Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Fairy tales
Then she journeyed on, and found everything as the Night Wind had
said. She counted the reeds by the sea and cut off the eleventh,
struck the Dragon with it, and the Lion mastered it; immediately both
regained human form. But when the Princess who had been a Dragon was
free from enchantment, she took the Prince in her arms, seated herself
on the Griffin's back, and carried him off. And the poor wanderer,
again forsaken, sat down and cried. At last she took courage and said
to herself: 'Wherever the winds blow, I will go, and as long as cocks
crow, I will search till I find him.'
So she went on a long, long way, till she came to the castle where the
Prince and Princess were living. There she heard that there was to be
a festival to celebrate their wedding. Then she said to herself,
'Heaven help me,' and she opened the casket which the Sun had given
her; inside it was a dress, as brilliant as the Sun itself. She took
it out, put it on, and went into the castle, where every one,
including the Bride, looked at her with amazement. The dress pleased
the Bride so much that she asked if it was to be bought.
'Not with gold or goods,' she answered; 'but with flesh and blood.'
The Bride asked what she meant, and she answered, 'Let me speak with
the Bridegroom in his chamber to-night.'
The Bride refused. However, she wanted the dress so much that at last
she consented; but the Chamberlain was ordered to give the Prince a
sleeping draught.
At night, when the Prince was asleep, she was taken to his room. She
sat down and said: 'For seven years I have followed you. I have been
to the Sun, and the Moon, and the Four Winds to look for you. I have
helped you against the Dragon, and will you now quite forget me?'
But the Prince slept so soundly that he thought it was only the
rustling of the wind among the pine-trees. When morning came she was
taken away, and had to give up the dress; and as it had not helped her
she was very sad, and went out into a meadow and cried. As she was
sitting there, she remembered the egg which the Moon had given her;
she broke it open, and out came a hen and twelve chickens, all of
gold, who ran about chirping, and then crept back under their mother's
wings. A prettier sight could not be seen. She got up and drove them
about the meadow, till the Bride saw them from the window. The
chickens pleased her so much that she asked if they were for sale.
'Not for gold and goods, but for flesh and blood. Let me speak with
the Bridegroom in his chamber once more.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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