys\nplayed games, and over their games would often be late in bringing the\nsheep home of an evening.\n\nFor this the poor boys and girls would be soundly rated and scolded in\nboth villages. But in one of the villages there was a great-grandfather\nand a great-grandmother who could remember all that had ever happened in\neither village, and they said: \u201cLeave the children alone. A better\nharvest will spring from their childish games than ever from your wheat\nin the fields.\u201d\n\nSo the shepherds kept on coming, as before, with their sheep to the\nglen, and in time the parents stopped bothering about what the children\ndid.\n\nAnd so it was on the day when Reygoch broke through the earth at that\nvery spot. The boys and girls happened to be all gathered together under\nthe biggest oak, getting ready to go home. One was tying up his shoes,\nanother fixing a thong to a stick, and the girls were collecting the\nsheep. All of a sudden they heard a dreadful thumping in the earth right\nunderneath their feet! There was a thud, then a second, and at the third\nthud the earth gaped, and up there came, right in the midst of the\nshepherds, a fearsome large head as big as a barrel, with a beard like a\nshock of corn, and the beard still bristling with hoar-frost from\nFrosten city!\n\nThe boys and girls all screamed with fright and fell down in a dead\nfaint\u2014not so much because of the head as big as a barrel, but because of\nthe beard, that looked for all the world like a shock of corn!\n\nSo the shepherds fainted away\u2014all but young Lilio, who was the\nhandsomest and cleverest among the lads of both villages and both\ncounties.\n\nLilio kept his feet, and went close up to see what sort of monster it\nmight be.\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, children,\u201d said Lilio to the shepherds. \u201cThe Lord\nnever created that monstrous giant for evil, else he would have killed\nhalf the world by now.\u201d\n\nSo Lilio walked boldly up to Reygoch, and Reygoch lifted the basket with\nCurlylocks down from his ear and set it on the ground.\n\n\u201cCome\u2014oh come quickly, boys!\u201d cried Lilio. \u201cThere is a little girl with\nhim, little and lovely as a star!\u201d\n\nThe herd boys and girls got up and began to peep from behind each other\nat Curlylocks; and those who had at first been the most frightened were\nnow the foremost in coming up to Curlylocks, because, you see, they were\nalways quickest in everything.\n\nNo sooner had the herd boys and girls seen dear little Curlylocks than\nthey loved her. They helped her out of her basket, led her to where the\nturf was softest, and fell to admiring her lovely robes, which were\nlight as gossamer and blue as the sky, and her hair, which was shining\nand soft as the morning light; but most of all they admired her fairy\nveil, for she would wave it just for a moment, and then rise from the\ngrass and float in the air.\n\nThe herd boys and girls and Curlylocks danced in a ring together, and\nplayed all kinds of games. Curlylocks\u2019 little feet twinkled for pure\njoy, her eyes laughed, and so did her lips, because she had found\ncompanions who liked the same things as she did.\n\nThen Curlylocks brought out her little bag of pearls to give presents\nand pleasure to her new friends. She threw down a pearl, and a little\ntree grew up in their midst, all decked with coloured ribbons, silk\nkerchiefs and red necklaces for the girls. She threw down a second\npearl, and from all parts of the forest came forth haughty peacocks;\nthey stalked and strutted, they flew up and away, shedding their\nglorious feathers all over the turf, so that the grass fairly sparkled\nwith them. And the herd boys stuck the feathers in their caps and\ndoublets. Yet another pearl did Curlylocks throw out, and from a lofty\nbranch there dropped a golden swing with silken ropes; and when the boys\nand girls got on the swing, it swooped and stooped as light as a\nswallow, and as gently as the grand barge of the Duke of Venice.\n\nThe children shouted for joy, and Curlylocks threw out all the pearls in\nher bag one after another, never thinking that she ought to save them;\nbecause Curlylocks liked nothing in the world better than lovely games\nand pretty songs. And so she spent her pearls down to the last little\nseed pearl, though heaven alone knew how badly she would need them soon,\nboth she and her new friends.\n\n\u201cI shall never leave you any more,\u201d cried Curlylocks merrily. And the\nherd boys and girls clapped their hands and threw up their caps for joy\nover her words.\n\nOnly Lilio had not joined in their games, because he was rather sad and\nworried that day. He stayed near Reygoch, and from there he watched\nCurlylocks in all her loveliness, and all the pretty magic she made\nthere in the forest.\n\nMeantime Reygoch had come out of his hole. Out he came and stood up\namong the trees of the forest, and as he stood there his head rose above\nthe hundred-year-old forest, so terribly big was Reygoch.\n\nOver the forest looked Reygoch, and out into the plain.\n\nThe sun had already set, and the sky was all crimson. In the plain you\ncould see the two golden fields spread out like two gold kerchiefs, and\nin the midst of the fields two villages like two white doves. A little\nway beyond the two villages flowed the mighty River Banewater, and all\nalong the river rose great grass-grown dykes; and on the dykes you could\nsee herds and their keepers moving.\n\n\u201cWell, well!\u201d said Reygoch, \u201cand to think that I have spent a thousand\nyears in Frosten city, in that desert, when there is so much beauty in\nthe world!\u201d And Reygoch was so delighted with looking into the plain\nthat he just stood there with his great head as big as a barrel turning\nfrom right to left, like a huge scarecrow nodding above the tree-tops.\n\nPresently Lilio called to him:\n\n\u201cSit down, daddy, for fear the elders of the villages should see you.\u201d\n\nReygoch sat down, and the two started talking, and Lilio told Reygoch\nwhy he was so sad that day.\n\n\u201cA very wicked thing is going to happen to-day,\u201d said Lilio. \u201cI\noverheard the elders of our village talking last night, and this is what\nthey said: \u2018Let us pierce the dyke along the River Banewater. The river\nwill widen the hole, the dyke will fall, and the water will flood the\nenemy village; it will drown men and women, flood the graveyard and the\nfields, till the water will be level above them, and nothing but a lake\nto show where the enemy village has been. But our fields are higher, and\nour village lies on a height, and so no harm will come to us.\u2019 And then\nthey really went out with a great ram to pierce the dyke secretly and at\ndead of night. But, daddy,\u201d continued Lilio, \u201cI know that our fields are\nnot so high, and I know that the water will overflow them too, and\nbefore the night is over there will be a lake where our two villages\nused to be. And that is why I am so sad.\u201d\n\nThey were still talking when a terrible noise and clamour arose from the\nplain.\n\n\u201cThere!\u201d cried Lilio, \u201cthe dreadful thing has happened!\u201d\n\nReygoch drew himself up, picked up Lilio, and the two looked out over\nthe plain. It was a sad sight to see! The dyke was crumbling, and the\nmighty Black Banewater rolling in two arms across the beautiful fields.\nOne arm rolled towards the one village, and the second arm towards the\nother village. Animals were drowning, the golden fields disappeared\nbelow the flood. Above the graves the crosses were afloat, and both\nvillages rang with cries and shouting. For in both villages the elders\nhad gone out to the threshing-floors with cymbals, drums and fifes, and\nthere they were drumming and piping away each to spite the other\nvillage, so crazed were they with malice, while over and above that din\nthe village dogs howled dismally, and the women and children wept and\nwailed.\n\n\u201cDaddy,\u201d cried Lilio, \u201cwhy have I not your hands to stop the water?\u201d\n\nTerrified and bewildered by the dreadful clamour in the plain, the herd\nboys and girls crowded round Reygoch and Lilio.\n\nWhen Curlylocks heard what was the matter she called out quick and\nsprightly, as befits a little fairy:\n\n\u201cCome on, Reygoch\u2014come on and stop the water!\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, yes, let\u2019s go!\u201d cried the herd boys of both villages and both\ncounties, as they wept and sobbed without stopping. \u201cCome on, Reygoch,\nand take us along too!\u201d\n\nReygoch stooped, gathered up Lilio and Curlylocks (who was still\ncarrying her lantern) in his right hand, and all the rest of the herd\nboys and girls in his left, and then Reygoch raced with ten-fathom\nstrides through the forest clearing and down into the plain. Behind him\nran the sheep, bleating with terror. And so they reached the plain.\n\nThrough fog and twilight ran Reygoch with the children in his arms and\nthe terrified flocks at his heels in frantic flight\u2014all running towards\nthe dyke. And out to meet them flowed the Black Banewater, killing and\ndrowning as it flowed. It is terribly strong, is that water. Stronger\nthan Reygoch? Who knows? Will it sweep away Reygoch, too? Will it drown\nthose poor herd boys and girls also, and must the dear little Fairy\nCurlylocks die\u2014and she as lovely as a star?\n\nSo Reygoch ran on across the meadow, which was still dry, and came all\nbreathless to the dyke, where there was a great breach, through which\nthe river was pouring with frightful force.\n\n\u201cStop it up, Reygoch\u2014stop it up!\u201d wailed the boys and girls.\n\nNot far from the dyke there was a little mound in the plain.\n\n\u201cPut us on that mound,\u201d cried Curlylocks briskly.\n\nReygoch set down Lilio and Curlylocks and the herd boys and girls on the\nhillock, and the sheep and lambs crowded round them. Already the hillock\nwas just an island in the middle of the water.\n\nBut Reygoch took one mighty stride into the water and then lay down\nfacing the dyke, stopping up the breach with his enormous chest. For a\nlittle while the water ceased to flow; but it was so terribly strong\nthat nothing on earth could stop it. The water pressed forward; it\neddied round Reygoch\u2019s shoulders; it broke through under him, over him,\nabout him\u2014everywhere\u2014and rolled on again over the plain. Reygoch\nstretched out both arms and piled up the earth in great handfuls; but as\nfast as he piled it up, the water carried it away.\n\nAnd in the plain the water kept on rising higher and higher; fields,\nvillages, cattle, threshing-floors, not one of them could be seen any\nmore. Of both villages, the roofs and church steeples were all that\nshowed above the flood.\n\nEven around the hillock where the herd boys and girls were standing with\nLilio and Curlylocks the flood was rising higher and higher. The poor\nyoung things were weeping and crying, some for their mothers, others for\ntheir brothers and sisters, and some for their homes and gardens;\nbecause they saw that both villages had perished, and not a soul\nsaved\u2014and the water rising about them, too!\n\nSo they crowded up higher and higher upon the hillock; they huddled\ntogether around Lilio and Curlylocks, who were standing side by side in\nthe midst of their friends.\n\nLilio stood still and white as marble; but Curlylocks\u2019 eyes shone, and\nshe held up her lantern towards Reygoch to give him light for his work.\nCurlylocks\u2019 veil rose and fluttered in the night wind and hovered above\nthe water, as though the little fairy were about to fly away and vanish\nfrom among all these terrors.\n\n\u201cCurlylocks! Curlylocks! don\u2019t go! Don\u2019t leave us!\u201d wailed the herd\nboys, to whom it seemed as if there were an angel with them while they\ncould look upon Curlylocks.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m not going\u2014I\u2019m not going away!\u201d cried Curlylocks. But her veil\nfluttered, as if it would carry her away of its own accord, over the\nwater and up into the clouds.\n\nSuddenly they heard a scream. The water had risen and caught one of the\ngirls by the hem of her skirt and was washing her away. Lilio stooped\njust in time, seized the girl, and pulled her back on to the hillock.\n\n\u201cWe must tie ourselves together,\u201d cried the herd boys; \u201cwe must be tied\neach to the other, or we shall perish.\u201d\n\n\u201cHere, children\u2014here!\u201d cried Curlylocks, who had a kind and pitiful\nheart.\n\nQuickly she stripped her magic veil off her shoulders and gave it to the\nherd girls. They tore the veil into strips, knotted the strips into long\nropes, and bound themselves together, each to other, round Lilio and\nCurlylocks. And round the shepherds bleated the poor sheep in terror of\nbeing drowned.\n\nBut Curlylocks was now among these poor castaways, no better off than\nthe rest of them. Her pearls she had wasted on toys, and her magic veil\nshe had given away and torn up out of the goodness of her heart, and now\nshe could no longer fly, nor save herself out of this misery.\n\nBut Lilio loved Curlylocks better than anything else in the world, and\nwhen the water was already up to his feet he called:\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, Curlylocks! I will save you and hold you up!\u201d And he\nheld up Curlylocks in his arms.\n\nWith one hand Curlylocks clung round Lilio\u2019s neck, and with the other\nshe held up her little lantern aloft towards Reygoch.\n\nAnd Reygoch, lying on his chest in the water, was all the time steadily\nfighting the flood. Right and left of Reygoch rose the ruins of the dyke\nlike two great horns. Reygoch\u2019s beard was touzled, his shoulders were\nbleeding. Yet he could not stop the Banewater, and the flood round the\nhillock was rising and rising to drown the poor remnant there. And now\nit was night\u2014yea, midnight.\n\nAll of a sudden a thought flashed through Curlylocks, and through all\nthe sobbing and crying she laughed aloud as she called to Reygoch:\n\n\u201cReygoch, you old simpleton! why don\u2019t you _sit_ between these two horns\nof the dyke? Why don\u2019t you dam the flood with your shoulders?\u201d\n\nThe herd boys and girls stopped wailing at once. So dumbfounded were\nthey at the idea that not one of them had thought of that before!\n\n\u201cUhuhu!\u201d was all you could hear, and that was Reygoch laughing. And when\nReygoch laughs, mind you, it\u2019s no joke! All the water round him boiled\nand bubbled as he shook with laughter over his own stupidity!\n\nThen Reygoch stood up, faced about, and\u2014in a twinkling\u2014he sat down\nbetween those two horns!\n\nAnd then happened the most wonderful thing of all! For the Black\nBanewater stood as though you had rolled a wall into the breach! It\nstood, and could not rise above Reygoch\u2019s shoulders, but followed its\nusual course, as before, the whole current behind Reygoch\u2019s back. And\nsurely that was a most marvellous rescue!\n\nThe boys and girls were saved from the worst of the danger; and Reygoch,\nsitting comfortably, took up earth in handfuls and all slow-and-surely\nrebuilt the dyke under himself and on either hand. He began in the\nmiddle of the night, and when the dawn broke, the job was finished. And\njust as the sun rose, Reygoch got up from the dyke with his work done,\nand started combing his beard, which was all caked with mud, twigs, and\nlittle fishes.\n\nBut the poor boys and girls were not yet done with their troubles; for\nwhere were they to go, and how were they to get there? There they stood\non the top of the hillock. All around them was a waste of water. Nothing\nwas to be seen of the two villages but just a few roofs\u2014and not a soul\nalive in either. To be sure, the villagers might have saved themselves\nif they had taken refuge in their attics. But in both villages everybody\nhad gone to the threshing-floor with cymbals and fifes to make merry, so\nthat each could watch the destruction of the other. And when the water\nwas up to their waists, they were still clanging their cymbals; and when\nit was up to their necks, they still blew their fifes for gratified\nspite. And so they were drowned, one and all, with their fifes and\ncymbals\u2014and serve them right for their malice and uncharitableness!\n\nSo the poor children were left without a soul to cherish or protect\nthem, all houseless and homeless.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re not sparrows, to live on the housetops,\u201d said the boys sadly, as\nthey saw only the roofs sticking out of the water, \u201cand we\u2019re not foxes,\nto live in burrows in the hills. If someone could clear our villages of\nthe water, we might make shift to get along somehow, but as it is, we\nmight as well jump into the water with our flocks and be drowned like\nthe rest, for we have nowhere and no one to turn to.\u201d\n\nThat was a sad plight indeed, and Reygoch himself was dreadfully sorry\nfor them. But here was an evil he could in no wise remedy. He looked out\nover the water and said: \u201cThere\u2019s too much water here for me to bale out\nor to drink up so as to clear your villages. Eh, children, what shall I\ndo for you?\u201d\n\nBut then up and spoke Lilio, that was the wisest lad in these parts:\n\n\u201cReygoch, daddy, if _you_ cannot drink so much water, _the Earth can_.\nBreak a hole in the ground, daddy, and drain off the water into the\nearth.\u201d\n\nDearie me! and wasn\u2019t that great wisdom in a lad no bigger than\nReygoch\u2019s finger?\n\nForthwith Reygoch stamped on the ground and broke a hole; and the Earth,\nlike a thirsty dragon, began to drink and to drink, and swallow, and\nsuck down into herself all that mighty water from off the whole plain.\nBefore long the Earth had gulped down all the water; villages, fields,\nand meadows reappeared, ravaged and mud-covered, to be sure, but with\neverything in its right place.