u 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.'

[Illustration: The Seven-headed Serpent]

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]

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 walking. Ferko fell fast asleep, but
the other two remained awake, and the eldest said to the second
brother, 'What do you say to doing our brother Ferko some harm? He is
so beautiful that everyone takes a fancy to him, which is more than
they do to us. If we could only get him out of the way we might
succeed better.'

'I quite agree with you,' answered the second brother, 'and my advice
is to eat up his loa