she went, down to such a depth that
even the witch's eyes could not follow her; but she took for granted
that the woman was dead, and told the sister to take her place. At that
instant, however, the head of the elder appeared above the rock, brought
upwards by the magic line. The witch gave a howl of disgust, and hid
her face in her hands; thus giving the younger sister time to fasten the
cord to her waist before the ogress looked up.

'You can't expect such luck twice,' she said; and the girl sat down and
slid over the edge. But in a few minutes she too was back again, and
the witch saw that she had failed, and feared lest her power was going.
Trembling with rage though she was, she dared not show it, and only
laughed hideously.

'I sha'n't let my prisoners go as easily as all that!' she said. 'Make
my hair grow as thick and as black as yours, or else your husbands shall
never see daylight again.'

'That is quite simple,' replied the elder sister; 'only you must do as
we did--and perhaps you won't like the treatment.'

'If you can bear it, of course I can,' answered the witch. And so the
girls told her they had first smeared their heads with pitch and then
laid hot stones upon them.

'It is very painful,' said they, 'but there is no other way that we know
of. And in order to make sure that all will go right, one of us will
hold you down while the other pours on the pitch.'

And so they did; and the elder sister let down her hair till it hung
over the witch's eyes, so that she might believe it was her own hair
growing. Then the other brought a huge stone, and, in short, there
was an end of the witch. The sisters were savages who had never seen a
missionary.

So when the sisters saw that she was dead they went to the hut, and
nursed their husbands till they grew strong. Then they picked up the
frog, and all went to make another home on the other side of the great
lake.

The Frog and the Lion Fairy

[From the Journal of the Anthropological Institute.]

Once upon a time there lived a king who was always at war with his
neighbours, which was very strange, as he was a good and kind man, quite
content with his own country, and not wanting to seize land belonging
to other people. Perhaps he may have tried too much to please everybody,
and that often ends in pleasing nobody; but, at any rate, he found
himself, at the end of a hard struggle, defeated in battle, and obliged
to fall back behind the walls of hi