d them into the head
of the asp, and put the asp's eyes in their place. As he was running
off he cried over his shoulder: 'As long as the world lasts the asps'
eyes will go down in the heads of foxes from generation to
generation.'

And so it has been; and if you look at the eyes of an asp you will see
that they are all burnt; and though thousands of years have gone by
since the fox was going about playing tricks upon everybody he met,
the asp still bears the traces of the day when the sly creature cooked
the salmon.

[_Lapplaendische Maehrchen._]

_KISA THE CAT_

Once upon a time there lived a queen who had a beautiful cat, the
colour of smoke, with china-blue eyes, which she was very fond of. The
cat was constantly with her, and ran after her wherever she went, and
even sat up proudly by her side when she drove out in her fine glass
coach.

'Oh, pussy,' said the queen one day, 'you are happier than I am! For
you have a dear little kitten just like yourself, and I have nobody to
play with but you.'

'Don't cry,' answered the cat, laying her paw on her mistress's arm.
'Crying never does any good. I will see what can be done.'

The cat was as good as her word. As soon as she returned from her
drive she trotted off to the forest to consult a fairy who dwelt
there, and very soon after the queen had a little girl, who seemed
made out of snow and sunbeams. The queen was delighted, and soon the
baby began to take notice of the kitten as she jumped about the room,
and would not go to sleep at all unless the kitten lay curled up
beside her.

Two or three months went by, and though the baby was still a baby, the
kitten was fast becoming a cat, and one evening when, as usual, the
nurse came to look for her, to put her in the baby's cot, she was
nowhere to be found. What a hunt there was for that kitten, to be
sure! The servants, each anxious to find her, as the queen was certain
to reward the lucky man, searched in the most impossible places. Boxes
were opened that would hardly have held the kitten's paw; books were
taken from bookshelves, lest the kitten should have got behind them,
drawers were pulled out, for perhaps the kitten might have got shut
in. But it was all no use. The kitten had plainly run away, and nobody
could tell if it would ever choose to come back.

Years passed away, and one day, when the princess was playing ball in
the garden, she happened to throw her ball farther than usual, and it
f