h her! married
folks must not be sundered."[466]

So the wife rescued her husband, and brought him back from the devils
into the free light.[467]

Sometimes it is a victim's own imprudence, and not a parent's "hasty
word," which has placed him in the power of the Evil One. There is a
well-known story, which has spread far and wide over Europe, of a
soldier who abstains for a term of years from washing, shaving, and
hair-combing, and who serves, or at least obeys, the devil during that
time, at the end of which he is rewarded by the fiend with great
wealth. His appearance being against him, he has some difficulty in
finding a wife, rich as he is. But after the elder sisters of a family
have refused him, the youngest accepts him; whereupon he allows
himself to be cleansed, combed, and dressed in bright apparel, and
leads a cleanly and a happy life ever afterwards.[468]

In one of the German versions of this story, a king's elder daughter,
when asked to marry her rich but slovenly suitor, replies, "I would
sooner go into the deepest water than do that." In a Russian
version,[469] the unwashed soldier lends a large sum of money to an
impoverished monarch, who cannot pay his troops, and asks his royal
creditor to give him one of his daughters in marriage by way of
recompense. The king reflects. He is sorry for his daughters, but at
the same time he cannot do without the money. At last, he tells the
soldier to get his portrait painted, and promises to show it to the
princesses, and see if one of them will accept him. The soldier has
his likeness taken, "touch for touch, just exactly as he is," and the
king shows it to his daughters. The eldest princess sees that "the
picture is that of a monster, with dishevelled hair, and uncut nails,
and unwiped nose," and cries:

"I won't have him! I'd sooner have the devil!"

Now the devil "was standing behind her, pen and paper in hand. He
heard what she said, and booked her soul."

When the second princess is asked whether she will marry the soldier,
she exclaims:

"No indeed! I'd rather die an old maid, I'd sooner be linked with the
devil, than marry that man!"

When the devil heard that, "he booked her soul too."

But the youngest princess, the Cordelia of the family, when she is
asked whether she will marry the man who has helped her father in his
need, replies:

"It's fated I must, it seems! I'll marry him, and then--God's will be
done!"

While the preparations are b