\n\nThe young castaways cheered up at the sight, but none was so glad as\nCurlylocks. She clapped her hands and cried:\n\n\u201cOh, won\u2019t it be lovely when the fields all grow golden again and the\nmeadows green!\u201d\n\nBut hereupon the herd boys and girls were all downcast once more, and\nLilio said:\n\n\u201cWho will show us how to till the ground now that not one of our parents\nis left alive?\u201d\n\nAnd indeed, far and wide, there was not a soul alive older than that\ncompany of helpless young things in the midst of the ravaged plain, and\nnone with them but Reygoch, who was so big and clumsy and simple that he\ncould not turn his head inside one of their houses, nor did he know\nanything about ploughing or husbandry.\n\nSo they were all in the dumps once more, and most of all Reygoch, who\nwas so fond of pretty Curlylocks, and now he could do nothing for her\nnor her friends!\n\nAnd, worst of all, Reygoch was getting horribly homesick for his\ndesolate city of Frosten. This night he had swallowed mud enough to last\nhim a thousand years, and seen more than enough of trouble. And so he\nwas just dying to be back in his vast, empty city, where he had counted\nthe stones in peace for so many hundred years.\n\nSo the herd boys were very crestfallen, and Lilio was crestfallen, and\nReygoch the most crestfallen of all. And really it was sad to look upon\nall these poor boys and girls, doomed to perish without their parents\nand wither like a flower cut off from its root.\n\nOnly Curlylocks looked gaily about her, right and left, for nothing\ncould damp her good spirits.\n\nSuddenly Curlylocks cried out:\n\n\u201cLook\u2014oh look! What are those people? Oh dear, but they must have seen\nsights and wonders!\u201d\n\nAll looked towards the village, and there, at one of the windows,\nappeared the heads of an aged couple\u2014an old man and an old woman. They\nwaved their kerchiefs, they called the young people by name, and laughed\ntill their wrinkled faces all shone with joy. They were\ngreat-grandfather and great-grandmother, who had been the only sensible\npeople in the two villages, and had saved themselves by taking refuge in\nthe attic!\n\nOh dear! If the children had seen the sun at his rising and the morning\nstar at that attic window, they would not have shouted so for joy. The\nvery heavens rang again as they called out:\n\n\u201cGranny! Grandad!\u201d\n\nThey raced to the village like young whippets, Curlylocks in front, with\nher golden hair streaming in the wind, and after them the ewes and\nlambs. They never stopped till they reached the village, and there\ngrandfather and grandmother were waiting for them at the gate. They\nwelcomed them, hugged them, and none of them could find words to thank\nGod enough for His mercy in giving grandad and grandma so much wisdom as\nto make them take refuge in the attic! And that was really a very good\nthing, because these were only quite simple villages, where there were\nno books nor written records; and who would have reminded the herd boys\nand girls of the consequences of wickedness if grandad and grandma had\nnot been spared?\n\nWhen they had done hugging each other, they remembered Reygoch. They\nlooked round the plain, but there was no Reygoch. He was gone\u2014gone all\nof a sudden, the dear huge thing\u2014gone like a mouse down its hole.\n\nAnd Reygoch had indeed gone like a mouse down its hole. For when grandpa\nand grandma appeared at the attic window, Reygoch got a fright such as\nhe had never yet had in his life. He was terrified at the sight of their\nfurrowed, wrinkled, withered old faces.\n\n\u201cOh dear! oh dear! what a lot of trouble these old people must have been\nthrough in these parts to have come to look like that!\u201d thought Reygoch;\nand in his terror he that very instant jumped down into the hole through\nwhich the Black Banewater had sunk down, and so ran away back to his\ndesolate Frosten city.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nAll went well in the village. Grandad and Grandma taught the young folk,\nand the young folk ploughed and sowed. Upon the grandparents\u2019 advice\nthey built just one village, one threshing-floor, one church, and one\ngraveyard, so that there should be no more jealousy nor trouble.\n\nAll went well; but the best of all was that in the heart of the village\nstood a beautiful tower of mountain marble, and on the top of it they\nhad made a garden, where blossomed oranges and wild olive. There lived\nCurlylocks, the lovely fairy, and looked down upon the land that had\nbeen so dear to her from the moment when she first came to earth.\n\nAnd of an evening, when the field work was done, Lilio would lead the\nherd boys and girls to the tower, and they would sing songs and dance in\na ring in the garden with Curlylocks, always lovely, gentle, and joyous.\n\nBut under the earth Reygoch once more fell in with the Black Banewater\nas it roared and burbled underneath, while he wrestled with it till he\nforced it deeper and deeper into the earth, and right down to the bottom\nof the Pit, so that it might never again serve the spite and envy of\nman. And then Reygoch went on to Frosten city. There he is sitting to\nthis very day, counting the stones and praying the Lord never again to\ntempt him away from that vast and desolate spot, which is the very place\nfor one so big and so simple.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                             Bridesman Sun\n                                  and\n                            Bride Bridekins\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                             Bridesman Sun\n                                  and\n                            Bride Bridekins\n\n\nONCE upon a time there was a miller and his wife, and both were miserly\nand hard of heart. When the Emperor\u2019s servants brought corn to be\nground, the miller would grind the corn free of all charge and send the\nEmperor a gift into the bargain, only to gain favour with the mighty\nEmperor and his daughter, the proud princess. But when poor folk came to\nhave their corn ground, the miller would take one measure in payment for\nevery two that he ground, and without that he would not grind at all.\n\nOne day, just about Yuletide and in the time of bitter frost, an old\nwife came to the mill\u2014an old wife all patches and tatters. The mill\nstood in a little grove by the stream, and no one could say whence that\nold wife had come.\n\nBut this wasn\u2019t just an old wife like other old wives; it was Mother\nMuggish. Now Muggish could turn herself into any mortal thing, a bird or\na snake, or an old woman or a young girl. And besides that she could do\nanything, both good and bad. But woe to him who got into her bad books,\nfor she was very spiteful. Muggish lived in the morass on the fringe of\nthe bog where the autumn sun dwelt. And with her the sun put up over the\nlong winter night; for Muggish knew potent herbs and powerful spells;\nshe would nurse and cherish the feeble old sun till he grew young again\nat Yuletide and started on his way once more.\n\n\u201cGood day to you,\u201d Mother Muggish called out to the miller and his wife.\n\u201cJust grind this bag of corn for me.\u201d\n\nThe old wife stood the bag on the floor, and the miller agreed:\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll grind it for you; half the bag for you for your cake, and half for\nme for my trouble.\u201d\n\n\u201cNot so, my son! I shall not have enough for my Yuletide cake, because I\nhave six sons, and for seventh my grandson, the Sun, who was born\nto-day.\u201d\n\n\u201cGo away and don\u2019t talk rubbish, you old fool!\u201d burst out the miller. \u201cA\nlikely one you are to be the Sun\u2019s grandmother!\u201d\n\nSo they argued this way and that; but the miller wouldn\u2019t consent to\ngrind for less than one-half the bag, and so the old wife picked up her\nbag again and went away by the way she came.\n\nBut the miller had a daughter, a beautiful girl, called Bride Bridekins.\nWhen she was born, the fairies bathed her in the water that falls from\nthe wheel, so that all evils should turn from her, even as water runs\naway from a mill. And, moreover, the fairies foretold that at her\nwedding the Sun should be bridesman. Just fancy! she was the Sun\u2019s\nlittle bride! So they called her Bride Bridekins, and she was most\nbeautiful and smiling as a summer\u2019s day.\n\nBride Bridekins was sorry when the miller sent away the old wife so\nunkindly. She went out and waited in the wood for the old wife, and\nsaid:\n\n\u201cCome again to-morrow, Mother, when I shall be alone. I will grind your\ncorn for you for nothing.\u201d\n\nNext day the miller and his wife went into the wood to cut the Yule log,\nand Bride Bridekins was left alone.\n\nBefore long the old wife came up with her bag.\n\n\u201cGood fortune be yours, young maiden,\u201d said the wife.\n\n\u201cAnd yours, too,\u201d returned Bride Bridekins. \u201cWait a moment, Mother, till\nwe open the mill.\u201d\n\nThe mill was worked by a little wheel which caught the water with four\npaddles set cross-wise, which turned like a spindle. Now the miller had\nshut off the water, and Bride Bridekins had to wade up to her knees in\nthe icy stream to open the sluice.\n\nThe mill clattered, round went the mill-stones, and Bride Bridekins\nground the old wife\u2019s corn. She filled up the bag with flour and took\nnothing for her pains.\n\n\u201cEh, thank you kindly, maiden,\u201d said Mother Muggish, \u201cand I\u2019ll help you\nwhithersoever your feet may carry you, since your feet you did not save\nfrom the ice-cold wave, nor grudge your hands to soil with unrequited\ntoil. And, moreover, I\u2019ll tell my grandson, the Sun, to whom he owes his\nYuletide cake.\u201d And the old wife took up her bag and went.\n\nFrom that day nothing would prosper in the mill without Bride Bridekins.\nUnless her hand was on the mill, the paddles would not take the water;\nunless she looked in the bin, there would be no flour in it. No matter\nhow much might fall into it from the grain-box, it was all lost on the\nfloor; the bin remained empty unless Bride Bridekins fed the mill. And\nso it was with everything in and about the mill.\n\nThis went on for many a day, on and on and never any change, till the\nmiller and his wife began to be jealous of their daughter and to hate\nher. The harder the girl worked and the more she earned, the blacker\nthey looked at her, because it came to her as easy as a song, and to\nthem not even with toiling and moiling.\n\nIt was upon a morning about Beltane time, when the Sun, strong and\nflaming, travels across one-half of heaven like a ball of pure gold. The\nSun no longer slept in the morass, nor did Muggish foster him now; but\nthe Sun was lord of the world, and sky and earth obeyed him. Bride\nBridekins sat at Beltane time beside the mill and thought to herself:\n\n\u201cIf I could only get away, since I cannot please these cross-patches\nanyhow!\u201d\n\nAnd just as she thought this, there appeared before her the old wife,\nwho was really Muggish.\n\n\u201cI will help you, but you must obey me in all things, and take care not\nto offend me,\u201d said the old wife. \u201cThis very morning the proud princess\nwalked in the meadow and lost the keys of her chest and her wardrobe,\nand now she cannot get at her crown nor her robes either. So the\nprincess has caused it to be proclaimed that whoever finds the keys, if\nit be a youth the princess will become his true love and bride-to-be,\nand if it be a maiden, the princess will take her for her first\nlady-in-waiting. So you come away with me, and I will show you where the\nkeys are lying among the love-lies-bleeding that grows in the meadow.\nYou will bring the princess her keys and become her first\nlady-in-waiting. You will be dressed in silk and sit by the princess\u2019s\nknee.\u201d\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThen Muggish at once turned herself into a quail, and Bride Bridekins\nfollowed her.\n\nSo they came to the meadow in front of the Emperor\u2019s castle. Gallant\nknights and noble dames walked about the meadow, and around the meadow\nstood their esquires holding mettlesome steeds. One steed only was not\nheld by a squire, but by a barefoot boy. This horse belonged to Oleg the\nWarden, and it was the most fiery steed of all. And Oleg the Warden\nhimself was the most excellent knight under the sun. You might know Oleg\nthe Warden amid ever so many earls and nobles, because his attire was\nplain and without ornament, but his white plume, the prize of valour,\ndistinguished him above all the rest.\n\nSo the knights and dames walked about the meadow, all trampling the\ngrass with their shoes in their anxiety to find the keys. Only Oleg the\nWarden kept but a poor look-out for the keys, taking the matter as a\nmere jest and idle pastime. But from her window the Emperor\u2019s daughter\nlooked out and watched to see whom fortune would favour. Very careful\nwatch did she keep, the proud princess, and repeated spells for luck so\nthat Oleg the Warden should find the keys.\n\nWhen Bride Bridekins came with the quail running before her, not a soul\nin the meadow noticed her but only Oleg the Warden.\n\n\u201cNever yet have I seen so sweet a maiden,\u201d thought Oleg the Warden, and\nstrode towards her.\n\nBut just then the Emperor\u2019s daughter also noticed Bride Bridekins from\nher window, and so proud and heartless was she that she never stopped to\nlook how sweet the maiden was, but grew very angry, and said: \u201cA fine\nplight should I be in were that common wench there to find the keys and\nbecome my lady-in-waiting!\u201d Thus thinking, she at once sent out her\nservants to drive away the girl.\n\nBride Bridekins went over the meadow where-ever the quail led her. They\ncame to the middle of the meadow, where the love-lies-bleeding grew\ntall. The quail parted two leaves at the foot of a tuft of\nlove-lies-bleeding, and under them lay the keys.\n\nBride Bridekins bent down and picked up the keys; but when she looked up\nto the Emperor\u2019s castle and saw the proud princess, Bride Bridekins\nbecame frightened, and thought: \u201cHow should I become the princess\u2019s\nlady-in-waiting?\u201d\n\nAs she thought this she looked up, and lo, beside her stood a glorious\nknight, as he might have been sworn brother to the Sun. And that was\nOleg the Warden.\n\nQuickly Bride Bridekins made up her mind to disobey Muggish\u2019s commands,\nand she held out the keys to Oleg the Warden.\n\n\u201cTake the keys, unknown knight, and let the Emperor\u2019s daughter be your\ntrue love and bride-to-be,\u201d said Bride Bridekins, and could not take her\neyes off the glorious knight.\n\nBut at that moment came the servants with whips, and roughly rated Bride\nBridekins so as to drive her away from the meadow, according to the\nprincess\u2019s commands. When Oleg the Warden saw this, he was soon\nresolved, and thus did he answer Bride Bridekins:\n\n\u201cThank you for the keys, sweet maiden; but I have made up my mind\notherwise. _You_ shall be my true love and bride-to-be, because you are\nfairer than the morning star. Here is my good horse; he will carry us to\nmy Barren Marches.\u201d\n\nGladly did Bride Bridekins go with Oleg the Warden, and he lifted her\nbeside him on to his horse. As the good steed carried them swiftly past\nthe Emperor\u2019s daughter sitting at her window. Oleg the Warden threw her\nthe keys so skilfully that they caught right on the window latch!\n\n\u201cThere are your keys, august Princess!\u201d cried Oleg the Warden. \u201cWear\nyour crown and your robes in all happiness, for I have taken the maiden\nfor myself.\u201d\n\nAll that night Oleg the Warden rode on with Bride Bridekins, and at dawn\nthey arrived in the Barren Marches, at the oaken stronghold of Oleg the\nWarden. Round the stockade there were three moats, and in the midst of\nthe stockade stood a smoke-blacked house.\n\n\u201cBehold the Castle of Oleg the Warden!\u201d said the knight to Bride\nBridekins, and he laughed himself because his castle was not more\nsplendid. But Bride Bridekins laughed still more heartily because she\nwas to be the lady of such a glorious knight.\n\nSo they settled at once upon the wedding guests, so as to celebrate the\nmarriage. They invited twenty gallants and twenty orphan maids, because\nthat was all the people there were in the Barren Marches. And so that\nthey might be more and merrier, they also asked the Wild Wolf and his\nMate from the hills, and the Tawny Eagle, and the Grey Goshawk; and\nBride Bridekins asked two bridesmaids\u2014the Turtle Dove and the Slender\nSwallow.\n\nAnd Bride Bridekins even boasted to Oleg the Warden:\n\n\u201cIf the Sun were to recognise me, he too would come to the wedding. The\nSun would have been bridesman at the wedding, for so did the fairies\nforetell.\u201d\n\nAnd so the wedding guests assembled in the soot-blacked castle, to make\nmerry\u2014and never knew of the ill fate in store for them.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nNow it had stung the proud princess to the heart when Oleg the Warden\nhad flung her the keys, and before so many nobles, before earls and\nknights, refused the august princess and preferred a nameless maiden.\n\nSo the princess persuaded the Emperor, her father, and begged and\nentreated him till he lent her his mighty army. Well mounted, the army\nadvanced upon the Barren Marches of Oleg the Warden with the wrathful\nprincess at its head.\n\nThe guests were just at table when the army came in sight. It was so\ngreat that it covered all the Barren Marches till you could not see so\nmuch as a patch of earth for it. And in front of the army a herald cried\naloud for all the world to hear:\n\n                      Behold a gallant army\n                        Has taken the field;\n                      The Warden is a rebel,\n                        We bid him to yield.