Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/542

 500 Miscellanea.

Next year the queen gave birth to the moon-child ; and again she saw the whole house shine as it came into the world. But her mother-in-law again got the midwife to steal it, and put a kitten in its place, and the king was still sadder than before, but said : " Let us see what the next will be." The moon-child also was exposed in the wood, and found and suckled by the goat.

When the third child, the starry firmament, was born, the queen-mother substituted a lamb for it. This time the king was very angry with his wife, and threw her into a ditch in the back- yard of the palace. There he ordered her to be left and fed with offal ; but there was one of her servants who loved her mistress very dearly, and used secretly to bring her food.

The third child, like his brothers, was found and nourished by the goat ; and one day the shepherd found the goat he had lost so long ago and the three little boys with it ; and he took them home to his house.

One day the king was hunting in the forest, and he happened to stop to rest outside the shepherd's hut. Inside, he heard talking. It was one of the children telling the others their whole history, how they were king's sons, and how they had been stolen at birth and cast out to die. The king, as he listened, knew they were his children. Then he went home and made a banquet, and bade his mother and the midwife to it, and sent and took his wife out of the ditch, and bade her go to the bath, and dress herself richly, and come to the banquet too. As they sat and feasted, he began to tell the story ; and when his mother and the midwife heard it, they wanted to get up and go, but they had to sit it out. When he had finished, he decreed that they should be tied on the backs of wild horses and dashed to pieces. He sent for his three children, and all went well with them ever afterwards.

IV. The Fuffipkin.

There were once in a certain city a queen and a poor woman, who were neighbours, and both were expecting babies at the same time. One day they met as they were going to the bath, and they agreed that if their children were male and female they should wed each other. In due course the queen gave birth to a beautiful girl, but the poor woman's child was a pumpkin. The poor woman lay in bed like the queen after her delivery, but one day she said : " Let