A long, long time afterwards the king sent out a proclamation that he intended to let his daughter marry, and would give her to that man who could tell him what particular birth-marks she had about her. The young shepherd heard this proclamation, and when he went home in the evening he said to his mother, “Mother, I intend to go to the king’s palace to-morrow, so get me my best linen ready.”
“And what do you want in the king’s palace?” asked the poor old woman wondering.
“I intend, God helping me, to marry the king’s daughter,” replied the young man boldly.
“Oh! you had better give up that fancy,” cried the mother. “It will be better for you to go and work and gain a piaster than to go, like a fly without a head, dreaming about things that are as high as the sky above you.”
But the young man would not be persuaded, and went the next day to the king’s palace. Before going out of the hut, however, he said to his anxious old mother, “Good-bye, mother.” [[194]]
He had not waited very far before a gipsy met him, and asked, “Where are you going, my young man?”
“I am going to the king’s palace,” answered the youth, “and I mean, God helping me, to marry the king’s daughter.”
“But, my dear comrade,” said the gipsy, keeping near him, “how can you really expect that she will marry you, when you are so poor? Only a shepherd!”
“Eh!” returned the young man; “but I know what birth-marks she has, and the king has sent out a proclamation that whoever guesses these shall have her for his wife.”
“If it is so,” rejoined the cunning gipsy, “I myself will also go to the palace with you.”