favor: take my
daughter for your wife; do not say no, for the poor girl is beside
herself." The king answered: "Rise, good old man, and I will consent,
for I am sorry for your long journeys. But hear what your daughter must
do first. She must prepare three vessels: one of milk and water, one of
milk, and one of rose-water. And here is a bean; when she wants to speak
with me, let her go out on the balcony and open the bean, and I will
come."

The old man returned home this time more satisfied, and told his
daughter what she must do. She prepared the three vessels as directed,
and then opened the bean on the balcony, and saw at once something
flying from a distance towards her. It flew into the room by the
balcony, and entered the vessel of water and milk to bathe; then it
hastened into the vessel of milk, and finally into that containing the
rose-water. And then there came out the handsomest youth that was ever
seen, and made love to the young girl. Afterward, when they were tired
of their love-making, he bade her good-night, and flew away.

After a time, when her sisters saw that she was always shut up in her
room, the oldest said: "Why does she shut herself up in her room all the
time?" The other sister replied: "Because she has King Bean, who is
making love to her." The oldest said: "Wait until she goes to church,
and then we will see what there is in her room." One day the youngest
locked her door, and went to church. Then the two sisters broke open the
door, and saw the three vessels prepared, and said: "This is the vessel
in which the king goes to bathe." The oldest said: "Let us go down into
the store, and get some broken glass, and put a little in each of the
three vessels; and when the king bathes in them, the glass will pierce
him and cut all his body."

They did so, and then left the room looking as it did first. When the
youngest sister returned, she went to her room, and wished to talk with
her husband. She opened the balcony, and then she opened the bean, and
saw at once her husband come flying from a distance, with his arms open
to embrace her. He flew on to the balcony, and threw himself into the
vessel of milk and water, and the pieces of glass pierced his body; then
he entered the vessel of milk and that of rose-water, and his body was
filled with the fragments of glass. When he came out of the rose-water,
he flew away. Then his wife hastened out on the balcony, and saw a
streak of blood wherever he