“Now, go enjoy your wives and rule over your empire in peace; there is no more evil left to trouble you. In doing all these things, I have done my duty, because you saved my life. I am the Golden-Headed Fish. Farewell!” This he said, and dived into the sea, where he still lives.
HUSBAND OR WIFE!—WHICH?
A goldsmith and his wife lived a happy life in perfect harmony and love. In all the country they were considered the best patterns of conjugal love. It was their custom not to put out the light in their house but let it burn all the night. One night as the King and Queen were looking from their high window at the sleeping city, they noticed the goldsmith’s light gleaming at a distance, and his well-known matrimonial love became the subject of debate between the royal couple. The King insisted that it was on account of the husband’s virtue that he and his wife were in such perfect harmony. The Queen insisted that it was on account of the wife’s virtue. Thereupon they decided to make a trial and find out the truth. On the following day the Queen sent one of her handmaids to the goldsmith, saying that she had fallen in love with him and would become his wife if he killed his present wife.
“Not I,” answered the goldsmith; “I will not part from my wife for all the world. I am content with what Heaven has assigned me. I will not exchange my wife for a thousand Queens.”
On the following day the King sent a servant to the goldsmith’s wife, saying that he had been charmed with her beauty and wanted to make her queen, if she would kill her present husband.
“Is it really true? Is it really true?” exclaimed the woman.
“It is true,” answered the servant.
“Well, then,” said the woman, “I will kill my husband this very night. When you see our light has gone out to-night, know that I have begun to murder him.”
The servant brought word to the King, who ordered his men to be ready and go to the rescue of the goldsmith if the light was really put out. In the evening the goldsmith came home. After supper the husband and wife had a nice talk as usual, and the husband, putting his head in the lap of his wife, fell asleep. The woman put the loop of a rope around his neck, blew out the candle, and began to pull the rope. The poor goldsmith was strangled before the King’s men came to the rescue. This murder of one of his best subjects grieved the King so deeply that he thereafter hated all women from the depths of his soul. He could not sleep that night, and early in the morning he called his prime minister, saying: