Atondido Stories
was deeply incensed that he had not invited her to the wedding
and in fact had not even thanked her for her good advice.
Now this old woman had a gipsy for servant whom she used
to send to the lake for water. One day when this gipsy was filling
her pitcher, she saw in the lake a beautiful reflection. She sup-
posed it was a reflection of herself.
“Is it right,” she cried out, “that so lovely a creature as I
should carry water for that old witch?”
In a fury she threw the pitcher on the ground and broke it in-
to a hundred pieces. Then she looked up and discovered that it
wasn’t her own reflection she had seen in the water but that of
the beautiful queen.
Ashamed of herself, she picked up the broken pitcher and
went home. The old woman, who knew beforehand what had
happened, went out to meet her with a new pitcher.
“It’s no matter about the pitcher,” the old woman said. “Go
back to the lake and beg the lovely lady to let down the silken
cord and pull you up. Tell her you will comb her hair. When she
pulls you up, comb her hair until she falls asleep. Then stick this
pin into her head. After that you can dress yourself up in her
clothes and sit there like a queen.”
It was easy enough to persuade the gipsy. She took the pitch-
er and the pin and returned to the lake.
As she drew water she gazed at the lovely queen.
“Oh, how beautiful you are!” she whined, leering up at the
queen with an evil eye. “How beautiful you are! Aye, but you’d
be a hundred times more beautiful if you but let me comb out
your lovely hair! Indeed, I would so twine those golden tresses
that your lord would be delighted!”
With words like these she beguiled and coaxed the queen un-
til she let down the silken cord and drew the gipsy up. Once on
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