The Orange Fairy Book (26 page)

'What are you doing in my house?' cried she. And the wives answered
boldly that now they had found their husbands they meant to save them
from such a wicked witch.

'Well, I will give you your chance,' answered the ogress, with a
hideous grin; 'we will see if you can slide down this mountain. If you
can reach the bottom of the cavern, you shall have your husbands back
again.' And as she spoke she pushed them before her out of the door to
the edge of a precipice, which went straight down several hundreds of
feet. Unseen by the witch, the frog's mother fastened one end of the
magic line about her, and whispered to the little boy to hold fast the
other. She had scarcely done so when the witch turned round.

'You don't seem to like your bargain,' said she; but the girl answered:

'Oh, yes, I am quite ready. I was only waiting for you!' And sitting
down she began her slide. On, on, she went, down to such a depth that
even the witch's eyes could not follow her; but she took for granted
that the woman was dead, and told the sister to take her place. At
that instant, however, the head of the elder appeared above the rock,
brought upwards by the magic line. The witch gave a howl of disgust,
and hid her face in her hands; thus giving the younger sister time to
fasten the cord to her waist before the ogress looked up.

'You can't expect such luck twice,' she said; and the girl sat down and
slid over the edge. But in a few minutes she too was back again, and
the witch saw that she had failed, and feared lest her power was going.
Trembling with rage though she was, she dared not show it, and only
laughed hideously.

'I sha'n't let my prisoners go as easily as all that!' she said. 'Make
my hair grow as thick and as black as yours, or else your husbands
shall never see daylight again.'

'That is quite simple,' replied the elder sister; 'only you must do as
we did—and perhaps you won't like the treatment.'

'If you can bear it, of course I can,' answered the witch. And so the
girls told her they had first smeared their heads with pitch and then
laid hot stones upon them.

'It is very painful,' said they, 'but there is no other way that we
know of. And in order to make sure that all will go right, one of us
will hold you down while the other pours on the pitch.'

And so they did; and the elder sister let down her hair till it hung
over the witch's eyes, so that she might believe it was her own hair
growing. Then the other brought a huge stone, and, in short, there was
an end of the witch. The sisters were savages who had never seen a
missionary.

So when the sisters saw that she was dead they went to the hut, and
nursed their husbands till they grew strong. Then they picked up the
frog, and all went to make another home on the other side of the great
lake.

(From the Journal of the Anthropological Institute.)

Once upon a time there lived a king who was always at war with his
neighbours, which was very strange, as he was a good and kind man,
quite content with his own country, and not wanting to seize land
belonging to other people. Perhaps he may have tried too much to
please everybody, and that often ends in pleasing nobody; but, at any
rate, he found himself, at the end of a hard struggle, defeated in
battle, and obliged to fall back behind the walls of his capital city.
Once there, he began to make preparations for a long siege, and the
first thing he did was to plan how best to send his wife to a place of
security.

The queen, who loved her husband dearly, would gladly have remained
with him to share his dangers, but he would not allow it. So they
parted, with many tears, and the queen set out with a strong guard to a
fortified castle on the outskirts of a great forest, some two hundred
miles distant. She cried nearly all the way, and when she arrived she
cried still more, for everything in the castle was dusty and old, and
outside there was only a gravelled courtyard, and the king had
forbidden her to go beyond the walls without at least two soldiers to
take care of her.

Now the queen had only been married a few months, and in her own home
she had been used to walk and ride all over the hills without any
attendants at all; so she felt very dull at her being shut up in this
way. However, she bore it for a long while because it was the king's
wish, but when time passed and there were no signs of the war drifting
in the direction of the castle, she grew bolder, and sometimes strayed
outside the walls, in the direction of the forest.

Then came a dreadful period, when news from the king ceased entirely.

'He must surely be ill or dead,' thought the poor girl, who even now
was only sixteen. 'I can bear it no longer, and if I do not get a
letter from him soon I shall leave this horrible place and go back to
see what is the matter. Oh! I do wish I had never come away!'

