y her, then!' returned he. 'But why did she do it? I am sure I said
nothing to make her throw herself into the oven.'

Accordingly the burnt woman was buried, but the prince would not go to
the funeral as all his thoughts were still with the wife who would not
speak to him. The next night he said to her, 'Dear wife, are you afraid
that something dreadful will happen if you speak to me? If you still
persist in being dumb, I shall be forced to get another wife.' The poor
girl longed to speak, but dread of the ogre kept her silent, and the
prince did as he had said, and brought a fresh bride into the palace.
And when she and her ladies were seated in state, the maiden planted a
sharp stake in the ground, and sat herself down comfortably on it, and
began to spin.

'What are you staring at so?' said the new bride to her ladies. 'Do you
think that is anything wonderful? Why, I can do as much myself!'

'I am sure you can't,' said they, much too surprised to be polite.

Then the maid sprang off the stake and left the room, and instantly the
new wife took her place. But the sharp stake ran through, and she was
dead in a moment. So they sent to the prince and said, 'Come quickly,
and bury your wife.'

'Bury her yourselves,' he answered. 'What did she do it for? It was not
by my orders that she impaled herself on the stake.'

So they buried her; and in the evening the prince came to the daughter
of Buk Ettemsuch, and said to her, 'Speak to me, or I shall have to take
another wife.' But she was afraid to speak to him.

The following day the prince hid himself in the room and watched. And
soon the maiden woke, and said to the pitcher and to the water-jug,
'Quick! go down to the spring and bring me some water; I am thirsty.'

And they went. But as they were filling themselves at the spring, the
water-jug knocked against the pitcher and broke off its spout. And the
pitcher burst into tears, and ran to the maiden, and said: 'Mistress,
beat the water-jug, for he has broken my spout!'

'By the head of Buk Ettemsuch, I implore you not to beat me!'

'Ah,' she replied, 'if only my husband had sworn by that oath, I could
have spoken to him from the beginning, and he need never have taken
another wife. But now he will never say it, and he will have to go on
marrying fresh ones.'

And the prince, from his hiding-place, heard her words, and he jumped up
and ran to her and said, 'By the head of Buk Ettemsuch, speak to me.'

So she s