"No matter; shut them all the same."
She goes to her father. Her father comes with all his court to
fetch the serpent. He opens the door, and who is astonished? Why,
everybody. Instead of a serpent there is a charming young man; and
they all go to the church. When they come out there is a grand dinner
at the king's, but the bridegroom says to his wife:
"To-day we must not make a feast at all. We have a great business to
do in the house; we will come another day for the feast."
She told that to her father, and they go on to their house. When they
are come there her husband brings her in a large basket a serpent's
skin, and says to her:
"You will make a great fire, and when you hear the first stroke of
midnight you will throw this serpent's skin into the fire. That must
be burnt up, and you must throw the ashes out of window before the
last stroke of twelve has ceased striking. If you do not do that I
shall be wretched for ever."
The lady says to him, "Certainly; I will do everything that I can
to succeed."
She begins before midnight to make the fire. As soon as she heard the
first stroke she throws the serpent's skin (on the fire), and takes
two spits and stirs the fire, and moves about the skin and burns it,
till ten strokes have gone. Then she takes a shovel, and throws the
ashes outside as the last twelfth stroke is ending. Then a terrible
voice says:
"I curse your cleverness, and what you have just done."
At the same time her husband comes in. He did not know where he was
for joy. He kisses her, and does not know how to tell his wife what
great good she has done him.
"Now I do not fear anything. If you had not done as I told you, I
should have been enchanted for twenty-one years more. Now it is all
over, and we will go at our ease to-morrow to your father's house
for the wedding feast."
They go the next day and enjoy themselves very much. They return to
their palace to take away the handsomest things, because they did
not wish to stop any more in that corner of the mountain. They load
all their valuable things in carts and waggons, and go to live with
the king. This young lady has four children, two boys and two girls,
and as her sisters were very jealous of her, their father sent them
out of the house. The king gave his crown to his son-in-law, who was
already a son of a king. As they had lived well, they died well too.
Laurentine.
We have another version of this tale, which is a little more like its
prototype, the "Cupid and Psyche" of Apuleius. In this the monster
comes only at night. At first she is horribly frightened at it, but
little by little she becomes accustomed to it, and loves it. At last,
after having been left alone for some days, a magnificent young man
appears to her, a king's son, who had been bewitched into the monster
until some one should love him. Of course they marry and are happy.
Estefanella Hirigaray.
In a third version, which was not taken down, the father was a sailor
instead of a king.