Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/362

 342 Miscellanea.

fairy a;iked him how he came there, where no mortal had ever come, and he told her his errand. She tried to persuade him to go back, for that his mother desired to compass his death, but the prince would not listen to this. So she gave him dinner and asked him to stay the night, and in the morning she told him : " When you come to the cave where the hind dwells, if her eyes are open, go and milk her, and take her two fawns away and bring them to me, but if her eyes are shut, beware." The prince rode on till he came to the cave, and there was the hind with her eyes wide open. He milked her and brought her fawns back to the fairy, who invited him to spend this night too in her house. In the night she took the hind's milk and substituted for it the horse's urine. The prince came back to the ogre's house on the third evening, and when his mother and her paramour saw him, fancy their surprise. But the queen drank what she fancied to be the hind's milk, and, saying she felt better, got up. Next day when the prince went out shooting, the ogre said to the queen : "You must say you are ill again and beg him to get you the water-melon of life." So she did, again telling her son that she would die if she had not this water-melon, but begging him not to risk his life. Away went the prince on his errand, and dismounted again at the house of the fairy, who, after warning him as before, and trying to turn him back, bade him stay the night. In the morning she told him, " Ride on till you come to a great hill. Underneath it is a field full of water-melons. They will all call out, 'Pick me, pick me,' but you must not answer, or else you will be changed into a water-melon yourself. You must go straight on and pick the big white water-melon in the middle of the field." The prince followed her directions and came back to spend the night at the fairy's house. While he was asleep she changed the water-melon of life for an ordinary one, which he took back to his mother, arriving again on the evening of the third day from his departure. The queen ate the water-melon, and again said she felt better. " Now," said the ogre, " there is nothing left but to send him for the water of life." So the queen got ill again and told her son^ "This old duffer of an ogre can't find the right medicine. Now he tells me I must drink the water of life, but you must not go for it, my dear boy, it is so very dangerous." " Well," said the son, "as I have got you the other things I suppose I can get you this," and started to find it. This time the fairy, who was