'to give such a lovely maiden in
exchange for a horse? Yet you are bound to do it, for you have sworn by
the head of your father. But perhaps I could manage to take her place.'
So saying, the fox transformed himself into another golden maiden, so
like the first that hardly anyone could tell the difference between
them.

The simpleton took her straight to the owner of the horse, who was
enchanted with her.

And the young man got back his father's vine and married the real golden
maiden into the bargain.

[Contes Populaires Slaves. Traduits par Louis Leger. Paris: Ernest
Leroux, editeur.]

The Unlooked-for Prince

(Polish Story)

A long time ago there lived a king and queen who had no children,
although they both wished very much for a little son. They tried not to
let each other see how unhappy they were, and pretended to take pleasure
in hunting and hawking and all sorts of other sports; but at length the
king could bear it no longer, and declared that he must go and visit the
furthest corners of his kingdom, and that it would be many months before
he should return to his capital.

By that time he hoped he would have so many things to think about that
he would have forgotten to trouble about the little son who never came.

The country the king reigned over was very large, and full of high,
stony mountains and sandy deserts, so that it was not at all easy to
go from one place to another. One day the king had wandered out alone,
meaning to go only a little distance, but everything looked so alike he
could not make out the path by which he had come. He walked on and on
for hours, the sun beating hotly on his head, and his legs trembling
under him, and he might have died of thirst if he had not suddenly
stumbled on a little well, which looked as if it had been newly dug. On
the surface floated a silver cup with a golden handle, but as it bobbed
about whenever the king tried to seize it, he was too thirsty to wait
any longer and knelt down and drank his fill.

When he had finished he began to rise from his knees, but somehow his
beard seemed to have stuck fast in the water, and with all his efforts
he could not pull it out. After two or three jerks to his head, which
only hurt him without doing any good, he called out angrily, 'Let go at
once! Who is holding me?'

'It is I, the King Kostiei,' said a voice from the well, and looking up
through the water was a little man with green eyes and a big head. 'Yo