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The Blue Fairy Book

Page 40

by Andrew Lang


  [Repeat the same inquiries to the man attending the swine and the man attending the goats, with the same answer in each case.]

  When he came to the place where the monstrous beasts were standing, he did not stop nor run away, but went boldly through amongst them. One came up roaring with open mouth to devour him, when he struck it with his wand, and laid it in an instant dead at his feet. He soon came to the Etin’s castle, where he knocked, and was admitted. The auld woman that sat by the fire warned him of the terrible Etin, and what had been the fate of the twa brithers ; but he was not to be daunted. The monster soon came in, saying :

  Snouk but and snouk ben,

  I find the smell of an earthly man ;

  Be he living, or be he dead,

  His heart shall be kitchen to my bread.’

  He quickly espied the young man, and bade him come forth on the floor. And then he put the three questions to him ; but the young man had been told everything by the good fairy, so he was able to answer all the questions. When the Etin found this he knew that his power was gone. The young man then took up an axe and hewed off the monster’s three heads. He next asked the old woman to show him where the King’s daughter lay; and the old woman took him upstairs and opened a great many doors, and out of every door came a beautiful lady who had been imprisoned there by the Etin ; and ane o’ the ladies was the King’s daughter. She also took him down into a low room, and there stood two stone pillars that he had only to touch wi’ his wand, when his twa friends and neighbours started into life. And the hale o’ the prisoners were overjoyed at their deliverance, which they all acknowledged to be owing to the prudent young man. Next day they a’ set out for the King’s Court, and a gallant company they made. And the King married his daughter to the young man that had delivered her, and gave a noble’s daughter to ilk ane o’ the other young men; and so they a’ lived happily a’ the rest o’ their days.33

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  VILLETTE, Charlotte Brontë. (0-486-45557-2)

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  TEN PLAYS, Anton Chekhov. (0-486-46560-8)

  THE HOUSE BEHIND THE CEDARS, Charles W. Chesnutt. (0-486-46144-0)

  TREMENDOUS TRIFLES, G. K Chesterton. (0-486-45475-4)

  THE KING OF PIRATES, Daniel Defoe. (0-486-46915-8)

  THE HAUNTED HOUSE, Charles Dickens. (0-486-46309-5)

  A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Charles Dickens. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. (0-486-45124-0)

  SIR NIGEL: A NOVEL OF THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (0-486-47144-6)

  BERNICE BOBS HER HAIR AND OTHER STORIES, F. Scott Fitzgerald. (0-486-47049-0)

  THE LAST DAY OF A CONDEMNED MAN, Victor Hugo. New Introduction by David Dow. (0-486-46998-0)

  THE TRIAL, Franz Kafka. Translated by David Wyllie. (0-486-47061-X)

  LILITH: A ROMANCE, George MacDonald. (0-486-46818-6)

  THE ELUSIVE PIMPERNEL, Baroness Orczy. (0-486-45464-9)

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  BLOOD ON THE DINING-ROOM FLOOR: A MURDER MYSTERY, Gertrude Stein. With an Introduction and Afterword by John Herbert Gill. (0-486-46236-6)

  ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Mark Twain. Illustrated by E. W Kemble. (0-486-44322-1)

  FROM THE EARTH To THE MOON, Jules Verne. Translated by Edward Roth. (0-486-46964-6)

  THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE, Oscar Wilde. (0-486-45216-6)

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  1 Le Prince Desir et la Princesse Mignonne. Par Madame Leprince de Beaumont.

  2 Asbjornsen and Moe.

  3 Madame d’Aulnoy.

  4 Charles Perrault.

  5 Arabian Nights.

  6 Grimm.

  7 Grimm.

  8 ‘ La Belle et la Bête. Par Madame de Villeneuve.

  9 Asbjoruseu and Möe.

  10 Asbjornsen and Möe.

  11 Charles Perrault.

  12 Fortunée. Par Madame la Comtesse d’Aulnoy.

  13 La Chatte blanche. Par Madame la Comtesse d’Aulnoy.

  14 Madame d’Aulnoy.

  15 Madame d’Aulnoy.

  16 Charles Perrault.

  17 Sesame is a kind of grain.

  18 Arabian Nyghts.

  19 ‘He was a vulgar boy!’

  20 Grimm.

  21 Grimm.

  22 Grimm.

  23 Charles Perrault.

  24 Cabinet des Fées.

  25 Charles Perrault.

  26 Grimm.

  27 Swift.

  28 Asbjornsen and Möe.

  29 Arabian Nights.

  30 Old Chapbook.

  31 Chambers. Popular Traditions of Scotland.

  32 Kitchen,’ that is ‘season.’

  33 ‘Chambers. Populal Traditions of Scotland.

 

 

 


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