he
king's nose as the reward of his aid. Now, to lose one's nose, is worse
even than losing one's ear or one's finger, and the king hesitated as to
whether he should comply. However, he had always prided himself on being
an honourable man, so he cut off his nose, and handed it to Paperarello.
Paperarello bowed, put the nose in his surcoat, and rode away. In the
evening, when the king returned from the battle, he found Paperarello
sitting in the road making clay dolls. And Paperarello got up and said
to him: 'Do you know who I am? I am your dirty goose-boy, yet you have
given me your finger, and your ear, and your nose.'

That night, when the king sat at dinner, Paperarello came in, and laying
down the ear, and the nose, and the finger on the table, turned and
said to the nobles and courtiers who were waiting on the king: 'I am the
invincible knight, who rode three times to your help, and I also am a
king's son, and no goose-boy as you all think.' And he went away and
washed himself, and dressed himself in fine clothes and entered the hall
again, looking so handsome that the proud princess fell in love with
him on the spot. But Paperarello took no notice of her, and said to the
king: 'It was kind of you to offer me your daughter in marriage, and for
that I thank you; but I have a wife at home whom I love better, and it
is to her that I am going. But as a token of farewell, I wish that your
ear, and nose, and finger may be restored to their proper places.' So
saying, he bade them all goodbye, and went back to his home and his
fairy bride, with whom he lived happily till the end of his life.

[From Sicilianisohen Mahrchen.]

The Gifts Of The Magician

Once upon a time there was an old man who lived in a little hut in the
middle of a forest. His wife was dead, and he had only one son, whom he
loved dearly. Near their hut was a group of birch trees, in which some
black-game had made their nests, and the youth had often begged his
father's permission to shoot the birds, but the old man always strictly
forbade him to do anything of the kind.

One day, however, when the father had gone to a little distance to
collect some sticks for the fire, the boy fetched his bow, and shot at a
bird that was just flying towards its nest. But he had not taken proper
aim, and the bird was only wounded, and fluttered along the ground. The
boy ran to catch it, but though he ran very fast, and the bird seemed to
flutter along very slow