\n                      Alive shall he be taken\n                        That freedom loved best;\n                      But the heart shall be riven\n                        From his lady\u2019s breast.\n\nWhen Oleg the Warden heard this, he asked Bride Bridekins:\n\n\u201cAre you afraid, lovely maiden?\u201d\n\n\u201cI am not afraid,\u201d she smilingly made answer. \u201cI put my trust in the\nGrey Wolf and his Mate, in your twenty gallants and twenty orphans, and\nmost of all in the knight Oleg the Warden. And besides that I have two\nbrave bridesmaids\u2014the Turtle Dove and the Slender Swallow.\u201d\n\nOleg the Warden smiled, and already the wedding guests had lightly\nsprung to their feet. They seized their warriors\u2019 weapons, both gallants\nand orphans, and stood by the windows of the soot-blacked castle\nstringing their good bows with silken cords as they waited for the\nprincess and her army. But that army was so mighty that neither Oleg the\nWarden, nor his wedding guests, nor the soot-blacked house were able to\nwithstand it.\n\nThe first to fall were the Grey Wolf and his Mate; for they jumped the\nstockade and the moats and rushed straight at the Emperor\u2019s army to tear\nout the proud princess\u2019s eyes in the midst of her army. But a hundred\nmaces rose in the air; the soldiers defended the proud princess, the\nEagle and the Grey Goshawk had their pinions broken, and then the heavy\nhorses trampled them into the black earth.\n\nThe great host came nearer and nearer to the soot-blacked house. When it\nwas fairly on the threshold the wedding guests loosed their silken\nbowstrings and greeted the soldiers with a shower of arrows.\n\nBut the wrathful archers of the wrathful princess did not stop!\n\nArrows flew hither and thither. There were archers past counting in the\narmy, so that their arrows flew in at the windows of the soot-blacked\nhouse like a plague from heaven. Each gallant had his two or three\nwounds to show, and each orphan some ten.\n\nBut the most grievous wound of all was upon Oleg the Warden. His good\nright hand hung powerless, so greatly was he overcome by his wound.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nQuickly Bride Bridekins stepped up to Oleg the Warden to wash his wound\nin the courtyard of the soot-blacked house. While she was washing his\nwound, Oleg the Warden said to her: \u201cIt\u2019s a poor fortune we have\ngarnered, my Bride Bridekins. There are none left for you to put your\ntrust in, and here is the host at the gates of the soot-blacked house.\nThey will break down the oak stockade, batter down the ancient gates. We\nare lost; this is the end of us\u2014wolves and eagles, and gallants and\norphans, and Oleg the Warden and his Bride Bridekins!\u201d\n\nBut Bride Bridekins considered sadly, and then she said:\n\n\u201cDo not fear, brave Warden. I will send the Turtle Dove to fetch Muggish\nfrom her morass. There is nothing Muggish does not know and nothing she\ncannot do, and she will help us.\u201d\n\nSo Bride Bridekins sent out the swift Turtle Dove. Away flew the grey\ndove swifter than an arrow from the string, nor did the soldiers\u2019 darts\novertake her. Off she flew and brought back Muggish from the bog. But\nMuggish had turned herself into a raven and perched upon the gable of\nthe soot-blacked House.\n\nAlready the soldiers were battering at the entrance. Heavy clubs\nhammered on the doors and portals, banging and clanging till all the\ncourts and passages of the soot-blacked house rang again, as though a\nhost from the nethermost Pit were beating on the gates of Oleg the\nWarden.\n\n\u201cFair greeting, dear Muggish!\u201d the lovely Bride appealed to the black\nraven\u2014\u201cfair greeting! Help us against the Princess\u2019s malice, or else we\nmust all die untimely!\u201d\n\nBut Muggish had only bided her time spitefully for an opportunity to\ngive vent to her grievance. Flapping her black wings, the raven said:\n\n\u201cSave yourself, my little dove! If you had listened to me, you would\nhave given the Princess her keys. You would have basked in royal grace,\nbeside the Princess had your place, in sumptuous silk fair to behold,\nsipping wine from a cup of gold. But now you have gotten your heart\u2019s\ndesire. Here you are in the soot-blacked house with none but\nsore-wounded beggars within and a countless host outside. Seek help from\nthose whose counsel brought you to this!\u201d\n\nWhen Oleg the Warden heard this, he sprang to his feet, all wounded as\nhe was, and wrathfully cried out:\n\n\u201cLeave this unprofitable business, Bride Bridekins! When had a hero help\nfrom a raven? And you,\u201d he called to Muggish, \u201cget off my roof, you\nblack bird of ill-omen, lest I waste a good swift arrow and shoot the\nbird upon my gable!\u201d With that Oleg the Warden embraced Bride Bridekins\nand said:\n\n\u201cWhen I perish in the midst of the Emperor\u2019s host, go, my lovely little\nBride! submit yourself to the Princess, and you shall be lady-in-waiting\nto the proud Princess, who should have been true love and lady of Oleg\nthe Warden.\u201d For a moment Oleg the Warden flinched; but then he tore\nhimself away from his bride, and rushed through the courtyard and\npassage to raise the oaken bars, to throw open the gates to the\ncountless host, to perish or cut his way through their numbers.\n\nBride Bridekins was left alone in the castle, and above her on the roof\nperched the black raven. She could hear the heavy oaken bars falling;\nnow the ancient gates must yield; another moment and the cruel soldiers\nwill burst in, take Oleg prisoner, and rive the heart out of the breast\nof her, sweet child! Bride Bridekins\u2019 thoughts chased through her brain:\nWhat is to be done, and how?\n\nThe lovely bride looked all around to see if there were any found to\npity her in her distress. She bent her beauteous eyes to earth, and\nraised them heavenward. As she raised them heavenward the Sun travelled\nacross the zenith in a blaze of pure gold. And as she looked at the Sun,\nthe Sun marvelled at so much loveliness, and at once looked back at her.\nThe Sun and Bride Bridekins looked at one another, and as they looked,\nthey recognised one another, and at once the Sun remembered. \u201cWhy, that\nis the little bride whose Bridesman the Sun was to be! In a lucky hour\nshe gave me my Yuletide bread, and in a yet luckier moment she sought me\noverhead.\u201d\n\nJust one moment before the Sun had heard Muggish mocking Bride Bridekins\nand spitefully refusing to help her. So now the Sun thundered forth his\nanger. All the land fell silent with fear; axes and clubs were dropped\nin terror as the Sun thundered at Muggish:\n\n\u201cEh, foster-mother, heart of stone! were the world\u2019s justice to be\ncarved by spite, what crooked justice would pervert the right! If thou\nfrom slime hast reared me, yet content art thou to keep the slime thine\nelement! With me thou hast not strode across the sky, nor from the\nheavens downward bent thine eye to learn how justice should be born of\nlight. Fie, foster-mother, heart of stone! What! should the Sun at\nBeltane in his might forget who sent him gifts on Yule night, when he\nwas a feeble babe? Or shall Bridesman Sun take it ill of the bride that\nshe left the Emperor\u2019s palace and the Princess\u2019s court because she\npreferred a hero in her heart? Down with you into the earth,\nblack-hearted nurse! so that you underground, and I from the skies, may\nhelp yon worthy knight and his lovely lady.\u201d\n\nSky and earth obey the Sun, and how should the black raven\u2014and that was\nMuggish\u2014withstand his commands? Upon the instant Muggish sank into the\nearth to do the Sun\u2019s bidding.\n\nAnd strong as the Sun had been before, he now made himself yet stronger.\nThe Sun smote from above; he scorched the Barren Marches; he seared\nheaven and earth; he would have melted the Mountain of Brass!\n\nUpon the cruel soldiers\u2019 heads their helmets dissolved; their heavy\narmour melted; spears and axes grew red-hot. Heat overcame the wrathful\nprincess; heat overcame the multitude of archers as their brains grilled\ninside their helmets, and their breasts laboured with the heat under\ntheir armour. Who had not the shelter of a roof could not live. All the\nhost was struck down by the heat. They fell one atop of the other. A man\nwould call upon his sworn brother, and then the voice would cease as the\nspeaker perished.\n\nWhile the Sun was thus smiting the cruel soldiers, Muggish helped the\nSun from underground. She opened deep bogholes under their feet.\nWhenever the Sun struck down a man, there a boghole would gape beneath\nhim. He slipped into the bog, and the bog closed above him; where a man\nstood, there his grave yawned for him.\n\nSo the soldiers vanished one by one, and the archers one by one, and the\nweapons of war, and the clubs and the axes. It was terrible to behold\nsuch a vast army stricken by the judgment of the Sun from the skies. The\nSun was executioner and the earth gravedigger. Yet a little while, an\nhour or two, and the great host had vanished\u2014not a soul was left alive\nin the Barren Marches. Only those who were under the roof of the\nsoot-blacked house, they were left alive.\n\nOnce more all was still in the Barren Marches; and now the lovely lady.\nBride Bridekins, peeped joyously from her window to watch her bridesman\ngrow mild, now that he had done with slaying spite upon the earth.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nSoon the wounds healed upon the gallants, for they had good luck to help\nthem; and the orphans recovered still more quickly, because hardship is\na good school. As for Oleg Ban, he could not pine with such a true love\nas Bride Bridekins beside him. Early in the morning the Slender Swallow\nflew out with a greeting for the Sun. At nightfall the Swallow returned\nwith greetings from the Sun, bidding them prepare the wedding feast for\nthe morrow, for he would come to give away the bride.\n\nSo they made ready, and it all fell out as they had planned. And such a\nwedding as they had, and such songs as were sung that day in the Barren\nMarches you\u2019ll not find again in a hundred years, nor throughout nine\nempires.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n[Illustration]\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                            Stribor\u2019s Forest\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                            Stribor\u2019s Forest\n\n\n                                   I\n\n\nONE day a young man went into Stribor\u2019s Forest and did not know that the\nForest was enchanted and that all manner of magic abode there. Some of\nits magic was good and some was bad\u2014to each one according to his\ndeserts.\n\nNow this Forest was to remain enchanted until it should be entered by\nsomeone who preferred his sorrows to all the joys of this world.\n\nThe young man set to and cut wood, and presently sat down on a stump to\nrest, for it was a fine winter\u2019s day. And out of the stump slipped a\nsnake, and began to fawn upon him. Now this wasn\u2019t a real snake, but a\nhuman being transformed into a snake for its sins, and it could only be\nset free by one who was willing to wed it. The snake sparkled like\nsilver in the sun as it looked up into the young man\u2019s eyes.\n\n\u201cDear me, what a pretty snake! I should rather like to take it home,\u201d\nsaid the young man in fun.\n\n\u201cHere\u2019s the silly fool who is going to help me out of my trouble,\u201d\nthought the sinful soul within the snake. So she made haste and turned\nherself at once out of a snake into a most beautiful woman standing\nthere before the young man. Her sleeves were white and embroidered like\nbutterflies\u2019 wings, and her feet were tiny like a countess\u2019s. But\nbecause her thoughts had been evil, the tongue in her mouth remained a\nserpent\u2019s tongue.\n\n\u201cHere I am! Take me home and marry me!\u201d said the snake-woman to the\nyouth.\n\nNow if this youth had only had presence of mind and remembered quickly\nto brandish his hatchet at her and call out: \u201cI certainly never thought\nof wedding a piece of forest magic,\u201d why, then the woman would at once\nhave turned again into a snake, wriggled back into the stump, and no\nharm done to anybody.\n\nBut he was one of your good-natured, timid and shy youths; moreover, he\nwas ashamed to say \u201cNo\u201d to her, when she had transformed herself all on\nhis account. Besides, he liked her because she was pretty, and he\ncouldn\u2019t know in his innocence what had remained inside her mouth.\n\nSo he took the Woman by the hand and led her home. Now that youth lived\nwith his old Mother, and he cherished his Mother as though she were the\nimage of a saint.\n\n\u201cThis is your daughter-in-law,\u201d said the youth, as he entered the house\nwith the Woman.\n\n\u201cThe Lord be thanked, my son,\u201d replied his Mother, and looked at the\npretty girl. But the Mother was old and wise, and knew at once what was\ninside her daughter-in-law\u2019s mouth.\n\nThe daughter-in-law went out to change her dress, and the Mother said to\nher son:\n\n\u201cYou have chosen a very pretty bride, my boy; only beware, lest she be a\nsnake.\u201d\n\nThe youth was dumbfounded with astonishment. How could his Mother know\nthat the other had been a snake? And his heart grew angry within him as\nhe thought: \u201cSurely my Mother is a witch.\u201d And from that moment he hated\nhis Mother.\n\nSo the three began to live together, but badly and discordantly. The\ndaughter-in-law was ill-tempered, spiteful, greedy and proud.\n\nNow there was a mountain peak there as high as the clouds, and one day\nthe daughter-in-law bade the old Mother go up and fetch her snow from\nthe summit for her to wash in.\n\n\u201cThere is no path up there,\u201d said the Mother.\n\n\u201cTake the goat and let her guide you. Where she can go up, there you can\ntumble down,\u201d said the daughter-in-law.\n\nThe son was there at the time, but he only laughed at the words, simply\nto please his wife.\n\nThis so grieved the Mother that she set out at once for the peak to\nfetch the snow, because she was tired of life. As she went her way she\nthought to ask God to help her; but she changed her mind and said: \u201cFor\nthen God would know that my son is undutiful.\u201d\n\nBut God gave her help all the same, so that she safely brought the snow\nback to her daughter-in-law from the cloud-capped peak.\n\nNext day the daughter-in-law gave her a fresh order:\n\n\u201cGo out on to the frozen lake. In the middle of the lake there is a\nhole. Catch me a carp there for dinner.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe ice will give way under me, and I shall perish in the lake,\u201d\nreplied the old Mother.\n\n\u201cThe carp will be pleased if you go down with him,\u201d said the\ndaughter-in-law.\n\nAnd again the son laughed, and the Mother was so grieved that she went\nout at once to the lake. The ice cracked under the old woman, and she\nwept so that the tears froze on her face. But yet she would not pray to\nGod for help; she would keep it from God that her son was sinful.\n\n\u201cIt is better that I should perish,\u201d thought the Mother as she walked\nover the ice.\n\nBut her time had not yet come. And therefore a gull flew over her head,\nbearing a fish in its beak. The fish wriggled out of the gull\u2019s beak and\nfell right at the feet of the old woman. The Mother picked up the fish\nand brought it safely to her daughter-in-law.\n\nOn the third day the Mother sat by the fire, and took up her son\u2019s shirt\nto mend it. When her daughter-in-law saw that, she flew at her, snatched\nthe shirt out of her hands, and screamed:\n\n\u201cStop that, you blind old fool! That is none of your business.\u201d\n\nAnd she would not let the Mother mend her son\u2019s shirt.\n\nThen the old woman\u2019s heart was altogether saddened, so that she went\noutside, sat in that bitter cold on the bench before the house, and\ncried to God:\n\n\u201cOh God, help me!\u201d\n\nAt that moment she saw a poor girl coming towards her. The girl\u2019s bodice\nwas all torn and her shoulder blue with the cold, because the sleeve had\ngiven way. But still the girl smiled, for she was bright and\nsweet-tempered. Under her arm she carried a bundle of kindling-wood.\n\n\u201cWill you buy wood for kindling, Mother?\u201d asked the girl.\n\n\u201cI have no money, my dear; but if you like I will mend your sleeve,\u201d\nsadly returned the old Mother, who was still holding the needle and\nthread with which she had wanted to mend her son\u2019s shirt.\n\nSo the old Mother mended the girl\u2019s sleeve, and the girl gave her a\nbundle of kindling-wood, thanked her kindly, and went on happy because\nher shoulder was no longer cold.\n\n\n                                   II\n\nThat evening the daughter-in-law said to the Mother:\n\n\u201cWe are going out to supper with godmother. Mind you have hot water for\nme when I come back.\u201d\n\nThe daughter-in-law was greedy and always on the look-out to get invited\nfor a meal.\n\nSo the others went out, and the old woman was left alone. She took out\nthe kindling-wood which the poor girl had given her, lit the fire on the\nhearth, and went into the shed for wood.\n\nAs she was in the shed fetching the wood, she suddenly heard something\nin the kitchen a-bustling and a-rustling\u2014\u201chist, hist!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhoever is that?\u201d called the old Mother from the shed.\n\n\u201cBrownies! Brownies!\u201d came the answer from the kitchen in voices so\ntiny, for all the world like sparrows chirping under the roof.\n\nThe old woman wondered what on earth was going on there in the dark, and\nwent into the kitchen. And when she got there the kindling-chips just\nflared up on the hearth, and round the flame there were Brownies dancing\nin a ring\u2014all tiny little men no bigger than half an ell. They wore\nlittle fur coats; their caps and shoes were red as flames; their beards\nwere grey as ashes, and their eyes sparkled like live coal.