Atondido Stories
The princess awaited the return of the beast. Then she asked
him to tell her the secret of his charmed life. The beast was very
much flattered to have the giant princess so interested in him,
and he told it to her at once. He never thought of a plot. This is
what he said: “My life is in the sea. In the sea there is a chest. In
the chest there is a stone. In the stone there is a pigeon. In the pi-
geon there is an egg. In the egg there is a candle. At the moment
when that candle is extinguished I die.”
All this time the prince had remained there, hiding under his
magic cap. He heard every word the beast said. As soon as the
beast had gone to sleep the prince stood on the seashore and
said: “Help me, O King of the Fishes,” as he took out the scale
which his brother-in-law had given him. Immediately there ap-
peared a great multitude of fishes asking what he wished them
to do. He asked them to get the chest from the depths of the sea.
They replied that they had never seen such a chest, but that
probably the sword-fish would know about it.
They hastened to call the sword-fish and he came at once. He
said that he had seen the chest only a moment before. All the
fishes went with him to get it, and they soon brought the chest
out of the sea. The prince opened the chest easily with the aid of
his magic key, and inside he found a stone.
Then the prince pulled the piece of wool which his second
brother-in-law had given him and said, “Help me, O King of the
Rams.” Immediately there appeared a great drove of rams, run-
ning to the seashore from all directions. They attacked the stone,
giving it mighty blows with their hard heads and horns. Soon
they broke open the stone, and from out of it there flew a pigeon.
The beast now awoke from his sleep and knew that he was
very ill. He remembered all that he had told the princess and ac-
cused her of having made a plot against his life. He seized his
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