to the
Lake, and asked it who had strewed those soft things on the path? The
Lake answered that it had been done by people who had come to do him
homage. The King commanded that the men should be brought before him.
They came humbly on their knees, and in a few words told him their
story. Then he spoke to them with a mighty and terrible voice, and
said, 'Because you have dared to come here, I lay upon you the
punishment. Every year you must bring me from among your people twelve
youths and twelve maidens, that I may devour them. If you do not do
this, I will destroy your whole nation.'

Then he desired one of his beasts to show the men the way out of the
garden, and dismissed them. They then left the island and went back to
their own country, where they related what had happened to them. Soon
the time came round when the king of the beasts would expect the
youths and maidens to be brought to him. The King therefore issued a
proclamation inviting twelve youths and twelve maidens to offer
themselves up to save their country; and immediately many young
people, far more than enough, hastened to do so. A new ship was built,
and set with black sails, and in it the youths and maidens who were
appointed for the king of the beasts embarked and set out for his
country. When they arrived there they went at once to the Lake, and
this time the lions did not stir, nor did the springs flow, and
neither did the Lake speak. So they waited then, and it was not long
before the earth quaked even more terribly than the first time. The
Seven-headed Serpent came without his train of beasts, saw his prey
waiting for him, and devoured it at one mouthful. Then the ship's crew
returned home, and the same thing happened yearly until many years had
passed.

Now the King of this unhappy country was growing old, and so was the
Queen, and they had no children. One day the Queen was sitting at the
window weeping bitterly because she was childless, and knew that the
crown would therefore pass to strangers after the King's death.
Suddenly a little old woman appeared before her, holding an apple in
her hand, and said, 'Why do you weep, my Queen, and what makes you so
unhappy?'

'Alas, good mother,' answered the Queen, 'I am unhappy because I have
no children.'

'Is that what vexes you?' said the old woman. 'Listen to me. I am a
nun from the _Spinning Convent_[10] and my mother when she died left
me this apple. Whoever eats this apple shall have a c