\n\nMore and more of them danced out of the flames, one for each chip. And\nas they appeared they laughed and chirped, turned somersaults on the\nhearth, twittered with glee, and then took hands and danced in a ring.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nAnd how they danced! Round the hearth, in the ashes, under the cupboard,\non the table, in the jug, on the chair! Round and round! Faster and\nfaster! They chirped and they chattered, chased and romped all over the\nplace. They scattered the salt; they spilt the barm; they upset the\nflour\u2014all for sheer fun. The fire on the hearth blazed and shone,\ncrackled and glowed; and the old woman gazed and gazed. She never\nregretted the salt nor the barm, but was glad of the jolly little folk\nwhom God had sent to comfort her.\n\nIt seemed to the old woman as though she were growing young again. She\nlaughed like a dove; she tripped like a girl; she took hands with the\nBrownies and danced. But all the time there was the load on her heart,\nand that was so heavy that the dance stopped at once.\n\n\u201cLittle brothers,\u201d said the Mother to the Brownies, \u201ccan you not help me\nto get a sight of my daughter-in-law\u2019s tongue, so that when I can show\nmy son what I have seen with my own eyes he will perhaps come to his\nsenses?\u201d\n\nAnd the old woman told the Brownies all that had happened. The Brownies\nsat round the edge of the hearth, their little feet thrust under the\ngrate, each wee mannikin beside his neighbour, and listened to the old\nwoman, all wagging their heads in wonder. And as they wagged their\nheads, their red caps caught the glow of the fire, and you\u2019d have\nthought there was nothing there but the fire burning on the hearth.\n\nWhen the old woman had finished her story, one of the Brownies called\nout, and his name was Wee Tintilinkie:\n\n\u201cI will help you! I will go to the sunshiny land and bring you magpies\u2019\neggs. We will put them under the sitting hen, and when the magpies are\nhatched your daughter-in-law will betray herself. She will crave for\nlittle magpies like any ordinary forest snake, and so put out her\ntongue.\u201d\n\nAll the Brownies twittered with joy because Wee Tintilinkie had thought\nof something so clever. They were still at the height of their glee when\nin came the daughter-in-law from supper with a cake for herself.\n\nShe flew to the door in a rage to see who was chattering in the kitchen.\nBut just as she opened the door, the door went bang! the flame leapt, up\njumped the Brownies, gave one stamp all round the hearth with their tiny\nfeet, rose up above the flames, flew up to the roof,\u2014the boards in the\nroof creaked a bit, and the Brownies were gone!\n\nOnly Wee Tintilinkie did not run away, but hid among the ashes.\n\nWhen the flame leapt so unexpectedly and the door banged to, the\ndaughter-in-law got a start, so that for sheer fright she plumped on the\nfloor like a sack. The cake broke in her hand; her hair came down, combs\nand all; her eyes goggled, and she called out angrily:\n\n\u201cWhat was that, you old wretch?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe wind blew up the flame when the door opened,\u201d said the Mother, and\nkept her wits about her.\n\n\u201cAnd what is that among the ashes?\u201d said the daughter-in-law again. For\nfrom the ashes peeped the red heel of Wee Tintilinkie\u2019s shoe.\n\n\u201cThat is a live ember,\u201d said the Mother.\n\nHowever, the daughter-in-law would not believe her, but, all dishevelled\nas she was, she got up and went over to see close to what was on the\nhearth. As she bent down with her face over the ashes Wee Tintilinkie\nquickly let out with his foot, so that his heel caught the\ndaughter-in-law on the nose. The Woman screamed as if she were drowning\nin the sea; her face was all over soot, and her tumbled hair all\nsmothered with ashes.\n\n\u201cWhat was that, you miserable old woman?\u201d hissed the daughter-in-law.\n\n\u201cA chestnut bursting in the fire,\u201d answered the Mother; and Wee\nTintilinkie in the ashes almost split with laughter.\n\nWhile the daughter-in-law went out to wash, the Mother showed Wee\nTintilinkie where the daughter-in-law had set the hen, so as to have\nlittle chickens for Christmas. That very night Wee Tintilinkie fetched\nmagpies\u2019 eggs and put them under the hen instead of hens\u2019 eggs.\n\n\n                                  III\n\nThe daughter-in-law bade the Mother take good care of the hen and to\ntell her at once whenever the chickens were hatched. Because the\ndaughter-in-law intended to invite the whole village to come and see\nthat she had chickens at Christmas, when nobody else had any.\n\nIn due time the magpies were hatched. The Mother told her\ndaughter-in-law that the chickens had come out, and the daughter-in-law\ninvited the village. Gossips and neighbours came along, both great and\nsmall, and the old woman\u2019s son was there too. The Wife told her\nmother-in-law to fetch the nest and bring it into the passage.\n\nThe Mother brought in the nest, lifted off the hen, and behold, there\nwas something chirping in the nest. The naked magpies scrambled out, and\nhop, hop, hopped all over the passage.\n\nWhen the Snake-Woman so unexpectedly caught sight of _magpies_, she\nbetrayed herself. Her serpent\u2019s nature craved its prey; she darted down\nthe passage after the little magpies and shot out her thin quivering\ntongue at them as she used to do in the Forest.\n\nGossips and neighbours screamed and crossed themselves, and took their\nchildren home, because they realised that the woman was indeed a snake\nfrom the Forest.\n\nBut the Mother went up to her son full of joy.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\u201cTake her back to where you brought her from, my son. Now you have seen\nwith your own eyes what it is you are cherishing in your house;\u201d and the\nMother tried to embrace her son.\n\nBut the son was utterly infatuated, so that he only hardened himself the\nmore against the village, and against his Mother, and against the\nevidence of his own eyes. He would not turn away the Snake-Woman, but\ncried out upon his Mother:\n\n\u201cWhere did you get young magpies at this time of year, you old witch? Be\noff with you out of my house!\u201d\n\nEh, but the poor Mother saw that there was no help for it. She wept and\ncried, and only begged her son not to turn her out of the house in broad\ndaylight for all the village to see what manner of son she had reared.\n\nSo the son allowed his Mother to stay in the house until nightfall.\n\nWhen evening came, the old Mother put some bread into her bag, and a few\nof those kindling-chips which the poor girl had given her, and then she\nwent weeping and sobbing out of her son\u2019s house.\n\nBut as the Mother crossed the threshold, the fire went out on the\nhearth, and the crucifix fell from the wall. Son and daughter-in-law\nwere left alone in the darkened cottage. And now the son felt that he\nhad sinned greatly against his Mother, and he repented bitterly. But he\ndid not dare to speak of it to his wife, because he was afraid. So he\njust said:\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s follow Mother and see her die of cold.\u201d\n\nUp jumped the wicked daughter-in-law, overjoyed, and fetched their fur\ncoats, and they dressed and followed the old woman from afar.\n\nThe poor Mother went sadly over the snow, by night, over the fields. She\ncame to a wide stubble-field, and there she was so overcome by the cold\nthat she could go no farther. So she took the kindling-wood out of her\nbag, scraped the snow aside, and fit a fire to warm herself by.\n\nBut lo! no sooner had the chips caught fire than the Brownies came out\nof them, just the same as on the household hearth!\n\nThey skipped out of the fire and all round in the snow, and the sparks\nflew about them in all directions into the night.\n\nThe poor old woman was so glad she could almost have cried for joy\nbecause they had not forsaken her on her way. And the Brownies crowded\nround her, laughed and whistled.\n\n\u201cOh, dear Brownies,\u201d said the Mother, \u201cI don\u2019t want to be amused just\nnow; help me in my sore distress!\u201d\n\nThen she told the Brownies how her silly son had grown still more bitter\nagainst her since even he and all the village had come to know that his\nwife truly had a serpent\u2019s tongue:\n\n\u201cHe has turned me away; help me if you can.\u201d\n\nFor a while the Brownies were silent, for a while their little shoes\ntapped the snow, and they did not know what to advise.\n\nAt last Wee Tintilinkie said:\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s go to Stribor, our master. He always knows what to do.\u201d\n\nAnd at once Wee Tintilinkie shinned up a hawthorn-tree; he whistled on\nhis fingers, and out of the dark and over the stubble-field there came\ntrotting towards them a stag and twelve squirrels!\n\nThey set the old Mother on the stag, and the Brownies got on the twelve\nsquirrels, and off they went to Stribor\u2019s Forest.\n\nAway and into the night they rode. The stag had mighty antlers with many\npoints, and at the end of each point there burned a little star. The\nstag gave light on the way, and at his heels sped the twelve squirrels,\neach squirrel with eyes that shone like two diamonds. They sped and they\nfled, and far behind them toiled the daughter-in-law and her husband,\nquite out of breath.\n\nSo they came to Stribor\u2019s Forest, and the stag carried the old woman\nthrough the forest.\n\nEven in the dark the daughter-in-law knew that this was Stribor\u2019s\nForest, where she had once before been enchanted for her sins. But she\nwas so full of spite that she could not think of her new sins nor feel\nfear because of them, but triumphed all the more to herself and said:\n\u201cSurely the simple old woman will perish in this Forest amid all the\nmagic!\u201d and she ran still faster after the stag.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nBut the stag carried the Mother before Stribor. Now Stribor was lord of\nthat Forest. He dwelt in the heart of the Forest, in an oak so huge that\nthere was room in it for seven golden castles, and a village all fenced\nabout with silver. In front of the finest of the castles sat Stribor\nhimself on a throne, arrayed in a cloak of scarlet.\n\n\u201cHelp this old woman, who is being destroyed by her serpent\ndaughter-in-law,\u201d said the Brownies to Stribor, after both they and the\nMother had bowed low before him. And they told him the whole story. But\nthe son and daughter-in-law crept up to the oak, and looked and listened\nthrough a wormhole to see what would happen.\n\nWhen the Brownies had finished, Stribor said to the old woman:\n\n\u201cFear nothing, Mother! Leave your daughter-in-law. Let her continue in\nher wickedness until it shall bring her again to the state from which\nshe freed herself too soon. As for yourself, I can easily help you. Look\nat yonder village, fenced about with silver.\u201d\n\nThe Mother looked, and lo! it was her own native village, where she had\nlived when she was young, and in the village there was holiday and\nmerry-making. Bells were ringing, fiddles playing, flags waving, and\nsongs resounding.\n\n\u201cCross the fence, clap your hands, and you will at once regain your\nyouth. You will remain in your village to be young and blithe once more\nas you were fifty years ago,\u201d said Stribor.\n\nAt that the old woman was glad as never before in her life. She ran to\nthe fence; already her hand was on the silver gate, when she suddenly\nbethought herself of something, and asked Stribor:\n\n\u201cAnd what will become of my son?\u201d\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t talk foolishness, old woman!\u201d replied Stribor. \u201cHow would you\nknow about your son? He will remain in this present time, and you will\ngo back to your youth. You will know nothing about any son!\u201d\n\nWhen the old woman heard that, she considered sadly. And then she turned\nslowly away from the gate, went back to Stribor, bowed low before him,\nand said:\n\n\u201cI thank you, kind lord, for all the favour you would show me. But I\nwould rather abide in my misery and know that I have a son than that you\nshould give me all the riches and happiness in the world and I forget my\nson.\u201d\n\nAs the Mother said this, the whole Forest rang again. There was an end\nto the magic in Stribor\u2019s Forest, because the Mother preferred her\nsorrows to all the joys of this world.\n\nThe entire Forest quaked, the earth fell in, and the huge oak, with its\ncastles and its silver-fenced village, sank underground. Stribor and the\nBrownies vanished, the daughter-in-law gave a shriek, turned into a\nsnake, wriggled away down a hole, and Mother and Son were left alone\nside by side in the middle of the Forest.\n\nThe son fell on his knees before his mother, kissed the hem of her\ngarment and her sleeve, and then he lifted her up in his arms and\ncarried her back to their home, which they happily reached by daybreak.\n\nThe son prayed God and his Mother to forgive him. God forgave him, and\nhis Mother had never been angry with him.\n\nLater on the young man married that poor but sweet girl who had brought\nthe Brownies to their house. They are all three living happily together\nto this day, and Wee Tintilinkie loves to visit their hearth of a\nwinter\u2019s evening.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n              Little Brother Primrose and Sister Lavender\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n              Little Brother Primrose and Sister Lavender\n\n\n                                   I\n\nTHE stronghold of a wise and noble princess was attacked by her enemies.\nThe princess could not gather together her large and faithful army\nquickly enough to defend her castle, but had to fly by night with her\nlittle prince in her arms.\n\nSo she fled all through the night, and at daybreak they reached the foot\nof grisly Mount Kitesh, which was on the border of the principality.\n\nAt that time there were no more dragons anywhere in the world, nor\nfairies, nor witches, nor any monsters. The Holy Cross and human reason\nhad driven them forth. But in the fastnesses of Mount Kitesh the last of\nthe Fiery Dragons had found a refuge, and seven Votaress Fairies\nattended upon him. That is why Mount Kitesh was so grisly. But at the\nfoot of the mountain lay a quiet valley. There dwelt the shepherdess\nMiloika in her little willow cabin, and tended her flock.\n\nTo that very valley came the princess at dawn with her baby, and when\nshe saw Miloika sitting outside her cabin she went up to her and begged:\n\u201cHide me and the little prince in your cabin through the day. At\nnightfall I will continue my flight with the prince.\u201d Miloika made the\nfugitives welcome, gave them ewes\u2019 milk to drink, and hid them in her\ncabin.\n\nAs evening approached, the kind and noble princess said: \u201cI must go on\nnow with the prince. But will you take my Golden Girdle and the prince\u2019s\nlittle Gold Cross on a red ribbon? If our enemies should chance to find\nus they would know us by the Girdle and the Cross. Put these two things\nby and take good care of them in your little cabin. When my faithful\ncaptains have gathered together an army and driven out the enemy, I\nshall return to my castle and there you shall be my dear friend and\ncompanion.\u201d\n\n\u201cYour companion I cannot be, noble princess,\u201d said Miloika, \u201cfor I am\nnot your equal either by birth or understanding. But I will take care of\nyour Girdle and your Cross, because in time of real sorrow and trouble\neven the heart of a beggar can be companion to the heart of a king.\u201d\n\nAs she said this, Miloika received the Girdle and the Cross from the\nprincess for safe keeping, and the princess took up the little prince\nand went out and away with him into the night, which was so dark that\nyou could not tell grass from stone, nor field from sea.\n\n\n                                   II\n\nMany years passed, but the princess did not return to her lands nor to\nher castle.\n\nHer great army and her illustrious captains were so disloyal that they\nall immediately went over to her enemies. And so the enemy conquered the\nlands of the good and noble princess, and settled down in her castle.\n\nNo one knew or could discover what had become of the princess and the\nlittle prince. Most probably her escape on that dark night had ended by\nher falling into the sea, or over a precipice, or perishing in some\nother way with her baby.\n\nBut Miloika the shepherdess faithfully kept the Golden Girdle of the\nprincess and the prince\u2019s little Gold Cross.\n\nThe smartest and wealthiest swains of the village came to ask Miloika to\nmarry them, because the Golden Girdle and the little Gold Cross on the\nred ribbon were worth as much as ten villages. But Miloika would have\nnone of them for her husband, saying: \u201cYou come because of the Golden\nGirdle and the little Cross; but they are not mine, and I must take\nbetter care of them than of my sheep or my cabin.\u201d\n\nSo said Miloika, and chose a penniless and gentle youth to be her\nhusband, who cared nothing about the Girdle and Cross of Gold.\n\nThey lived in great poverty, and at times there was neither bread nor\nmeal in the house, but they never thought of selling either Girdle or\nCross.\n\nWithin a few years Miloika\u2019s husband fell ill and died; and not long\nafterwards a sore sickness came upon Miloika, and she knew that she too\nmust die. So she called her two children, her little daughter Lavender\nand her still smaller son Primrose, and gave them each a keepsake. Round\nLavender\u2019s waist she bound the Golden Girdle, and round Primrose\u2019s neck\nshe hung the Gold Cross on the red ribbon. And Miloika said:\n\n\u201cFarewell, my children! You will be left alone in this world, and I have\ntaught you but little craft or skill; but with God\u2019s help, what I have\ntaught you will just suffice for your childish needs. Cleave to one\nanother, and guard as a sacred trust what your mother gave into your\nkeeping, and then I shall always remain with you.