So, without telling anyone what she intended to do, she ordered a
little low carriage to be built, something like a sledge, only it was
on two wheels—just big enough to hold one person.

'I am tired of being always in the castle,' she said to her attendants;
'and I mean to hunt a little. Quite close by, of course,' she added,
seeing the anxious look on their faces. 'And there is no reason that
you should not hunt too.'

All the faces brightened at that, for, to tell the truth, they were
nearly as dull as their mistress; so the queen had her way, and two
beautiful horses were brought from the stable to draw the little
chariot. At first the queen took care to keep near the rest of the
hunt, but gradually she stayed away longer and longer, and at last, one
morning, she took advantage of the appearance of a wild boar, after
which her whole court instantly galloped, to turn into a path in the
opposite direction.

Unluckily, it did not happen to lead towards the king's palace, where
she intended to go, but she was so afraid her flight would be noticed
that she whipped up her horses till they ran away.

When she understood what was happening the poor young queen was
terribly frightened, and, dropping the reins, clung to the side of the
chariot. The horses, thus left without any control, dashed blindly
against a tree, and the queen was flung out on the ground, where she
lay for some minutes unconscious.

A rustling sound near her at length caused her to open her eyes; before
her stood a huge woman, almost a giantess, without any clothes save a
lion's skin, which was thrown over her shoulders, while a dried snake's
skin was plaited into her hair. In one hand she held a club on which
she leaned, and in the other a quiver full of arrows.

At the sight of this strange figure the queen thought she must be dead,
and gazing on an inhabitant of another world. So she murmured softly
to herself:

'I am not surprised that people are so loth to die when they know that
they will see such horrible creatures.' But, low as she spoke, the
giantess caught the words, and began to laugh.

'Oh, don't be afraid; you are still alive, and perhaps, after all, you
may be sorry for it. I am the Lion Fairy, and you are going to spend
the rest of your days with me in my palace, which is quite near this.
So come along.' But the queen shrank back in horror.

'Oh, Madam Lion, take me back, I pray you, to my castle; and fix what
ransom you like, for my husband will pay it, whatever it is. But the
giantess shook her head.

'I am rich enough already,' she answered, 'but I am often dull, and I
think you may amuse me a little.' And, so saying, she changed her
shape into that of a lion, and throwing the queen across her back, she
went down the ten thousand steps that led to her palace. The lion had
reached the centre of the earth before she stopped in front of a house,
lighted with lamps, and built on the edge of a lake of quicksilver. In
this lake various huge monsters might be seen playing or fighting—the
queen did not know which— and around flew rooks and ravens, uttering
dismal croaks. In the distance was a mountain down whose sides waters
slowly coursed—these were the tears of unhappy lovers—and nearer the
gate were trees without either fruit of flowers, while nettles and
brambles covered the ground. If the castle had been gloomy, what did
the queen feel about this?

For some days the queen was so much shaken by all she had gone through
that she lay with her eyes closed, unable either to move or speak.
When she got better, the Lion Fairy told her that if she liked she
could build herself a cabin, as she would have to spend her life in
that place. At these words the queen burst into tears, and implored
her gaoler to put her to death rather than condemn her to such a life;
but the Lion Fairy only laughed, and counselled her to try to make
herself pleasant, as many worse things might befall her.

'Is there no way in which I can touch your heart?' asked the poor girl
in despair.

'Well, if you really wish to please me you will make me a pasty out of
the stings of bees, and be sure it is good.'

'But I don't see any bees,' answered the queen, looking round.

'Oh, no, there aren't any,' replied her tormentor; 'but you will have
to find them all the same.' And, so saying, she went away.

'After all, what does it matter?' thought the queen to herself, 'I have
only one life, and I can but lose it.' And not caring what she did,
she left the palace and seating herself under a yew tree, poured out
all her grief.

'Oh, my dear husband,' wept she, 'what will you think when you come to
the castle to fetch me and find me gone? Rather a thousand times that
you should fancy me dead than imagine that I had forgotten you! Ah,
how fortunate that the broken chariot should be lying in the wood, for
then you may grieve for me as one devoured by wild beasts. And if
another should take my place in your heart—Well, at least I shall
never know it.'

