These hideous reptiles--the catamaran and the boogaboo--stood glaring
at Wilhelm.

"Ow--wow--wow--wow!" roared the catamaran; "I will scorch you to a
cinder."

"Ow--wow--wow--wow!" bellowed the boogaboo, "I will tear your heart
from your bosom."

So, in the wise determination not to die until he had made a brave and
discreet struggle for the princess, Wilhelm left the castle and stole
down the highway towards the city.

That night he slept in a meadow, and the stars watched over him and the
daisies and buttercups bent their heads lovingly above him and sang
lullabies, while he dreamed of his mother and the princess, who seemed
to smile upon him all that night.

In the morning, Wilhelm pushed on to the city, and he went straight to
the palace gate and demanded to see the king. This was no easy matter,
but finally he was admitted and the king asked him what he wanted.
When the king heard that Wilhelm was determined to make an attempt to
rescue the princess, he burst out crying and embracing the youth,
assured him that it was folly for him--a simple country boy--to
undertake to accomplish what so many accomplished and skilled princes
had essayed in vain.

But Wilhelm insisted, until at last the king called his court together
and announced that the simple country lad had resolved to guess the
riddles of the old witch. The courtiers straightway fell to laughing
at the presumption of the rural wight, as they derisively called him,
but it was much to the credit of the court ladies that they admired the
youth for his comely person, ingenuous manners, and brave
determination. The end of it all was that, at noon that very day, a
long procession went with Wilhelm to the witch's castle, the courtiers
hardly suppressing their mirth, but the ladies all in tears for fear
the handsome youth would not guess the riddles and would therefore be
transformed by the witch.

The old witch saw the train approaching her castle and she went out
into the yard and sat on a rickety bench under a upas tree to receive
the king and his court. She was attended by twelve snapdragons, a
score of hobgoblins, and innumerable gnomes, elves, ghouls, and
hoodoos. On her left stood the catamaran, and on her right the
boogaboo, each more revoltingly hideous than ever before.

When the king and Wilhelm and the rest of the cavalcade came into the
castle yard and stood before the witch, she grinned and showed her
black gums and demanded to know why