Page:Researches respecting the Book of Sindibad and Portuguese Folk-Tales.djvu/37

 Rh had a hand in this." But the prince said that she had not. The witch then said, "To-morrow you must plant a number of vines, and at night you must bring me a basket full of grapes from them." The prince, weeping, again went to the girl, and recounted all that the mother had ordered him to do. The girl told him not to be distressed, but to go and plant the vines, and that at night he was to go to the spot and he would find the vines full of grapes. The prince did so: he planted the vines, and at night he returned to the spot and found the grapes, and gave them to the mother. When the witch saw them, she said, "Ha! ha! ha! Guiomar has had a hand again in this." But the prince again assured her that she had not; and he went away contentedly to tell the girl the result. They afterwards agreed to run away on the following day, when the mother should go out. Next day, when they found that the mother had gone out of the house, they arranged everything for their flight. The girl spat three times on the ground at the threshold as she left the house, and they then ran away. When the witch returned and knocked at the door, one of the spits answered, "Who is there?" The witch replied, "Open to me, Guiomar." The other spit then said, "Guiomar has ran away." The witch asked, "With whom?" And the third spit answered, "With a young man." The witch then told the girl's father to go and run after them, for he might yet catch them. The father set to running; and the girl, when she was half way on the road, looked back and saw her father. She then said to the prince, "There comes my father; what shall I do?" He replied, in great fright, "Indeed, what shall we do!" But the girl said that she would arrange everything satisfactorily, and then continued saying, "Let my boy be converted into a public road, and myself into an old man with a sack on his back." And so it all took place. The father then coming up to the spot, and seeing the old man, he said, "Pray, my little neighbour, have