And the Prince asked again if that were his bride’s aunt. They both said Yes; so the Prince said, if that were so, she too had better sit down with them to the feast.
But they had scarce taken their seats before another ugly old hag came in, with eyes as large as saucers, and so red and bleared, ’twas gruesome to look at her. But up jumped the bride again, with her “Good-day, Auntie”, and her, too, the Prince asked to sit down; but I can’t say he was very glad, for he thought to himself: “Heaven shield me from such Aunties as my bride has!” So when he had sat awhile, he could not keep his thoughts to himself any longer, but asked,
“But how, in all the world, can my bride, who is such a lovely lassie, have such loathsome, misshapen Aunts?”
“I’ll soon tell you how it is”, said the first. “I was just as good-looking when I was her age; but the reason why I’ve got this long nose is, because I was always kept sitting, and poking, and nodding over my spinning, and so my nose got stretched and stretched, until it got as long as you now see it.”
“And I”, said the second, “ever since I was young, I have sat and scuttled backwards and forwards over my loom, and that’s how my back has got so broad and humped as you now see it.”
“And I”, said the third, “ever since I was little, I have sat, and stared, and sewn, and sewn and stared, night and day; and that’s why my eyes have got so ugly and red, and now there’s no help for them.”
“So! so! “said the Prince, “’twas lucky I came to know this; for if folk can get so ugly and loathsome by all this, then my bride shall neither spin, nor weave, nor sew all her life long.”
THE COCK, THE CUCKOO, AND THE BLACK-COCK
[This is another of those tales in which the birds’ notes must be imitated.]
Once on a time the Cock, the Cuckoo, and the Black-cock bought a cow between them. But when they came to share it, and couldn’t agree which should buy the others out, they settled that he who woke first in the morning should have the cow.