Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/417

Rh heard the strange whim and the fanciful chimera of the prince, and the toils and perils he had gone through to satisfy himself; then she said to him, "Hasten away, my son! for if my three daughters meet you, I would not give a farthing for your life; half alive and half roasted, a frying-pan would be your bier and a belly your grave. But away with you as fast as a hare! and you will not go far before you find what you are seeking."

When the prince heard this, frightened, terrified and aghast, he set off running at full speed, and ran till he came to another country, where he again met an old woman, more ugly even than the ﬁrst, to whom he told all his story. Then the old woman said to him in like manner, "Away with you! unless you wish to serve for a breakfast to the little ogresses my daughters; but go straight on, and you will soon ﬁnd what you want."

The prince, hearing this, set off running as fast as a dog with a kettle at its tail; and he went on and on, until he met another old woman, who was sitting upon a wheel, with a basket full of little pies and sweetmeats on her arm, and feeding a number of jackasses, which thereupon began leaping about on the bank of a river and kicking at some poor swans. When the prince came up to the old woman, after making a hundred