the king's son was here and married
me." The father was greatly consoled at finding his daughter so well
married. "Now, my father," said she, "empty this sack of fennel, for I
will fill it with gold for you." And then she begged him to bring his
wife, and the daughter blind of one eye. The father returned home with
his bag full of money, and his wife asked in terror: "Who gave you this
money?" He answered: "O wife! do you know that I have found my daughter,
and she is the king's wife, and filled this bag with money?" She,
instead of being happy, was angry at hearing that her stepdaughter was
still alive; however, she said to her husband: "I will go and take my
daughter." So they went, the husband, the wife, and the blind daughter,
and came to the husband's daughter, who received her stepmother very
kindly. But the latter, seeing that the king was away, and that her
stepdaughter was alone, seized her and threw her from a window into the
sea; and what did she do then? She took her blind daughter and dressed
her in the other's clothes, and said to her: "When the king comes and
finds you here weeping, say to him: 'The little calf has blinded me with
his horn, and I have only one eye!'" Then the stepmother returned to her
own house. The king came and found her daughter in bed weeping, and said
to her: "Why are you weeping?" "The little calf struck me with his horn
and put out one of my eyes." The king cried at once: "Go call the
butcher to kill the calf?" When the calf heard that he was to be killed,
he went out on the balcony and called to his sister in the sea:--

"Oh! sister,
For me the water is heated,
And the knives are sharpened."

The sister replied from the sea:--

"Oh! brother, I cannot help you,
I am in the dog-fish's mouth."

When the king heard the calf utter these words, he looked out of the
window, and when he saw his wife in the sea, he summoned two sailors,
and had them take her out and bring her up and restore her. Then he took
the blind girl and killed her and cut her in pieces and salted her like
tunny-fish, and sent her to her mother. When her husband found it out he
left her and went to live with his daughter.

* * * * *

It may not be amiss to mention here another class of stories which come
under the formula of "Persecuted Maiden." The class resembles in some
respects the story of King Lear. The youngest daughter is persecuted by
her father be