Page:Slavonic Fairy Tales.djvu/121

 106 Irik, delighted with his good fortune, hastened back to the palace. On the skirt of the forest he saw a spider's web spread from one fir-tree to another; in the middle of it sat a large spider killing a fly. Irik took the gourd bottle with the water of death, sprinkled it over the spider, and it fell to the ground like a ripe cherry; it was quite dead. Then he sprinkled the fly with the water of life from the other bottle, and the fly began to struggle; in a short time it disentangled itself from the spider's web, and flew into the air.

"It is your good fortune, Irik, that you have brought me to life again," buzzed the fly in his ears. "Without my assistance you would never guess which one of the twelve maidens is the princess with the locks of gold."

When the king saw that Irik had also accomplished the third task, he said he would give him his daughter Zlatovlaska.

"But," added the king, "you must find her out yourself."

Then the king took him to a large hall, in the middle of which stood a table, and around it sat twelve beautiful girls, all exactly alike; each of them had a long cloth, as white as snow, thrown over her head and reaching to the ground, so that it was impossible to see what kind of hair she had.