She might have continued for long in this fashion had not the voice of
a crow directly overhead attracted her attention. Looking up to see
what was the matter she beheld, in the dim light, a crow holding a fat
frog in his claws, which he evidently intended for his supper. The
queen rose hastily from the seat, and striking the bird sharply on the
claws with the fan which hung from her side, she forced him to drop the
frog, which fell to the round more dead than alive. The crow, furious
at his disappointment, flew angrily away.

As soon as the frog had recovered her senses she hopped up to the
queen, who was still sitting under the yew. Standing on her hind legs,
and bowing low before her, she said gently:

'Beautiful lady, by what mischance do you come here? You are the only
creature that I have seen do a kind deed since a fatal curiosity lured
me to this place.'

'What sort of a frog can you be that knows the language of mortals?'
asked the queen in her turn. 'But if you do, tell me, I pray, if I
alone am a captive, for hitherto I have beheld no one but the monsters
of the lake.'

'Once upon a time they were men and women like yourself,' answered the
frog, 'but having power in their hands, they used it for their own
pleasure. Therefore fate has sent them here for a while to bear the
punishment of their misdoings.'

'But you, friend frog, you are not one of these wicked people, I am
sure?' asked the queen.

'I am half a fairy,' replied the frog; 'but, although I have certain
magic gifts, I am not able to do all I wish. And if the Lion Fairy
were to know of my presence in her kingdom she would hasten to kill me.'

'But if you are a fairy, how was it that you were so nearly slain by
the crow?' said the queen, wrinkling her forehead.

'Because the secret of my power lies in my little cap that is made of
rose leaves; but I had laid it aside for the moment, when that horrible
crow pounced upon me. Once it is on my head I fear nothing. But let
me repeat; had it not been for you I could not have escaped death, and
if I can do anything to help you, or soften your hard fate, you have
only to tell me.'

'Alas,' sighed the queen, 'I have been commanded by the Lion Fairy to
make her a pasty out of the stings of bees, and, as far as I can
discover, there are none here; as how should there be, seeing there are
no flowers for them to feed on? And, even if there were, how could I
catch them?'

'Leave it to me,' said the frog, 'I will manage it for you.' And,
uttering a strange noise, she struck the ground thrice with her foot.
In an instant six thousand frogs appeared before her, one of them
bearing a little cap.

'Cover yourselves with honey, and hop round by the beehives,' commanded
the frog, putting on the cap which her friend was holding in her mouth.
And turning to the queen, he added:

'The Lion Fairy keeps a store of bees in a secret place near to the
bottom of the ten thousand steps leading into the upper world. Not
that she wants them for herself, but they are sometimes useful to her
in punishing her victims. However, this time we will get the better of
her.'

Just as she had finished speaking the six thousand frogs returned,
looking so strange with bees sticking to every part of them that, sad
as she felt, the poor queen could not help laughing. The bees were all
so stupefied with what they had eaten that it was possible to draw
their stings without hunting them. So, with the help of her friend,
the queen soon made ready her pasty and carried it to the Lion Fairy.

'Not enough pepper,' said the giantess, gulping down large morsels, in
order the hide the surprise she felt. 'Well, you have escaped this
time, and I am glad to find I have got a companion a little more
intelligent than the others I have tried. Now, you had better go and
build yourself a house.'

So the queen wandered away, and picking up a small axe which lay near
the door she began with the help of her friend the frog to cut down
some cypress trees for the purpose. And not content with that the six
thousand froggy servants were told to help also, and it was not long
before they had built the prettiest little cabin in the world, and made
a bed in one corner of dried ferns which they fetched from the top of
the ten thousand steps. It looked soft and comfortable, and the queen
was very glad to lie down upon it, so tired was she with all that had
happened since the morning. Scarcely, however, had she fallen asleep
when the lake monsters began to make the most horrible noises just
outside, while a small dragon crept in and terrified her so that she
ran away, which was just what the dragon wanted!