\u201d Thus spoke the\nmother, and died.\n\nLavender and Primrose were so little that they did not know how their\nmother had come by the Girdle and Cross, and still less did they\nunderstand the meaning of their mother\u2019s words. But they just sat side\nby side by their dead mother like two poor little orphans and waited to\nsee what would become of them.\n\nPresently the good folk of the village came along and said that Miloika\nwould have to be buried next day.\n\n\n                                  III\n\nBut that was not the only thing that happened next day. For when the\npeople came back from the funeral, they all went into the house to\ngossip, and only Lavender and Primrose remained outside, because they\nstill fancied that their mother would yet somehow come back to them.\n\nSuddenly a huge Eagle pounced down upon them from the sky, knocked\nLavender down, caught her by the Girdle with his talons, and carried her\noff into the clouds.\n\nThe Eagle flew away with Lavender to his eyrie, high up on Mount Kitesh.\n\nIt did not hurt Lavender at all to fly along like that, hanging by her\nGold Girdle. She was only sorry at being parted from her only brother,\nand kept on thinking: \u201cWhy didn\u2019t the Eagle take Primrose too!\u201d\n\nSo they flew over Mount Kitesh, and there, all of a sudden, Lavender saw\nwhat neither she nor anyone else of the inhabitants of the valley had\never seen; for everyone avoided the grisly mountains, and of those who\nhad happened to stray into them not one had ever returned. What Lavender\nsaw was this: all the seven Votaress Fairies who waited upon the Fiery\nDragon assembled together upon a rock. They called themselves\n_Votaresses_ because they had vowed, as the last of the fairy kin, to\ntake vengeance upon the human race.\n\nThe Fairies looked up, and there was the eagle carrying a little girl.\nNow the Fairies and the Eagles had made a bargain between them that each\nshould bring his prey to that rock, and there hold a prizecourt upon the\nrock to settle what was to be done with the prey and who was to have it.\nAnd for that reason the rock was called _Share-spoil_.\n\nSo the Fairies called out to the Eagle:\n\n\u201cHo, brother Klickoon! come and alight on Share-spoil!\u201d\n\nBut luckily the bargain was no sounder than the parties to it.\n\nThe Eagle Klickoon had taken a fancy to Lavender, so he did not keep to\nthe bargain, nor would he alight on Share-spoil, but carried Lavender on\nto his eyrie for his eaglets to play with.\n\nBut he had to fly right across the summit of the Mountain, because his\neyrie was on the far side.\n\nNow, on the top of the Mountain there was a lake, and in the lake there\nwas an island, and on the island there was a little old chapel. Around\nthe lake was a tiny meadow, and all round the meadow ran a furrow\nploughed in days of old. Across this furrow neither the Dragon, nor the\nFairies, nor any monster of the Mountain could pass. About the lake\nbloomed flowers, and spread their perfume; there doves took refuge, and\nnightingales, and all gentle creatures from the mountains.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nNeither clouds nor mist hung over the holy furrow-surrounded Lake; but\nevermore the sun and moon in turn shed their light upon it.\n\nAs Klickoon flew over the Lake with Lavender, she caught sight of the\nchapel. And as she caught sight of the chapel, she remembered her\nmother; and as she remembered her mother, she pressed her hand to her\nheart; and as she pressed her hand to her heart, her mother\u2019s trust, the\nGolden Girdle, came undone upon Lavender.\n\nThe Girdle came undone; Lavender dropped from the Eagle\u2019s talons\nstraight into the Lake, and the Girdle after her. Lavender caught hold\nof the Golden Girdle and stepped over the reeds, and the water-lilies,\nand the water-weeds, and the rushes to the island. There she sat down on\na stone outside the chapel. But Klickoon flew on like a whirlwind in a\nrage, because he could not come near the Holy Lake.\n\nLavender was safe enough now, for nothing evil could reach her across\nthe furrow. But what was the good of that, when the poor little child\nwas all alone on the top of the grisly Mount Kitesh, and none could come\nto her, and she could not get away?\n\n\n                                   IV\n\nMeantime the people who had buried Miloika noticed that the Eagle had\ncarried off Lavender. At first they all burst out lamenting, but then\none of them said:\n\n\u201cGood people, it is really as well that the Eagle carried off Lavender.\nIt would have been hard to find someone in the village who could take\ncharge of the _two_ children. But for Primrose alone we shall easily\nfind someone who will look after him.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, yes,\u201d the others all immediately agreed, \u201cit is better so. We can\neasily look after Primrose.\u201d\n\nThey stood yet awhile outside the cabin gazing in the direction towards\nwhich the Eagle had disappeared with Lavender into the skies, and then\nthey went back indoors to drink and to talk, repeating all the time:\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s not one of us but will be glad to take Primrose.\u201d\n\nSo they said. But not one of them troubled so much about Primrose as to\noffer him a drink of water, although it was very hot. Now Primrose was\nthirsty and went in to ask for water. But he was so tiny that not one of\nthose people could understand what he said. Primrose wanted someone to\nget him his little wooden mug; but not one of those people knew that\nPrimrose\u2019s little wooden mug was behind the beam.\n\nWhen Primrose saw all this, he looked round the room for a moment, and\nthen the child thought: \u201cThis is no good to me. I am left all alone in\nthe world.\u201d So he leaned over the pitcher that stood on the floor, drank\nas much water as he could, and then set out to see if he could find his\nlittle sister Lavender.\n\nHe went out of the house and set off towards the sun\u2014the direction in\nwhich he had seen the Eagle fly away with Lavender.\n\n\n                                   V\n\nThe sun was setting beyond Mount Kitesh, and so Primrose, always looking\nat the sun, presently came to Mount Kitesh, too. There was no one beside\nPrimrose to say to him: \u201cDon\u2019t go up the Mountain, child! The Mountain\nis full of terrors.\u201d And so he went on, poor, foolish baby, and began to\nclimb up the Mountain.\n\nBut Primrose did not know what fear was. His mother had kept him safe\nlike a flower before the altar, so that no harm, not even the smallest,\nhad ever befallen him; he had never been pricked by a thorn, nor scared\nby a harsh word.\n\nAnd so no fear could enter Primrose\u2019s heart, no matter what his eyes\nbeheld or his ears heard.\n\nMeantime, Primrose had got well up into the Mountain and already reached\nthe first rocks and crags.\n\nAnd there, below Share-spoil, the Votaress Fairies were all assembled\nand still discussing how Klickoon had cheated them. Suddenly they saw a\nchild coming towards them, climbing up the Mountain. The Votaresses were\ndelighted; it would be easy to deal with such a little child!\n\nAs Primrose came nearer, the Votaresses went down to meet him. In less\nthan no time they had surrounded him. Primrose only wondered when he\nsuddenly saw so many ladies coming towards him, each with a great pair\nof wings! One of the Votaresses went close up to the child to take him\nby the hand.\n\nNow Primrose was wearing the little Cross round his neck. When the Fairy\nsaw the Cross, she screamed and started away from Primrose, for she\ncould not touch him because of the Cross.\n\nBut the Fairies had no intention of letting the child off so easily.\nThey hovered about him in a wide circle and conferred softly about what\nwas to be done with him.\n\nLittle Primrose\u2019s heart was untroubled within him. The Fairies\nconferred, and their thoughts were so black that they came out in a\ncloud of black forest wasps buzzing round their heads. But Primrose just\nlooked at them, and as he could see no harm in them, how was he to be\nfrightened? On the contrary, the wings of one of the Votaresses took his\nfancy, flapping like that, and so he toddled up to her to see what she\nwas really like.\n\n\u201cThat will do nicely,\u201d thought the Votaress. \u201cI cannot touch him, but I\nwill entice him into the Wolf\u2019s Pit.\u201d\n\nFor near by there was a pit all covered over with boughs, so that you\ncould not see it; and the bottom of the pit was full of horrible stakes\nand spikes. Whoever stepped on the boughs was bound to fall through and\nkill himself on the spikes.\n\nSo the Votaress Fairy enticed Primrose to the Wolf\u2019s Pit, always\nslipping away from him, and he always following to see what her wings\nreally were. And so they came to the Pit. The Fairy flew over the Pit;\nbut poor little misguided Primrose stepped on the boughs and fell down\nthe hole.\n\nThe Votaresses shrieked for joy, and hurried up to see the child perish\non the spikes.\n\nBut what do Fairies know about a baby!\n\nPrimrose was light as a chicken. Some of the boughs and branches fell\ndown with him, the branches covered the spikes, and Primrose was so\nsmall and light that he came to rest upon the leaves as if they had been\na bed.\n\nWhen Primrose found himself lying down upon something soft, he thought:\n\u201cI suppose I had better go to sleep!\u201d So he tucked his little hand under\nhis head and went sound asleep, never thinking that he was caught in a\ndeep hole and could not get out.\n\nRound him there were still many bare spikes, and the wicked Fairies were\nbending over the Pit. But Primrose slept peacefully and quietly, as\nthough he were bedded on sweet basil. Primrose never moved. His mother\nhad taught him: \u201cWhen you are in your bed, darling, shut your little\neyes and lie quite still, so as not to frighten your guardian angel.\u201d\n\nSo the Fairies stood round the Pit, and saw the baby falling asleep like\na little duke in his golden crib. \u201cThat child is not so easy to deal\nwith, after all,\u201d said the Votaresses. So they flew off to Share-spoil,\nand took counsel as to how they might kill him, since they could not\ntouch him because of the little Cross.\n\nThey argued and argued, and at last one of the Votaresses had an idea.\n\u201cWe will raise a storm,\u201d said she; \u201cwe will cause a terrific rain. A\ntorrent will pour down the Mountain, and the child will be drowned in\nthe Pit.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhoo-ee, whoo-ee!\u201d howled the Votaresses. They flapped their wings for\njoy, and at once rose up into the air and above the Mountain to roll up\nthe clouds and raise a storm.\n\n\n                                   VI\n\nLittle Lavender was sitting on the top of the Mountain on her island in\nthe Holy Lake. Round her fluttered lovely butterflies, even settling on\nher shoulders; and the grey dove guided her young to her lap to let her\nfeed them with seeds. A wild raspberry-cane bent over Lavender, and\nLavender ate the crimson fruit, and wanted for nothing.\n\nBut she was all alone, poor child! and sad at heart, because she\nbelieved she was parted for ever from Primrose, her only brother; and,\nmoreover, she thought: \u201cDid anyone, I wonder, remember to give him a\ndrink or to put him to bed?\u201d\n\nIn the midst of these sad thoughts Lavender looked up at the sky and saw\na mist, black as night, rolling up round the Mountain. Over Lavender and\nover the holy furrow-surrounded Lake the sun shone brightly; but all\naround the mist was gathering and rising, inky clouds drifted and\nwhirled, rose and fell like a pall of smoke, and every now and again\nfiery flashes darted from the gloom.\n\nIt was the Votaresses, flapping their great wings, who had piled up\nthose black clouds upon the Mountain, and it was from their eyes that\nthe fiery flashes shot across the darkness. And then suddenly it began\nto thunder most terribly within the clouds; heavy rain beat down all\naround upon the Mountain, and the Votaresses howled and darted to an fro\nthrough the thunder and the rain.\n\nWhen Lavender saw that, she considered: \u201cOver my head there is sunshine,\nand no harm can come to me. But perhaps there is someone abroad on the\nMountain in need of help in this storm.\u201d\n\nAnd although Lavender thought there was never a Christian soul on the\nMountain, yet she did as her mother had taught her to do in a storm: she\ncrossed herself and prayed. And as there was still a bell in the ruined\nchapel, Lavender took hold of the rope and began to toll the bell\nagainst the storm. Lavender did not know for whom she was praying or for\nwhom she was tolling, but she tolled for a help to anyone who might be\nin distress.\n\nWhen the bell on the island began to ring so unexpectedly, after having\nbeen silent for a hundred years, the Votaresses took fright up there in\nthe clouds; they got worried and confused; they left off making a storm;\nthey fled in terror in all directions, and hid under the rocks, under\nthe crags, in hollow trees, or in the fern.\n\nIn a little while the Mountain was clear, and the sun shone on the\nMountain, where there had been no sunshine for a hundred years.\n\nThe sun shone; the rain stopped suddenly. But for poor little Primrose\nthe danger was not yet over.\n\nThat first great downpour had formed a big torrent in the Mountain, and\nthe wild water was rushing fast towards the very Pit where Primrose was\nsleeping.\n\nPrimrose had heard neither the storm nor the thunder, and now he did not\nhear the torrent either as it came rushing and roaring with frightful\nswiftness towards him to drown him.\n\nThe water poured into the Pit, poured in, and in a moment it had\noverwhelmed the child.\n\nIt covered him, overwhelmed him in a moment. There was not a thing to be\nseen, neither Pit, nor spikes, nor Primrose, nothing but the wild water\nfoaming down the Mountain.\n\nBut as the flood rushed into the pit, it eddied at the bottom, surged\nround and up and back upon itself, and then suddenly the water lifted up\nthe boughs and branches, and little Primrose, too, upon the boughs. It\nlifted him up, clean out of the Pit, and carried him downhill on a\nbough.\n\nThe torrent was so strong that it carried away great stones and ancient\noaks, rolling them along, and nothing could stop them, because they were\nheavy and stout, and the torrent very fierce.\n\nBut tiny Primrose on his bough floated lightly down the flood, as\nlightly as a white rose-bud, so that any bush could stop him.\n\nAnd indeed, there was a bush in the way, and the bough with Primrose\ncaught in its branches. Primrose woke up with a start, caught hold of\nthe branch with his little hands, climbed up into the bush, and there he\nsat on the top of the bush, just like a little bird.\n\nAbove Primrose the sun shone clear and sweet; below Primrose foamed the\ndreadful water; and he sat in the bush in his little white shirt, and\nrubbed his eyes in wonder, because he could not make out what had\nhappened and what had waked him up so suddenly.\n\nBy the time he had finished rubbing his eyes the water had all run away\ndownhill; the torrent was gone. Primrose watched the mud squelching and\nwrithing round the bush, and then Primrose climbed down, because he\nthought:\n\n\u201cI suppose I ought to go on now, since they have waked me up.\u201d\n\nAnd so he went on up the hill. And he had slept so sweetly that he felt\nquite happy, and thought: \u201cNow I shall find Lavender.\u201d\n\n\n                                  VII\n\nNo sooner had the bell stopped ringing than the Votaresses recovered\ntheir strength. They took courage and crept out of their hidie-holes.\nWhen they got out, lo! the sun was shining on the Mountain, and there is\nnothing in the world the wicked Fairies fear more than the sunlight. And\nas they could not wrap the whole Mountain in mist all in a hurry, each\none quickly rolled herself up in a bit of fog, and off they flew to the\nPit to make sure that Primrose was drowned.\n\nBut when they got there and looked into the Pit, the Pit was empty;\nPrimrose was gone!\n\nThe Fairies cried aloud with vexation, and looked all over the Mountain\nto see whether the water had not dashed him against a stone. But as the\nVotaresses looked, why, this is what they saw: Primrose going blithely\non his way; the sun was drying his little shirt for him on his back, and\nhe was crooning away to himself as little children will.\n\n\u201cThat child will escape us at this rate,\u201d sobbed one of the Votaresses.\n\u201cThe child is stronger than we are. Hadn\u2019t we better ask the Fiery\nDragon to help us?\u201d\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t disgrace yourselves, my sisters,\u201d said another Votaress. \u201cSurely\nwe can get the better of a feeble infant by ourselves.\u201d\n\nSo said the Fairy, but she did not know that Primrose in his simplicity\nwas stronger than all the evil and all the cunning in Mount Kitesh.\n\n\u201cWe will send the She-bear to kill the child for us,\u201d suggested a\nVotaress. \u201cDumb animals do not fear the Cross.\u201d And she flew off at once\nto the bears\u2019 den.\n\nThere lay the She-bear, a-playing with her cub.\n\n\u201cRun along, Bruineen, down that path. There is a child coming up the\npath. Wait for him and kill him, Bruineen dear,\u201d said the Votaress.\n\n\u201cI can\u2019t leave my cub,\u201d answered Bruineen.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll amuse him for you,\u201d said the Votaress, and straightway began to\nplay with the little bear.\n\nBruineen went away down the path, and there was Primrose already in\nsight.