Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/527

 Rh to the king: "The lad does not weep at all, but he draws three lines on the ground; two he wipes out and one he leaves there." Then the king arose, and came and asked the lad why he drew these lines. The lad answered: "My lord, I am playing a game." But the king said: "Tell me the truth straight out." Then the lad said: "One line is for my parents who brought me here and sold me to thee, and took their money and went their way. One line is for thee, for thou art king of the land, yet didst not fear to shed my blood, and thou hast bought me to slay me. One line is for my God. There was no help for me in my parents, nor was there help for me in thee, king; my God's help only is left me, there is no other." Then the king was moved with compassion towards him and let him go, saying: "I give up also the money paid to your parents." That night the king lay down to rest, and when he arose in the morning, by God's mercy, his boil was healed.

III.

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Once upon a time there was a king who had a daughter, and he said he would give his daughter in marriage to the man who would take off his clothes and stand a whole winter's night in the river. "If he come out alive", he said, "I will marry my daughter to him, and if he dies, why, he is gone." Many men tried, and died, till one day a man went in and came out alive. The king said to him, "A great many others have died, how have you come out alive?" The man replied, "A fire was burning on the hillside, I kept my heart fixed on that fire, and so I came out alive." The king said, "You warmed yourself at the fire!" The man replied, "King! I was in the river, and the fire was on the hill; how then could I warm myself? Thou art king, thou art mighty, let God do me justice." The king turned him away and came back to his home.