Page:Researches respecting the Book of Sindibad and Portuguese Folk-Tales.djvu/101

 Rh the slipper on, but all her efforts were in vain. After her, her daughter followed, and endeavoured her best to lit the slipper on, but with no better success. There only remained the hearth-cat. The king inquired who was the next to try on the slipper, and asked the mistress if there was any other lady left in her house who could fit on the slipper. The schoolmistress then said that there only remained a hearth-cat in her house, but that she had never worn such a slipper. The king ordered the girl to be brought to the palace, and the mistress had no alternative but to do so, The king himself insisted on trying the slipper on the girl's foot, and the moment she put her little foot into the slipper and drew it on, it fitted exactly. The king then arranged that she should remain in the palace and married her. And he ordered the mistress and her daughter to be put to death.

XIX.—.

There was an old woman who had a granddaughter: and whilst one day the girl was looking out of the window, the king, happening to pass by the house at the time, was immediately struck with her beauty. He knocked at the door, and the old woman came to open the door, and asked his majesty what might be his pleasure. The king replied that he wished to see the maiden. The old woman then told him that the maiden he had seen at the window would make him a shirt that could be drawn through the eye of a needle. The king hearing this, said that he would marry the maiden if she succeeded in doing such a wonderful thing; but that in the event of her not succeeding, he would have her put to death. When the king departed, the girl