\n\nThe great She-bear rose up on her hind-legs, stretched out her front\npaws, and so went forwards towards Primrose to kill him.\n\nThe She-bear was terrible to see, but Primrose saw nothing terrible in\nher, and could only think:\n\n\u201cHere\u2019s somebody coming and offering me his hand, so I must give him\nmine.\u201d\n\nSo Primrose raised both his little hands and held them out to the\nShe-bear, and went straight up to her, as though his mother had called\nhim to her arms.\n\nWell, another moment, and the dreadful She-bear would seize him. She had\ncome up to him, and would have caught and killed him at once had he\noffered to run. But she saw that she had time to consider how she had\nbest take hold of him. So she drew herself right up, looked at Primrose\nfrom the right and from the left, and now she was going to pounce.\n\nBut at that very moment the little bear cub in the den began to squeal.\nOne of the black wasps that always buzzed round the Votaress\u2019s head had\nstung him. The cub howled lustily, because, although the Bruins are a\nspiteful folk themselves, they won\u2019t stand spite from anybody else. So\nthe cub squealed at the top of his voice, and when Bruineen heard her\nbaby crying she forgot about Primrose and the Mountain! Bruineen dropped\non all-fours and trundled away like fury to her den.\n\nThe angry She-bear caught the Votaress by the hair with her great paw.\nThey fought, they rolled, they tore at each other, and left Primrose in\npeace.\n\nPrimrose followed the She-bear and looked on for a bit while they fought\nand scuffled; he looked, and then he laughed aloud, silly baby! and went\non up the Mountain, and never knew what a narrow escape he had had!\n\n\n                                  VIII\n\nOnce more the Votaresses assembled on Share-spoil to discuss what was to\nbe done about Primrose. They saw that they were weaker than he.\n\nMoreover, they were getting tired of flying to Share-spoil and back and\nconferring about Primrose, and so they were very angry.\n\n\u201cWell, we will poison the child. Neither spells nor cunning shall help\nhim now,\u201d they resolved. And straightaway one of them took a wooden\nplatter and hurried off to a certain meadow in the Mountain to gather\npoison berries.\n\nBut Primrose, never dreaming that anybody should be talking about him or\nworrying their brains about him, walked gaily over the Mountain, cooing\nsoftly to himself like a little dove.\n\nPresently he came to the poison meadow. The path led through the middle\nof it. On one side of the path the meadow was covered with red berries\nand on the other side with black. Both were poisonous, and whoever ate\nof either the one or the other was sure to die.\n\nBut how was Primrose to know that there was such a thing as poison in\nthe world, when he had never known any food but what his mother gave\nhim?\n\nPrimrose was hungry, and he liked the look of the red berries in the\nmeadow. But he saw someone over there in front of him on the red side\npicking berries and seemingly in a great hurry, for she never raised her\nhead. It was the Votaress, and she was gathering red berries to poison\nPrimrose.\n\n\u201cThat is her side,\u201d thought Primrose, and went over to the black\nberries, because he had never been taught to take what belonged to\nanother. So he sat down among the black berries and began to eat; and\nthe Fairy wandered far away among the red berries and never noticed that\nPrimrose had already come up and was eating black ones.\n\nWhen Primrose had eaten enough he got up to go on. But, oh dear! a mist\nrose before his eyes; his head began to ache most dreadfully, and the\nearth seemed to rock beneath his feet.\n\nThat was because of the black poison.\n\nPoor little Primrose! indeed you know neither spells nor cunning, and\nhow are you going to save yourself from this new danger?\n\nBut Primrose struggled on all the same, because he thought it was\nnothing that a mist should rise before his eyes and the ground rock\nbeneath his feet!\n\nAnd so he came up with the Fairy where she was picking berries. The\nVotaress caught sight of Primrose, and at once she ran on to the path in\nfront of him with her plateful of red berries. She laid down the platter\nbefore him and invited him by signs to eat.\n\nThe Votaress did not know that Primrose had already eaten of the black\nberries; and if she had known, she would never have offered him red\nones, but would have let him die of the black poison.\n\nPrimrose did not care for any more berries, because his head ached\ncruelly; but his mother used to say to him: \u201cEat, darling, when I offer\nyou something, and don\u2019t grieve your mother.\u201d\n\nNow this was neither spell nor cunning what Primrose had been taught by\nhis mother. But it was in a good hour that Primrose did as his mother\nhad taught him.\n\nHe took the plate and ate of the red berries; and as he ate, the mist\ncleared before his eyes, his head and his heart stopped aching, and the\nground no longer rocked beneath his feet.\n\nThe red poison killed the black in Primrose\u2019s veins. He merrily clapped\nhis hands and went on his way as sound as a bell and as happy as a grig.\n\nAnd now he could see the top of the Mountain ahead of him, and Primrose\nthought:\n\n\u201cThis is the end of the world. There is nothing beyond the top. There I\nshall find Lavender.\u201d\n\n\n                                   IX\n\nThe Votaress would not believe her eyes; she stared after Primrose, and\nthere was he toddling along and the dreadful poison doing him no harm!\n\nShe looked and she looked\u2014and then she shrieked with rage. She could not\nimagine by what miracle Primrose had escaped. All she could see was that\nthe child would slip through her hands and reach the Lake, for he was\ngetting near the top.\n\nThe Votaress had no time to fly to Share-spoil and confer with her\nsisters. In time of real trouble people don\u2019t hold conferences. But she\nflew straight to her brother, the thunder-voiced bird Belleroo.\n\nBelleroo\u2019s nest was in a little bog on the Mountain, close to the furrow\nwhich ran round the Holy Lake. As he was an ill-tempered bird, he too\ncould not cross the furrow, but the evil Things of the Mountain had\nappointed his place here on the boundary, so that he might trouble the\npeace of the Lake with his booming.\n\n\u201cKinsman, brother, Belleroo,\u201d the Votaress cried out to Belleroo, \u201cthere\nis a child coming up the path. Delay him here at the furrow with your\nbooming, so that he may not escape me across the farrow to the Lake. I\nam going for the Fiery Dragon.\u201d\n\nNo sooner had the Votaress said this than she flew like an arrow down\nthe Mountain to fetch the Fiery Dragon, who was lying asleep in a deep\ngully.\n\nAs for Belleroo, he was always all impatience to be told to boom,\nbecause he was horribly proud of his loud voice.\n\nDusk was beginning to fall. It was evening. Nearer and nearer to the\nfurrow came Primrose. Beyond the furrow he could see the Lake, and the\nchapel looming white on the Lake.\n\n\u201cHere I am at the end of the world; I have only to cross that furrow,\u201d\nthought Primrose.\n\nSuddenly the Mountain rang with the most awful noise, so that the\nbranches swayed and the leaves trembled on the trees, and the rocks and\ncliffs re-echoed down to the deepest cavern. It was Belleroo roaring.\n\nHis boom was terrible. It would have scared the great Skanderbeg\nhimself, for it would have reminded Skanderbeg of the boom of the\nTurkish guns.\n\nBut it did not in the least frighten the little innocent Primrose, who\nhad never yet been shouted at in grief or anger.\n\nPrimrose heard something making such a noise that the very Mountain\nshook, and so he went up to see what great thing it might be. When he\ngot there, lo! it was a bird no bigger than a hen!\n\nThe bird dipped its beak in a pool, then threw up its head and puffed\nout its throat like a pair of bellows, and boomed\u2014heavens, it boomed so\nthat Primrose\u2019s sleeves fluttered on him! This new wonder took\nPrimrose\u2019s fancy so much that he sat down so as to see from near by how\nBelleroo boomed.\n\nPrimrose sat down just below the holy furrow beside Belleroo, and peered\nunder his throat\u2014because by now it was dark\u2014the better to see how\nBelleroo puffed out his throat.\n\nHad Primrose been wiser he would not have lingered there on the Mountain\njust below the furrow, where every evil Thing could hurt him, but he\nwould have taken that one step across the furrow so as to be safe where\nthe evil Things could not come.\n\nBut Primrose was just a little simpleton, and might easily have come to\ngrief just there, within sight of safety.\n\nPrimrose was much amused by Belleroo.\n\nHe was amused; he was beguiled.\n\nAnd while he was amusing himself in this fashion, the Fairy went and\nroused the Fiery Dragon where he slept in a deep gully.\n\nShe roused him and led him up the Mountain. On came the fearsome Fiery\nDragon, spouting flame out of both nostrils and crushing firs and\npine-trees as he went. There wasn\u2019t room enough for him, you see, in the\nforest and the Mountain.\n\nWhy don\u2019t you run, little Primrose? One jump across the furrow, and you\nwill be safe and happy!\n\nBut Primrose did not think of running away. He went on sitting quite\ncalmly below the furrow, and when he saw the flames from the Dragon\nflaring up in the darkness, he thought to himself: \u201cWhat is making that\npretty light on the Mountain?\u201d\n\nIt was a cruel fire coming along to devour Primrose, and he, foolish\nbaby! sat looking at it, all pleased and wondering: \u201cWhat is making that\npretty light on the Mountain?\u201d\n\nThe Votaress caught sight of Primrose, and said to the Fiery Dragon:\n\n\u201cThere is the child. Fiery Dragon! Get your best fire ready!\u201d\n\nBut the Dragon was panting with the stiff climb.\n\n\u201cWait a moment, sister, while I get my breath,\u201d answered the Dragon.\n\nSo the Dragon took a deep breath, once, twice, three times!\n\nBut that is just where the Dragon made a mistake.\n\nBecause his mighty breath caused an equally great wind on the Mountain.\nThe wind blew, and bowled Primrose over the furrow and right up to the\nHoly Lake!\n\nThe Votaress gave one shriek, threw herself down on the ground, rolled\nherself up in her black wings, and sobbed and cried like mad.\n\nThe angry Dragon snorted and puffed; he belched fire as from ten red-hot\nfurnaces. But the flames could not cross the furrow; when they reached\nthe furrow they just rose straight upwards as if they had come up\nagainst a marble wall.\n\nSparks and flame crackled and spurted and returned upon Mount Kitesh.\nHalf the Mountain did the Dragon set on fire, but he lost little\nPrimrose!\n\nWhen the wind bowled Primrose over like that, Primrose only laughed at\nbeing carried away so fast. He laughed once; he laughed twice....\n\n\n                                   X\n\nOn the island in the Lake, beside the little chapel, sat Lavender.\n\nIt was evening, but Lavender could not go to sleep because of the\nhurly-burly in the Mountain. Lavender heard the Votaresses howling and\nshrieking and Bruineen growling. She heard the Dragon come snorting up\nfrom his lair, and saw him spout fire all over the Mountain.\n\nAnd now she saw the blazing flames shooting upwards to the skies.\n\nBut then she heard something\u2014good gracious! what was it she heard? A\nlaugh, like a little silver bell. Lavender\u2019s heart throbbed within her.\n\nThe tiny voice laughed again.\n\nThen Lavender could bear it no longer, but called from the Island:\n\n\u201cWho is that laughing in the Mountain?\u201d asked Lavender gently, and all\na-tremble at the thought of _who_ might answer.\n\n\u201cWho is that calling me from the Island?\u201d answered little Primrose.\n\nAnd Lavender recognised Primrose\u2019s baby-talk.\n\n\u201cPrimrose! my own only Brother!\u201d cried Lavender, and stood up white in\nthe moonlight.\n\n\u201cLavender, little sister!\u201d cried Primrose; and, light as a moth, he\nstepped over the reeds and the rushes and the water-weeds to the Island.\nThey hugged and they kissed; they sat down side by side in the moonlight\nby the little chapel. A little did they talk, but they were not clever\nat making a long story. They clasped each other\u2019s little hands and went\nto sleep.\n\n\n                                   XI\n\nThat was how they began to live day after day on the Holy Lake. Primrose\nwas quite happy and desired nothing better.\n\nThere was clear water in the Lake, and there were sweet raspberries.\nThere were plenty of flowers and butterflies in the meadow, and\nfireflies and dew by night. Nightingales and doves nested in the trees.\n\nEvery evening Lavender would make Primrose a bed of leaves, and in the\nmorning she bathed him in the Lake and tied up his little shoes. And\nPrimrose thought: \u201cWhat do we want with a wider world than this within\nthe furrow?\u201d\n\nPrimrose was well off; he was only a baby!\n\nAnd Lavender was happy, but she was troubled about Primrose, how she\nshould look after him and get him food. Because God has so ordered it\nthat the young folk can never get food without the old folk having to\nthink about it.\n\nThat is so all the world over, and couldn\u2019t be otherwise even on the\nHoly Lake.\n\nSo Lavender was worried. \u201cTo-morrow will be St. Peter\u2019s Day. Will the\nraspberries be over when St. Peter\u2019s is past? Will the water grow cold\nand the sun fail when autumn comes? How shall we get through the winter\nall alone? Will our cottage in the valley go to rack and ruin?\u201d\n\nSo Lavender worried, and wherever there is worry, there temptation comes\nmost easily.\n\nOne day she sat and mused: \u201cOh dear! what luck it would be if only we\ncould get back to our cottage!\u201d Just then she heard somebody calling\nfrom the Mountain. Lavender looked, and there in the wood on the far\nside of the furrow stood the youngest of the Votaresses.\n\nShe was prettier than the other Votaresses, and loved finery. She had\nnoticed the Golden Girdle on Lavender, and now she wanted that Golden\nGirdle above anything else in the world.\n\n\u201cLittle girl, sister, throw me your Girdle,\u201d called the fairy across the\nfurrow.\n\n\u201cI can\u2019t do that, Fairy; I had that Girdle from my mother,\u201d answered\nLavender.\n\n\u201cLittle girl, sister, it wasn\u2019t your mother\u2019s Girdle; it belonged to the\nprincess, and the princess has been dead long ago. Throw me the Girdle,\u201d\nsaid the Fairy, who remembered the princess.\n\n\u201cI can\u2019t, Fairy; the Girdle is from my mother,\u201d repeated Lavender.\n\n\u201cLittle girl, sister, I will carry you and your brother down to the\nvalley, and no harm shall come to you; throw me the Girdle,\u201d cried the\nFairy once more.\n\nThis was a sad temptation for Lavender, who so longed to get away from\nthe Mountain! But all the same she would not sacrifice her mother\u2019s\nkeepsake to the greedy fairy, but answered:\n\n\u201cI cannot, Fairy; I had the Girdle from my mother.\u201d\n\nThe Fairy went away quite sadly, but next day she came back and began\nagain:\n\n\u201cThrow me the Girdle, and I will take you down the Mountain.\u201d\n\n\u201cI cannot, Fairy; I had the Girdle from my mother,\u201d Lavender answered\nonce more, but with a very heavy heart.\n\nFor seven days did the Fairy come, and for seven days she tempted\nLavender. Temptation is worse than the sharpest care, and poor little\nLavender pined away, so great was her wish to get down to the valley.\nYet all the same she would not give up the Girdle.\n\nFor seven days did the Fairy call, and for seven days did Lavender\nanswer her:\n\n\u201cI cannot, Fairy; the Girdle is from my mother.\u201d\n\nAnd when she answered thus on the seventh day, the Fairy saw that there\nwas no help for it.\n\nThe Fairy went down the Mountain; she sat down on the last, lowest\nstone, shook down her hair and cried bitterly, so great was her desire\nfor the Golden Girdle of the princess.\n\n\n                                  XII\n\nMeantime the good and noble princess was not dead, but had lived for\nmany a year in a far country with her son, the prince.\n\nThe princess never told anybody how high-born a lady she was, and her\nson was too young at the time of their flight for him to remember.\n\nAnd so in that country not a soul knew\u2014not even the prince\u2014that they\ncame of royal blood. But how could anybody tell that she was a princess,\nwhen she had neither crown nor Golden Girdle? And though she was good,\ngentle, and noble, that did not prove that she was a princess.\n\nThe princess lived in the house of a worthy peasant, and there she span\nand wove for his household.\n\nIn this way she earned enough to keep herself and her son.\n\nThe boy had grown up into a tall and handsome youth of unusual strength\nand power, and the princess taught him nothing that was not good and\nright.\n\nBut one thing was bad. The prince had a very hasty and fierce temper. So\nthe people called him _Rowfoot Relya_, because he was so rough and\nstrong\u2014and so poor withal.\n\nOne day Rowfoot Relya was mowing his master\u2019s meadow, and lay down at\nnoon in the shade to rest. And a young squire came riding by, and called\nto Relya:\n\n\u201cHi, young man! jump up and run back along the road and find me my\nsilver spur; it fell off somewhere on the way.\u201d\n\nWhen Relya heard that, his princely blood, his hot and hasty blood, was\nroused to evil within him because the other had disturbed him in his\nrest and would send him out to find his spur.\n\n\u201cWon\u2019t I, by heaven!\u201d cried Relya, \u201cand you can lie here and rest\ninstead of me!\u201d And with that he sprang at the young squire, pulled him\noff his horse, and flung him down in the shade, so that he lay there for\ndead.\n\nBut Rowfoot Relya, still furious, rushed home to his mother, and cried\nout upon her:\n\n\u201cWretched mother! why was I born a rowfoot churl, for others to send me\nout to find their spurs for them in the dust?