Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/361

 Misce llanea. 341

daughter had just given birth to a girl. Two days after its birth the shepherds came and said that all their milk was drunk up at night; the next day the grooms came and said that each night one of the horses in the stalls was devoured by a beast that came at midnight, as they knew by the terrified neighing of the horses they heard at that hour in the stable, but they were afraid to go and see what the beast was. Next night the queen's son went to watch in the stable, and at midnight the horses began to neigh and plunge, and a gorgon came in and fastened on one of them. The prince shot an arrow at it and cut off its httle finger. Taking the finger with him, he went home. Next day the baby would not cease crying, and the doctors and nurses could not tell what was the matter with it until they found its little finger was missing. The prince then knew that the baby was a gorgon, and, showing his sister the finger, bade her kill her child, for otherwise it would eat up everybody and everything in the country. If she refused, he said he would go away to a strange land. His sister said she would not kill her child ; so, taking his mother with him, he left his home. As night began to fall, they came to a marble slab with a ring attached to it. They went down forty steps and found themselves in an ogre's house. "Good day, uncle," said the prince. " Well met, young buck," said the ogre, " what do you want here?" " Don't ask," said the prince, "our woes are many; we beg for shelter for the night." The ogre consented, and they remained there that night. Next day the prince went out to shoot, and while he was away the mother and the ogre made up to each other, and the queen asked the ogre to marry her. " That can never be," said the ogre, " as long as your son is alive. You must lie down and pretend to be ill, and when he comes back bid him fetch you the milk of the hind that eats men." So when the prince came back and brought his mother the birds he had shot for her to cook them, he found her simulating great pain. " I am very ill, my son," she said, "and this stupid old ogre can do nothing to cure me, and now he tells me I shall die unless I can drink the wild hind's milk, but I would rather die than let you go and risk being eaten." " I go," said the prince, and saddled his horse and started off. " If he doesn't come back in three days," said the ogre, " we shall know he is dead." In the evening the prince came to a house where dwelt a beautiful girl who was a fairy. He dismounted and knocked, and was invited in. The