Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/322

306 And these hunters also turned back, and went to the king their master, saying,—

"No, Your Majesty, we did not come across the young couple; the only person we saw was an old priest, standing near a rotten old church!"

"Why on earth did you not bring the church and the priest with you, you idiots?"

And the king ordered these unfortunate hunters to be killed like the others; after that he mounted his good steed, and galloped off himself in pursuit. This time when Melania the Clever heard her father coming after them, she changed the ponies into rivers of mead, with banks of jelly, while she changed the prince and herself into two ducks. When the king arrived, he commenced to eat the jelly and drink the mead as fast as ever he could, until he burst, and gave up the ghost!

The prince and Melania the Clever then went on farther. When they were quite close to the palace in which the prince's parents lived, Melania said,—

"Go on in front, my prince, and tell your father and mother the news of your marriage, while I wait for you here; but mark my words, you may embrace your parents as much as you like, but on no account kiss your sister, or you will forget all about me."

The prince promised to obey, and went on. When he arrived at the palace, he embraced his parents, and, forgetting what his wife had told him, he also kissed his sister; but he had hardly done so when he quite forgot all about the beautiful Melania his wife.

Melania meanwhile waited three whole days, but on the fourth she changed herself into a beggar-girl