\u201d\n\nRelya\u2019s face was quite distorted with rage as he said this.\n\nThe mother looked at her son, and her heart grieved sorely. She saw that\nthere would be no more peace for her and her son, because she would have\nto tell him what she had so far kept secret.\n\n\u201cYou are not a rowfoot churl, my son,\u201d replied the princess, \u201cbut an\nunfortunate prince.\u201d And she told Relya all about herself and him.\n\nRelya listened; his eyes blazed with a strange fire, and he clenched his\nhands in bitter anger. Then he asked:\n\n\u201cIs there nothing left, then, mother, of our lands?\u201d\n\n\u201cNothing, my son, save a little Cross on a red ribbon and a Golden\nGirdle,\u201d answered his mother.\n\nWhen Relya heard that, he cried:\n\n\u201cI am going, mother, and I shall bring back that Cross and Girdle,\nwherever they may be! Threefold will the sight of them increase my\nprincely strength!\u201d\n\nAnd then he asked:\n\n\u201cAnd where did you leave the Cross and the Girdle, mother? Did you leave\nthem with the chief of your captains for him and your great army to\nguard?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, my son,\u201d replied the princess, \u201cand it is a good thing that I did\nnot, for my captains and my great army went over to the enemy, and are\nnow feasting and drinking with the enemy and wasting my lands.\u201d\n\n\u201cDid you perhaps leave them in the lowest room of your castle, in the\nseventh vault, under seven locks?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, my son, and it is a good thing that I did not, because the enemy\ngot into my castle, broke open and ransacked its secret chambers,\nsearched its nine vaults, and fed his horses upon pearls out of my\ntreasure hoards,\u201d replied the princess.\n\n\u201cBut where did you leave the Golden Girdle and the Cross on the red\nribbon?\u201d asked Relya, with flashing eyes.\n\n\u201cI left them with a young shepherdess in a willow cabin, where there are\nneither locks nor strong boxes. Go, my son, perchance you will find them\nthere still.\u201d\n\nRelya would not believe that the Girdle and Cross might be safe in a\nwillow cabin when the noble princess\u2019s pearls had not been safe even in\nthe ninth vault under her castle.\n\nBut his princely blood, so proud and masterful, was roused yet more to\nevil in Relya\u2019s veins, and he roughly said to his mother:\n\n\u201cFarewell, then, mother! I shall find the Cross and Girdle wherever they\nmay be, and it shall be no jesting matter for those who would refuse to\nlet me have them! I shall bring you back your Girdle and Cross, by the\nprincely blood in my veins.\u201d\n\nAs Prince Relya said this, he took the blade of the scythe, fitted it\nwith a mighty hilt at the forge, and then hurried out into the world to\nfind his heritage. The earth rang beneath his feet; his hair streamed in\nthe wind, so swiftly did he stride; and his murderous blade shone in the\nsun as though it were plated with flame.\n\n\n                                  XIII\n\nSo Relya went on without stopping. He strode on by day, and by night he\ndid not rest; both great and small got out of his way.\n\nIt is far to Mount Kitesh, but Relya had no difficulty in finding out\nthe way, because Mount Kitesh was known throughout seven kingdoms for\nits terrors.\n\nOn St. John\u2019s Day Relya bade farewell to his mother, and on St. Peter\u2019s\nDay he reached the foot of the Mountain.\n\nWhen he reached the foot of the Mountain, he inquired after the willow\ncabin, the shepherdess Miloika, and the Golden Girdle and Cross.\n\n\u201cThere is the cabin in the valley. Miloika we buried the first Sunday\nafter Easter, and her children have the Girdle and Cross. As for the\nchildren, the Fairies have carried them off to Mount Kitesh,\u201d replied\nthe villagers.\n\nVery wroth was Relya when he heard that the Girdle and Cross had been\ncarried off to Mount Kitesh. He was so angry that he could not make up\nhis mind which to do first\u2014hasten up the Mountain or find out about the\ncastle, since that was uppermost in his desires.\n\n\u201cAnd where is the princess\u2019s castle?\u201d shouted Relya.\n\n\u201cOver there, a day\u2019s journey from here,\u201d answered the villagers.\n\n\u201cAnd how stands it with the castle?\u201d asked Relya, and his hand played\nwith his sword. \u201cTell me all you know about it!\u201d\n\n\u201cNone of us has been in the castle, because the lords of it are hard of\nheart. Round the castle they have placed mutes for guards and savage\nbloodhounds. We cannot force our way past the bloodhounds, and we do not\nknow how to persuade the guards,\u201d answered the villagers. \u201cAnd within\nthe castle are fine lords, drinking red wine in the halls, playing upon\nsilver lutes, and tossing golden balls to each other over a silken\ncarpet. In the outer hall are two hundred workmen cutting hearts out of\nmother-o\u2019-pearl for targets for the lords. And when the lords make a\ngreat feast, they load their guns with precious stones and shoot at the\nhearts of mother-o\u2019-pearl.\u201d\n\nWhen the villagers told him this, a mist swam before Relya\u2019s eyes, so\nfurious was he when he heard how wantonly the treasure in his mother\u2019s\nvaults was being squandered.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nFor a while Relya hesitated, and then he cried:\n\n\u201cI am going up the Mountain to win the Cross and Girdle, and then I\nshall return to thee, O my castle.\u201d\n\nThus cried Relya; he made the sword sing through the air above his head,\nand then strode swiftly up into Mount Kitesh. There he found the great\nDragon asleep in the deep gully. You see, the Dragon had tired himself\nout with belching so much fire at Primrose, and now he had gone fast\nasleep to gather fresh strength.\n\nBut Relya was all impatience to fight someone so as to cool his anger\nand to prove his strength. He was tired of seeing everybody, both great\nand small, get out of his way all the time, so now he rushed up to the\nFiery Dragon to rouse and dare him to mortal combat.\n\nRelya was a Doughty Hero, and the Fiery Dragon was a Terrible Monster,\nand so their combat must be sung in verse, beginning where Relya rushed\nup to the Dragon:\n\n            Childe Relya smote the Dragon on the side\n            With the flat blade, to rouse him from his sleep.\n            The Beast looked up, raising his grisly head,\n            Beheld the hero Relya standing by.\n            Up leapt the Dragon, with a rending blow\n            O\u2019erturns the cliff and widens out the gap\n            To make a fitting space wherein to fight!\n            Anon unto the clouds he rears him up;\n            Anon on Relya pounces from the clouds,\n            And so with Relya joins in mortal fray.\n            Now groans the earth and splits the solid rock.\n            With tooth and flame the Dragon turns to bay,\n            And thrusts at Relya with his fiery head.\n            But Relya waits him with a ready sword,\n            And meets the onslaught with a ready sword;\n            And with his weapon beating down the flame\n            Seeks for the sword an undefended spot,\n            Where he may smite the Dragon on the head.\n            Deep bites the brand\u2014so mighty was the shock\n            That brand and bone no more will come apart.\n            From dawn till noontide did the battle rage,\n            And weaker grew the Dragon all the while,\n            With brooding on the shame that galled his heart,\n            Because the babe, young Primrose, had escaped.\n            And stronger grew Childe Relya all the while,\n            For he did battle for his heritage.\n            When at high noon the sun burned overhead,\n            Childe Relya swung his gleaming brand aloft\n            Towards the sun, and called on Heaven for aid.\n            Down fell the sword betwixt the Dragon\u2019s eyes\u2014\n            Full swiftly fell, yet lightly struck the blade,\n            Yet with such force, it cleft the Beast in twain.\n            Into the hollow falls the Dragon, slain,\n            And as stretched him in his dying spasm,\n            The monstrous limbs block up the ancient chasm.\n\nThus did the doughty Relya overcome the Fiery Dragon. But his brave arms\nand shoulders ached terribly. So Relya said to himself: \u201cI shall never\nget over the Mountain at this rate. I must consider what I had better\ndo.\u201d And Relya went back to the foot of the Mountain, and there the hero\nsat down on a stone and considered how he was to get across the\nMountain, and how he was to overcome the monsters, and where he might\nfind Miloika\u2019s children and with them the Golden Girdle and Cross.\n\nRelya was deep in thought, but all of a sudden he heard somebody weeping\nand sobbing near him. Relya turned, and there was a Fairy sitting on a\nstone, her hair all unbound, and crying her heart out.\n\n\u201cWhat ails you, pretty maiden? Why do you weep?\u201d asked Relya.\n\n\u201cI weep, O hero, because I cannot get the Golden Girdle from the child\non the Lake,\u201d answered the Fairy.\n\nWhen Relya heard that he was overjoyed.\n\n\u201cTell me, maiden, how can I get to that Lake?\u201d asked Relya.\n\n\u201cAnd who may you be, unknown hero?\u201d returned the Fairy.\n\n\u201cI am Prince Relya, and I seek a Golden Girdle and a Cross on a red\nribbon,\u201d replied Relya.\n\nWhen the Fairy heard that, she thought within her evil heart: \u201cHow lucky\nfor me! Let Relya get the Girdle away from the Lake and on to the\nMountain, and I will soon destroy Relya and keep the Girdle for myself.\u201d\n\nSo the cunning Fairy spoke these honeyed words to Relya:\n\n\u201cLet us go, noble Prince! I will guide you across the Mountain. No harm\nwill come to you, and I will show you where the children are. Why should\nyou not have what is yours by inheritance?\u201d\n\nThus sweetly did the Fairy speak, but in her heart she thought\notherwise. Relya, however, was mightily pleased, and at once agreed to\ngo with the Fairy.\n\nSo they went across the Mountain. Neither Fairies nor monsters touched\nRelya, because he was being guided by the young Votaress Fairy.\n\nOn the way the Fairy advised Relya and tried to fill his heart with\nanger.\n\n\u201cYou should but see, noble Prince, how insolent these children are! Not\neven to you will they give the Girdle. But you are a hero above all\nheroes, Relya, so do not let them put you to shame.\u201d\n\nRelya laughed at the idea that two children should withstand him\u2014_him_\nwho had cleft in twain the Fiery Dragon!\n\nThe Fairy then went on to tell him how the children had come up into the\nMountain, and how they did not know how to get away from it again.\n\nIn her joy at the prospect of getting the Girdle, the Fairy talked so\nmuch that her cunning deserted her, and she chattered to Relya and\nboasted to him of her knowledge.\n\n\u201cThey are silly children, without any cunning. Yet if they knew what\n_we_ know they would have escaped us already. There is a taper in the\nchapel and a censer. If they would start the fire that is not lit with\nhands, and then light the taper and censer, they could go with taper and\ncenser across the whole Mountain as if it were a church. Paths would\nopen before them and trees bow down as they passed. But for us this\nwould be the worst thing possible, because all we Fairies and Goblins in\nMount Kitesh would perish wherever the smoke from the taper and censer\nspread. But what do these silly, insolent children know?\u201d\n\nIf the Votaress had not been so overjoyed, she would surely never have\ntold Relya about the taper and censer, but would have kept the secret of\nthe Votaresses.\n\nSo they came to the furrow, and there was the Holy Lake before them.\n\n\n                                  XIV\n\nThe Prince peered cautiously from behind a tree, and the Fairy pointed\nout the children to him. Relya saw the little chapel on the island.\nBefore the chapel sat a little girl, pale as a white rose. She neither\nsang nor crooned, but sat still with her hands clasped in her lap and\nher eyes raised to heaven.\n\nOn the sand beside the chapel played a little boy, baby Primrose, and\nround his neck hung a little Gold Cross.\n\nHe played on the sand, built castles and pulled them down again with his\ntiny hands, and then laughed at his handiwork.\n\nRelya watched, and as he watched he began to think. But the Votaress had\nno time to wait while the Prince finished thinking things out, so she\nsoftly prompted Relya.\n\n\u201cI will call to the little girl, noble Prince, and you shall see that\nshe will not give up the Girdle; then do you draw your burnished sword,\ngo up and take what is yours, and then come back to me to the Mountain,\nand I will guide you back down the Mountain so that my sisters shall not\nhurt you.\u201d\n\nAs the Fairy said this, she secretly rejoiced, thinking how easily she\nwould kill Relya and get the Girdle for herself, so long as Relya would\nbring it from the Lake. But Relya only listened with half an ear to what\nthe Votaress was saying, for he was lost in looking at the girl.\n\nThe Fairy called to Lavender:\n\n\u201cLittle girl, sister, throw me the Girdle, and I will take you and your\nbrother down the Mountain.\u201d\n\nWhen Lavender heard this, her face grew yet paler, and she clasped her\nlittle hands yet more tightly. She was so sad that she could scarcely\nspeak. She would so gladly have left the Mountain; her little heart was\nbursting with longing.\n\nBut all the same she would not part with her mother\u2019s Girdle.\n\nTears flowed down Lavender\u2019s face; she wept softly, but through her\ntears she answered:\n\n\u201cGo away, Fairy, and do not come back again, because you will not get\nthe Girdle.\u201d\n\nWhen Relya saw and heard this, his princely blood, his noble blood, was\nroused within him, but to a good purpose.\n\nHe was filled with pity for these two poor orphans in the midst of the\ngrisly Mount Kitesh, defending themselves all alone against monsters and\ntemptations, death and destruction. \u201cGreat Heavens!\u201d thought he, \u201cthe\nprincess trusted in her armed warriors and her strongholds to defend her\nlands, and the lands were lost; but these babes are left alone in the\nworld, they have fallen among Fairies and Dragons, yet neither Fairies\nnor Dragons can rob them of what their mother gave them.\u201d All Relya\u2019s\nface changed as his heart went out with pity to the children. Thus\nchanged, he turned towards the Votaress.\n\nThe Votaress looked at Relya. Why did he raise his sword? Was it to cut\ndown those insolent children? No; Relya raised the sword aloft and\nthreatened the wicked Fairy with it.\n\n\u201cFairy, avaunt! as if you had never been! If you had not been my guide\nacross the Mountain, I would strike your fair head from off your\nshoulders. I was not born a prince, nor did I forge this mighty sword\nthat I might roam the world a spoiler of the fatherless!\u201d\n\nThe poor Votaress was quite frightened. She started, and then fled to\nthe hills. And Relya shouted after her:\n\n\u201cGo, Fairy! call your fairies and monsters! Prince Relya does not fear\nthem!\u201d\n\nWhen the Fairy had run off to the hills, Relya crossed the furrow and\nwent towards the children on the island.\n\nHow happy was Lavender when she saw a human being coming towards them\nand looking at them kindly! She sprang to her feet and stretched out\nboth her arms, as a captive bird spreads its wings when you open your\nhand and let it go free.\n\nLavender was quite certain that Relya had come up only to bring them\nsafe back from the Mountain. She ran to Primrose, took him by the hand,\nand both crossed over to Relya by the little bridge which they had\nfashioned with their own tiny hands across the reeds.\n\n\n                                   XV\n\nA doughty hero was Relya, and he felt strange talking to children. But\nthe children did not feel in the least strange talking to a hero,\nbecause they thought kindly of everybody, and there was no guile in\ntheir hearts.\n\nPrimrose took hold of Relya\u2019s hand and looked at his great sword. The\nsword was twice as big as Primrose! Primrose reached up with his little\nhand; he stood on tip-toe, and yet he could scarcely touch the hilt of\nit. Relya looked, and never had he seen such tiny hands beside his own.\nRelya was now in a sad quandary; he forgot all about the Girdle and\nCross as he thought: \u201cWhat shall I say to these poor orphan babes? They\nare little and foolish, and they do not understand.\u201d\n\nJust then Lavender asked Relya:\n\n\u201cAnd how shall we get out of the mountains, my lord?\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, that is quite a sensible little girl,\u201d considered Relya. \u201cHere am\nI, marvelling how small and foolish they are, and never thinking that,\nafter all, we have to get out of the mountains.\u201d\n\nThen Relya remembered what the Votaress had told him about the taper and\ncenser.\n\n\u201cListen to me, little girl! The Votaress has gone to call her sisters to\nhelp her, and I am going on to the Mountain to meet them. Please God, I\nshall overcome the Votaress Fairies, return to you by the Holy Lake, and\nlead you away from the Mountain. But if the fairies should overcome me,\nif I perish on the Mountain, then do you start the fire that is not lit\nwith hands, light the taper and censer, and you will pass over the\nMountain as though it were a church.\u201d\n\nWhen Lavender heard this, she was sadly grieved, and said to Prince\nRelya:\n\n\u201cYou must not do that, my lord! What shall we poor orphans do if you\nperish on the Mountain? You have only just come to be our protector, and\nif you were to leave us straightway and get killed what should we do?\nLet us rather set to at once and start the fire, so as to light taper\nand censer, and do you, my lord, go forth with us over the Mountain.