Atondido Stories
country, who curiously opened it and saw the golden hair. On
finding it the prince rushed off to the palace, locked himself up
in his room, and would not leave it. He had fallen desperately in
love with the woman whose hair he had picked up, and refused
to eat, or drink, or sleep, or move, till she was brought to him.
The king, his father, was in great distress about the matter, and
did not know what to do. He feared lest his son should die and
leave him without an heir. At last he determined to seek the
counsel of his aunt, who was an ogress. The old woman consent-
ed to help him, and bade him not to be anxious, as she felt cer-
tain that she would succeed in getting the beautiful woman for
his son's wife.
She assumed the shape of a bee and went along buzzing, and
buzzing, and buzzing. Her keen sense of smell soon brought her
to the beautiful princess, to whom she appeared as an old hag,
holding in one hand a stick by way of support. She introduced
herself to the beautiful princess and said, "I am your aunt, whom
you have never seen before, because I left the country just after
your birth." She also embraced and kissed the princess by way of
adding force to her words. The beautiful princess was thorough-
ly deceived. She returned the ogress's embrace, and invited her
to come and stay in the house as long as she could, and treated
her with such honour and attention, that the ogress thought to
herself, "I shall soon accomplish my errand." When she had been
in the house three days, she began to talk of the charmed ring,
and advised her to keep it instead of her husband, because the
latter was constantly out shooting and on other such-like expedi-
tions, and might lose it. Accordingly the beautiful princess asked
her husband for the ring, and he readily gave it to her.
The ogress waited another day before she asked to see the
precious thing. Doubting nothing, the beautiful princess
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