Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/411

 Collectanea. 369

feet of every one in the city. They reach the house of the Lambkin. The stepmother thrusts the orphan girl into the fire- place and hides her. She shows her own daughter. Then the cock flies from its perch, and, standing on the door-sill, calls thrice, — " Googloo-goo-goo ! the lady is in the fireplace ! " The men push the mother aside, bring the girl out of the fireplace, and measure her feet. " Come now, let us go," they say, " You are the bride of the King." The girl opens the spot where her golden garments are hidden, puts them on, leads away her brother. Lambkin, and goes. The wedding lasts for seven days and seven nights, and so the girl marries the Prince.

One day the stepmother takes her own daughter and goes to the palace to see her other daughter, and her daughter treats her as though she were her own mother, and takes her to the Park, and from there they go to the sea-shore. The stepmother says, — " See here, daughters, let us go in and take a swim." So they go into the water. Then the stepmother pushes the Princess into the middle of the sea, and a great fish comes and swallows her. The mother gathers up the golden garments, and dresses her own daughter in them. She returns to the palace, and sets her daughter in the bride's place. The girl's face is veiled (nose and mouth, eyes and face are covered) ; no one knows her, and the mother does not tell.

The other poor girl remains in the belly of the fish for some days. One night she hears the night watchman, and she cries from inside the fish : —

" Watchman, watchman, when you call the hour,

And cross your breast seven times each hour :

As you love God who gives you the day,

Go take this word to the Prince, and say, " Do not harm my brother. Lambkin !" "

The watchman heard this repeated once or twice; then he went and told the King's son. One night the King's son arises, and goes with the watchman to the seashore and listens. He recognises the voice of his fairy Princess. He bares his sword, and leaps into the sea. He cuts open the fish with his sword, takes his bride in his arms, brings her to land, and they go home. Then he calls the stepmother before