\u201d\n\nBut at that Relya became very angry, and said:\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t talk foolishness, you silly child! I was not born a hero for\ntaper and censer to lead me while yet I wear sword by my side.\u201d\n\n\u201cNot taper and censer will lead you, but God\u2019s will and commandment,\u201d\nreplied Lavender.\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t talk foolishness, you silly child! My sword would rust were I to\nbe led by taper and censer.\u201d\n\n\u201cYour sword will not rust when you go a-mowing in field and meadow.\u201d\n\nRelya was troubled. It was not so much Lavender\u2019s words as the sweet,\nserious look in the little girl\u2019s eyes that troubled him. He knew well\nenough that he would scarcely overcome the fairies and monsters, and\nthat he would most probably perish if he were to go out to fight on the\nMountain.\n\nLittle Primrose flung his arms round Relya\u2019s knees and looked at him\ncoaxingly. And Relya\u2019s princely heart beat quick in his bosom, so that\nhe forgot about Cross and Girdle and fight and castle, and all he could\nthink was: \u201cWell, I have to protect and save these faithful little\norphans.\u201d\n\nSo he said:\n\n\u201cI will not throw away my life out of sheer wilfulness. Come, children,\nstart the fire, light taper and censer; your little hands shall lead\nme.\u201d\n\n\n                                  XVI\n\nA few moments later, and there was a wondrous marvel to be seen on Mount\nKitesh.\n\nA wide path opened all the way down the Mountain, and on the path grew\nturf as soft as silk. On the right-hand side walked little Primrose,\nstill in his little white shirt, and in his hand he held an ancient wax\ntaper, burning serenely and crackling softly, as though it were talking\nwith the sun. On the left walked Lavender, wearing the Golden Girdle and\nswinging a silver censer, from which rose a cloud of white smoke.\nBetween the two children strode Relya, tall and strong. It seemed\nstrange to him, in his strength and valour, that taper and censer should\nthus guide him and not his own good sword. But he smiled gently at the\nchildren. His great sword hung over his shoulder, and as he strode on he\nsaid to the sword:\n\n\u201cDo not fear, my faithful friend. We shall go a-mowing in field and\nmeadow; we shall clear scrub and forest; we shall hew rafters and build\nsteadings. The sun will gild thee a thousand times while thou art\nwinning bread for these two orphan babes.\u201d\n\nSo they went across the Mountain as though it were a church. A thin\nwraith of smoke rose from the taper, and sacred odours spread from the\ncenser.\n\nBut woe and alas for the Votaresses on Mount Kitesh! wherever the smoke\nand the odour of incense spread upon the Mountain, there the Votaresses\nperished and died. They made an end, each one as it seemed most\nbeautiful and fitting to her.\n\nOne turned herself into a grey stone, and then hurled herself down the\nrocks into a chasm, where the stone broke into a thousand splinters.\n\nThe second changed into a crimson flame, and then at once went out,\npuff! into the air.\n\nThe third dissolved into fine coloured dust, scattering herself over\nrock and fern. And so each of them chose what seemed to her the most\nbeautiful way to die.\n\nBut it really didn\u2019t matter in the least. One way or another, they all\nhad to leave this world, and even the most beautiful ways of dying could\nnot make up for that!\n\nIn this way all the seven Votaress Fairies perished, and that is why\nthere are no fairies, nor dragons, nor monsters now on Mount Kitesh or\nanywhere else in the world.\n\nBut Relya and the children reached the valley in safety, and Lavender\ntook them to their cottage. And only then did Relya remember why he had\ngone up Mount Kitesh.\n\n\n                                  XVII\n\nThey went into the cottage and rested a little. Lavender, who knew where\nwas her mother\u2019s modest store cupboard, brought out a little dry cheese,\nand they refreshed themselves.\n\nBut now Relya was puzzled what to do about those two orphans. Ever since\nthey had come down into the valley, Relya\u2019s mind had begun to run once\nmore upon the castle and upon his promise to his mother that he would\nbring her back the Cross and Girdle.\n\nTherefore Relya said to Lavender:\n\n\u201cListen to me, little girl: you will have to give me the Golden Girdle\nand Cross now, you and your brother, because they belong to me.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut we belong to you too, my lord,\u201d said Lavender, and looked at Relya\nquite astonished, because he had not grasped that before.\n\nRelya laughed, and then he said:\n\n\u201cBut I must take the Girdle and Cross to my mother.\u201d\n\nWhen Lavender heard that, she cried out overjoyed:\n\n\u201cOh, sir, if you have a mother, do go and bring her here to us, because\nwe have no mother now.\u201d\n\nA stone would have wept to hear little Lavender speak of her mother in\nthat poor and bare little cottage! A stone would have wept at the\nthought that so lovely a child should be left all alone in the world,\nwhen she turned to Prince Relya and begged him to bring them a mother\nbecause their mother was dead.\n\nAgain Relya was filled with pity, so that he almost wept. Therefore he\nbade the children good-bye and went away to fetch his mother.\n\n\n                                 XVIII\n\nIt took Relya seven days to return to his mother. She was waiting for\nhim by the window, and when she saw him coming, lo, there was Relya\ncoming home without sword, Cross, or Girdle. Relya never gave her time\nto ask questions, but called to her in a gentle voice:\n\n\u201cMake ready, mother, and come with me, that we may guard what is ours.\u201d\n\nSo they set out together. And on the way the Princess asked Relya\nwhether he had found the Cross and the Girdle, whether he had raised an\narmy and had reconquered their castle and lands?\n\n\u201cI found the Girdle and Cross, mother; but I raised no army, neither\nhave I reconquered our lands. We shall do better without an army,\nmother, for you shall see what is left to us of our heritage,\u201d said\nRelya.\n\nAfter seven days\u2019 travel they reached the cabin where Lavender and\nPrimrose were waiting for them.\n\nOh, my dear! but there is great joy when kind hearts foregather! The\nprincess hugged Lavender and Primrose; she kissed their cheeks, eyes,\nhands, and lips, and would scarcely let them go, so dear were they to\nher, those orphan children from her lost lands!\n\n\n                                  XIX\n\nAnd so they lived together in the valley, although the little cabin was\nrather too small for them. But Relya had strong hands, and he built them\na little house of stone. Their lives were uneventful, but there was a\nblessing upon them. Primrose tended the ewes and lambs, Lavender looked\nafter the house and garden, the princess span and sewed, and Relya\nworked in the fields.\n\nThe people of the village got to know the wisdom of the princess and\nRelya\u2019s strength. Presently they remarked how well the Golden Girdle\nbecame the princess, and, although none of them had ever seen the\nprincess before, they said:\n\n\u201cShe must be our noble princess.\u201d And so they gave Relya and the\nprincess a great piece of land in the valley, and begged Relya to be\ntheir leader in all things and the princess to be their counsellor.\n\nGod\u2019s blessing was with Relya\u2019s strength and the princess\u2019s wisdom.\nTheir fields and meadows increased; other villages joined them; gardens\nand cottages sprang up in the villages.\n\nMeantime the fine lords in the castle went on drinking and feasting as\nbefore. Now this had gone on far too long, and although the vaults and\ncellars of the castle had been the richest in seven kingdoms, yet after\nso many years of waste there began to be a lack of precious stones.\n\nFirst of all the gems gave out in the treasure vaults, and then the\nmother-o\u2019-pearl in the passages. Yet a little while, and there was no\nmore bread for the servants, who had grown lazy. At last there was not\neven meat for the bloodhounds and guards. The faithless servants\nrebelled, the hounds ran away, and the guards left their posts.\n\nBut all this did not trouble the fine lords, because they had dulled\ntheir wits with drinking and feasting. But one fine day the wine gave\nout. _Then_ they decided to hold a council! They met in the great hall\nand debated upon where they should get wine, because round about the\ncastle all was desolate: the inhabitants had left, and the vines had run\nwild in the vineyards.\n\nSo the fine lords debated. But their vengeful and rebellious servants\nhad cut through the rafters of the great hall, and when the lords were\nin the midst of their conference the roof fell in upon them. They were\nburied under the ruins of the great tower of the castle and all of them\nkilled.\n\nWhen the servants heard the tower crashing and falling, they too\ndeserted the castle.\n\nAnd so the castle was left without hounds, servants, or fine lords,\nruinous and deserted, and dead.\n\nSoon the news of this spread through the land, but not a soul troubled\nto go and see what had happened in the dead castle. From all sides they\nflocked together and went to the foot of Mount Kitesh to beg Relya to be\ntheir prince, because they had heard of his strength and courage and of\nthe wisdom of the noble princess. Wherefore the people promised with\ntheir own hands to build them a new castle, all fair and stately.\n\nRelya accepted the people\u2019s offer, because he rightly judged that God\nhad given him such great strength and courage, and had delivered him\nfrom his hot and cruel temper, so that he might be of use to his\ncountry.\n\nSo Relya became a prince; and the princess, who was getting old by now,\nyet lived to see great happiness in her old age. And when the princess\nand Relya, with Lavender and Primrose, entered their new and stately\ncastle for the first time, the village children scattered evergreens and\nsweet basil on their path, men and woman pressed round the princess,\nseized the hem of her robe and kissed it.\n\nBut the princess, radiant with joy, remembered that but for the loyalty\nof Lavender and Primrose none of this would ever have come to pass. She\nclasped the children to her breast and said:\n\n\u201cHappy the land whose treasure is not guarded by mighty armies or strong\ncities, but by the mothers and children in shepherds\u2019 cots. Such a land\nwill never perish!\u201d\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nLater on Prince Relya married Lavender, and never in the world was there\na princess sweeter and more lovely than Princess Lavender.\n\nPrimrose grew up into a brave and handsome youth. He rode a fiery dapple\ngrey, and he would often ride over Mount Kitesh, upon whose summit men\nwere building a new chapel by the Holy Lake.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                 Notes\n\n                     Interpretation of Names, Etc.\n\nTHE original names in these Fairy Tales are either taken from Slav\nfolk-lore or chosen or composed so as to convey a suitable meaning. In\nthe English text the translator has therefore tried to render the\nsignificance of the original names in English in preference to\nreproducing the Slav names in English spelling.\n\n\n                      HOW QUEST SOUGHT THE TRUTH.\n\n1. _Bjesomar_ (Rampogusto). The name given by the old Slavs in some\nregions to the ruler of evil and malignant forces. Analysed, the name\nmight be translated as Cherish-goblin, one who cares for hobgoblindom.\n\n2. _Svaro\u017ei\u0107_ (All-Rosy). The ancient Slavs pictured the sunshine in the\nform of a beautiful youth named _Svaro\u017ei\u0107_, All-rose.\n\nThe names of the grandfather and his three grandsons\u2014Witting, Bluster,\nCareful and Quest\u2014are as near as possible equivalents of the original\nnames _Vjest_, _Ljuti\u0161a_, _Marun_ and _Potjeh_.\n\n\n                     FISHERMAN PLUNK AND HIS WIFE.\n\n1. _Zora-djevojka_ (the Dawn-Maiden). To this day many old folk-tales of\nthe Slavs tell of the Dawn-Maiden who sails the sea in the early morning\nin her boat of gold with a silver paddle and dwells in the Island of\n_Bujan_.\n\n2. _The Sea King._ Slovenes and Slovaks alike tell of a mighty and\nwealthy Sea King who reigns in the depths of the sea.\n\n3. _The Island of Bujan_ (the Isle Bountiful). This is a wonderful\nisland, so named for its abundance and fruitfulness and luxuriant\nvegetation. It was the ancient Slav\u2019s conception of Paradise. To this\nday the Russians mention it in refrains and spells against sickness, for\na plentiful harvest, etc.\n\n4. _The Stone Alatir_ (Gold-a-Fire). Is mentioned in ancient Slav tales\nas \u201cthe white burning stone on Bujan,\u201d and may perhaps be taken to stand\nfor the sun.\n\n5. _Sea Maidens_ (Mermaids). In Slovene and Croatian folk-tales, as with\nus, this term is applied to fabulous sea creatures, which are beautiful\nwomen to the waist, and from the waist downward shaped like a forked\nfish tail.\n\n6. _The dumb speech._ The Jugoslavs popularly believe that animals\nconverse with each other in a special \u201clanguage,\u201d and that certain human\nbeings can \u201cspeak\u201d and understand this \u201clanguage.\u201d\n\n7. _The Monstrous Snake_, the _Bird with the Iron Beak_, the _Golden\nBee_. Three monsters which, according to folk-tales, stir up the waves,\nraise tempests, and provoke thunderstorms round the Isle of Bujan,\nwhence the storms spread throughout the world.\n\n_Palunko_ (Plunk) has no special significance, but the sound suggests a\ndoleful, feckless sort of person.\n\n_Winpeace_ is a translation of Vlatko.\n\n\n                                REYGOCH.\n\n1. _Legen_ (_Ledjan_) (Frosten city). An ancient marvellous city which\nis mentioned in Croatian folk-songs and tradition. _Leden_ means\n_frozen_, _icy_.\n\n2. _Rego\u010d_, _Regoc_ (Reygoch). A huge simple giant of fairy kin. He is\nmentioned by the poet _Gjorgji\u0107_, of Dubrovnik (Ragusa), in his\n_Marunko_.\n\nThe name _Kosjenka_ is derived from _kose_ (hair), and indicates the\nlittle fairy\u2019s flowing tresses.\n\nApart from being a simple fairy-tale, this story contains an allegorical\nelement. _Reygoch_, the benevolent, simple-minded giant, is a character\nfrom _Marunko_, by the poet Gjorgji\u0107, of Dubrovnik. The city of _Legen_,\nor _Ledjan_ (which, to all intents and purposes, means \u201cfrozen\u201d), is to\nbe found in Croatian folk-tales and ballads.\n\n\n                   BRIDESMAN SUN AND BRIDE BRIDEKINS.\n\n1. _Moko\u0161_ (Muggish). A mighty force which, according to the beliefs of\nthe ancient Slavs, ruled the earth, and especially in marshlands. She is\nmentioned in connection with the heavenly thunder god. _Perun_.\n\n2. _Kolede_ (translated by _Yuletide_) A winter festival celebrated at\nthe end of December in honour of the sun, whose power once more begins\nto increase in those days.\n\n3. _Krijes_ (translated by _Beltane_). A festival in honour of the\nsummer sun at the time of his greatest strength.\n\n4. _Omaja_, _omaha_. Water which is flung from the mill-wheel. To this\nday peasants bathe children in this water so that evil may be turned\naway from them.\n\nA _Ban_ is a Warden of the Marches.\n\n_Neva_ means _bride_. _Nevi\u010dica_ is the diminutive of _Neva_.\n\n\n                           STRIBOR\u2019S FOREST.\n\n1. _Doma\u0107i_ (\u201chome sprites,\u201d from _dom_, house, home), Brownies. In all\nSlav nations this is the name given to the little domestic sprites which\nhaunt the hearth. They are sometimes harmful and sometimes beneficent.\n\n2. _Malik Tintilini\u0107_ (Wee Tintilinkie). Old popular name for one of the\nmost lively of these _doma\u0107i_.\n\n\n              LITTLE BROTHER PRIMROSE AND SISTER LAVENDER.\n\n1. _Kite\u017e_ (Mount Kitesh). The Russian author Mere\u017ekovski mentions the\nmysterious Kite\u017e region, an uninhabited forest, and the Lake Svetlojar\n(which latter name might very well be transliterated by the _Holy\nLake_), which used to be inhabited by all sorts of monsters.\n\n2. _Vile Zato\u010dnice_ (Votaress Fairies). The term _Votaress snakes_\n(_zmije zato\u010dnice_) is popularly applied to snakes which are supposed to\nhave taken a vow in the autumn not to go to sleep for the winter without\nhaving killed somebody.\n\n3 _Relya_ (_Hrelja_). A Croatian ballad makes mention of a certain\nHrelja as a better and stronger hero than even Kraljevi\u0107 Mark.\n\nThe names _Rutvica_ and _Jaglenac_ have simply been translated into\n_Lavender_ and _Primrose_.\n\n_Buka\u010d_ is derived from _buka_, noise. Hence _Belleroo_.\n\n_Medunkda_, from _medved_, a bear (Bruineen).\n\nThe term _bo\u017ejak_ (applied to Relya), which suggests a powerful,\npoverty-stricken churl, the translator has sought to render by _rowfoot_\n(a rough fellow).\n\n\n   PRINTED BY UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED LONDON AND WOKING GREAT BRITAIN\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n                       GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.\n                    LONDON: 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.1\n                   CAPE TOWN: 73 ST. GEORGE\u2019S STREET\n                SYDNEY, N.S.W.: 218\u2013222 CLARENCE STREET\n                 WELLINGTON, N.Z.: 110\u2013112 LAMBTON QUAY\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n \u25cf Transcriber\u2019s Notes:\n    \u25cb Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.\n    \u25cb Typographical errors were silently corrected.\n    \u25cb Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only\n      when a predominant form was found in this book.\n    \u25cb Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).","title":"Croatian Tales of Long Ago","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":42527}