hich I will show you, which is
hidden from the wild beasts, to the Serpent's palace. You will find the
King asleep upon his bed, which is all hung round with bells, and
over his bed you will see a sword hanging. With this sword only it is
possible to kill the Serpent, because even if its blade breaks a new one
will grow again for every head the monster has. Thus you will be able
to cut off all his seven heads. And this you must also do in order to
deceive the King: you must slip into his bed-chamber very softly, and
stop up all the bells which are round his bed with cotton. Then take
down the sword gently, and quickly give the monster a blow on his tail
with it. This will make him waken up, and if he catches sight of you he
will seize you. But you must quickly cut off his first head, and then
wait till the next one comes up. Then strike it off also, and so go on
till you have cut off all his seven heads.'

The old Abbess then gave the Prince her blessing, and he set out upon
his enterprise, arrived at the Serpent's castle by following the secret
passage which she had shown him, and by carefully attending to all her
directions he happily succeeded in killing the monster. As soon as
the wild beasts heard of their king's death, they all hastened to the
castle, but the youth had long since mounted his horse and was already
far out of their reach. They pursued him as fast as they could, but they
found it impossible to overtake him, and he reached home in safety. Thus
he freed his country from this terrible oppression.

THE GRATEFUL BEASTS(11)

(11) From the Hungarian. Kletke.

There was once upon a time a man and woman who had three fine-looking
sons, but they were so poor that they had hardly enough food for
themselves, let alone their children. So the sons determined to set out
into the world and to try their luck. Before starting their mother gave
them each a loaf of bread and her blessing, and having taken a tender
farewell of her and their father the three set forth on their travels.

The youngest of the three brothers, whose name was Ferko, was a
beautiful youth, with a splendid figure, blue eyes, fair hair, and a
complexion like milk and roses. His two brothers were as jealous of him
as they could be, for they thought that with his good looks he would be
sure to be more fortunate than they would ever be.

One day all the three were sitting resting under a tree, for the sun
was hot and they were tired of walk