a golden steed and
golden armour, and rides to the summit. Then the lid of the glass case
flies open, the maiden raises herself and gives the knight a ring, and
he rides down with her to her father.

Next day it is proclaimed that whoever can produce the ring shall marry
the princess; and, to the astonishment of the two elder brothers, the
youngest claims the prize. The magician explains to the king that the
young man is in reality the son of a powerful monarch, but was stolen
away in infancy and brought up as a peasant, and the king accepts him as
his son-in-law. His indolence was not an inherent defect, but had been
imposed upon him by the witch who had stolen him. On Sunday he appeared
before the people in his golden armour and mounted on his golden horse,
but his reputed brothers died of rage and envy.

[Footnote 25: There are several very similar stories in Finnish.]

[Footnote 26: Compare the story of "Princess Helena the Fair" (Ralston's
_Russian Folk-Tales_, p. 256).]

THE THREE SISTERS.[27]

(JANNSEN.)

This is the familiar story of an ill-used younger sister. A countryman
was taking game to market, and his two elder daughters asked him to
bring them fine clothes, but the youngest asked him to bring her
anything he got gratis. A shopkeeper offered him a kitten, which he
brought to the youngest girl, who treated it kindly. On the two
following Sundays, the elder sisters went to church to show off their
fine clothes, leaving the younger one at home. She went into the garden,
and a pied magpie settled on the fence, which the cat pursued, and on
the first Sunday it dropped a gold brooch, and on the second two gold
rings.

As the third Sunday was wet, the two elder sisters stayed at home, but
sent the youngest to church; so she adorned herself with her finery and
set out, and at church she attracted general attention. When her sisters
heard of it, they insisted on knowing her secret; and they carried the
kitten into the garden several times, to no purpose, for as they had
always ill-treated it before, it only bit and scratched them. At last
they killed it, and threw it among the rushes by the side of the lake.

When the youngest sister missed the kitten, she went out weeping into
the wood. Her sisters followed her, murdered her, and buried her under a
heap of sand, covering the grave with reeds, and when they went home
they told their father that she had been carried away by gipsies. A
shepherd, p