ying and wringing her hands and bewailing her hard
fate. And while she wandered to and fro, an old witch-woman suddenly
appeared out of a big hollow oak-tree, and asked her, "Why do you look
so doleful, pretty lass?" The shepherd-girl said, "It's no use my
telling you, for nobody in the world can help me."--"Oh, you never
know," said the old woman. "Just you let me hear what your trouble is,
and maybe I can put things right."--"Ah, how can you?" said the girl,
"For I am to be married to the _King's_ eldest son, who is a
_Lindworm_. He has already married two beautiful Princesses, and
devoured them: and he will eat me too! No wonder I am distressed."

"Well, you needn't be," said the witch-woman. "All that can be set
right in a twinkling: if only you will do exactly as I tell you." So
the girl said she would.

"Listen, then," said the old woman. "After the marriage ceremony is
over, and when it is time for you to retire to rest, you must ask to
be dressed in ten snow-white shifts. And you must then ask for a tub
full of lye," (that is, washing water prepared with wood-ashes) "and a
tub full of fresh milk, and as many whips as a boy can carry in his
arms,--and have all these brought into your bed-chamber. Then, when
the _Lindworm_ tells you to shed a shift, do you bid him slough a
skin. And when all his skins are off, you must dip the whips in the
lye and whip him; next, you must wash him in the fresh milk; and,
lastly, you must take him and hold him in your arms, if it's only for
one moment."

"The last is the worst notion--ugh!" said the shepherd's daughter, and
she shuddered at the thought of holding the cold, slimy, scaly
_Lindworm_.

"Do just as I have said, and all will go well," said the old woman.
Then she disappeared again in the oak-tree.

When the wedding-day arrived, the girl was fetched in the Royal
chariot with the six white horses, and taken to the castle to be
decked as a bride. And she asked for ten snow-white shifts to be
brought her, and the tub of lye, and the tub of milk, and as many
whips as a boy could carry in his arms. The ladies and courtiers in
the castle thought, of course, that this was some bit of peasant
superstition, all rubbish and nonsense. But the _King_ said, "Let her
have whatever she asks for." She was then arrayed in the most
wonderful robes, and looked the loveliest of brides. She was led to
the hall where the wedding ceremony was to take place, and she saw the
_Lindworm_ for