these versions are from Milan (_Nov. fior._ pp. 411, 415,
417). In the first, "The King of the Sun," a trait occurs that is of
some interest. The hero plays billiards with the King of the Sun and
wins his daughter. He goes in search of his bride, and at last finds an
old man who tells him where the King of the Sun lives, and adds: "In a
wood near by is a pond where, in the afternoon, the king's three
daughters bathe. Go and carry away their clothes; and when they come and
ask for them give them back on condition that they will take you to
their father." The hero does as he is told, is taken to the king, and
obliged to choose his bride from among the three, with his eyes
blindfolded. The remainder of the story consists of the usual flight,
with the transformations of the lovers. The incident of the maidens who
bathe, and whose clothes the hero steals, is clearly an example of the
Swan-maiden myth, and occurs in a few other Italian tales. In a story
from the North of Italy (Monferrato, Comparetti, No. 50), "The Isle of
Happiness," a poor boy goes to seek his fortune. He encounters an old
man who tells him that fortune appears but once in a hundred years, and
if not taken then, never is. He adds that this is the very time for
fortune to appear--that day or the next--and advises the youth to hide
himself in a wood near the bank of a stream, and when three beautiful
girls come and bathe, to carry away the clothes of the middle one. He
does so, and compels the owner (who is none other than Fortune) to marry
him. By his mother's fault he loses his bride, as in the Cupid and
Psyche stories, and is obliged to go in search of her to the Isle of
Happiness. The same incident occurs in several Sicilian stories. In one
(Pitre, No. 50, "Give me the Veil!") the hero, a poor youth, goes in
search of his fortune as in the last story, and meets an old woman who
tells him to go to a certain fountain, where twelve doves will come to
drink and become twelve maidens "as beautiful as the sun, with veils
over their faces," and advises the youth to seize the veil of the most
beautiful girl and keep it; for if she obtains it she will become a dove
again. The youth does as he is commanded, and takes his wife home,
giving the veil to his mother to keep for him. She gives it to the wife,
who becomes a dove again, and disappears. The same thing happens twice;
the third time the veil is burned, and the wife, who turns out to be the
enchanted daughter of