death. Suddenly
a little old woman appeared before her, holding an apple in her hand,
and said, 'Why do you weep, my Queen, and what makes you so unhappy?'

'Alas, good mother,' answered the Queen, 'I am unhappy because I have no
children.'

'Is that what vexes you?' said the old woman. 'Listen to me. I am a nun
from the Spinning Convent,(10) and my mother when she died left me this
apple. Whoever eats this apple shall have a child.'

(10) Convent Gnothi.

The Queen gave money to the old woman, and bought the apple from her.
Then she peeled it, ate it, and threw the rind out of the window, and it
so happened that a mare that was running loose in the court below ate up
the rind. After a time the Queen had a little boy, and the mare also had
a male foal. The boy and the foal grew up together and loved each other
like brothers. In course of time the King died, and so did the Queen,
and their son, who was now nineteen years old, was left alone. One day,
when he and his horse were talking together, the Horse said to him,
'Listen to me, for I love you and wish for your good and that of the
country. If you go on every year sending twelve youths and twelve
maidens to the King of the Beasts, your country will very soon be
ruined. Mount upon my back: I will take you to a woman who can direct
you how to kill the Seven-headed Serpent.'

Then the youth mounted his horse, who carried him far away to a mountain
which was hollow, for in its side was a great underground cavern. In the
cavern sat an old woman spinning. This was the cloister of the nuns, and
the old woman was the Abbess. They all spent their time in spinning, and
that is why the convent has this name. All round the walls of the cavern
there were beds cut out of the solid rock, upon which the nuns slept,
and in the middle a light was burning. It was the duty of the nuns to
watch the light in turns, that it might never go out, and if anyone of
them let it go out the others put her to death.

As soon as the King's son saw the old Abbess spinning he threw himself
at her feet and entreated her to tell him how he could kill the
Seven-headed Serpent.

She made the youth rise, embraced him, and said, 'Know, my son, that it
is I who sent the nun to your mother and caused you to be born, and with
you the horse, with whose help you will be able to free the world from
the monster. I will tell you what you have to do. Load your horse with
cotton, and go by a secret passage w