into the river just over the place of
the horse fair.'

'Very well; only you must get three sacks and come with me to that rock
which juts into the river. I will throw you in from there, and you will
fall nearly on to the horses' backs.'

So he threw them in, and as they were never seen again, no one ever knew
into which fair they had fallen.

From 'Litterature Orale de l'Auvergne,' par Paul Sebillot.

_THE BROWN BEAR OF NORWAY_

THERE was once a king in Ireland, and he had three daughters, and very
nice princesses they were. And one day, when they and their father were
walking on the lawn, the king began to joke with them, and to ask them
whom they would like to be married to. 'I'll have the king of Ulster for
a husband,' says one; 'and I'll have the king of Munster,' says another;
'and,' says the youngest, 'I'll have no husband but the Brown Bear of
Norway.' For a nurse of hers used to be telling her of an enchanted
prince that she called by that name, and she fell in love with him, and
his name was the first name on her tongue, for the very night before she
was dreaming of him. Well, one laughed, and another laughed, and they
joked with the princess all the rest of the evening. But that very night
she woke up out of her sleep in a great hall that was lighted up with a
thousand lamps; the richest carpets were on the floor, and the walls
were covered with cloth of gold and silver, and the place was full of
grand company, and the very beautiful prince she saw in her dreams was
there, and it wasn't a moment till he was on one knee before her, and
telling her how much he loved her, and asking her wouldn't she be his
queen. Well, she hadn't the heart to refuse him, and married they were
in the same evening.

'Now, my darling,' says he, when they were left by themselves, 'you must
know that I am under enchantment. A sorceress, that had a beautiful
daughter, wished me for her son-in-law; but the mother got power over
me, and when I refused to wed her daughter she made me take the form of
a bear by day, and I was to continue so till a lady would marry me of
her own free will, and endure five years of great trials after.'

Well, when the princess woke in the morning, she missed her husband from
her side, and spent the day very sadly. But as soon as the lamps were
lighted in the grand hall, where she was sitting on a sofa covered with
silk, the folding doors flew open, and he was sitting by her side the
ne