world!" And there he sat in great grief and fear upon the mountain, not knowing what in the world he should do.

Now this rock belonged to fierce giants, who lived upon it; and as he saw three of them striding about, he thought to himself, "I can only save myself by feigning to be asleep ;" so he laid himself down, as if he were in a sound sleep. When the giants came up to him, the first kicked him with his foot, and said, "What worm is this that lies here curled up?" "Tread upon him and kill him," said the second. "It's not worth the trouble," said the third; "let him live: he will go climbing higher up the mountain, and some cloud will come rolling and carry him away." Then they passed on. But the huntsman had heard all they said, and as soon as they were gone he climbed to the top of the mountain; and when he had sat there a short time, a cloud came rolling around him, and caught him in a whirlwind, and bore him along for some time, till it settled in a garden, and he fell quite gently to the ground, amongst the greens and cabbages.

Then Master Peter got up and scratched his head, and looked around him, and said, "I wish I had something to eat; if I have not I shall be worse off than before for here I see neither apples nor pears, nor any kind of fruits; nothing but vegetables." At last he thought to himself, "I can eat salad, it will refresh and strengthen me." So he picked out a fine head of some plant that he took for a salad, and ate of it; but scarcely had he swallowed two bites, when he felt himself quite changed, and saw with horror that he was turned into

an ass. However, he still felt very hungry, and the green herbs tasted very nice ; SO he ate on till he came to another plant, which looked very like the first: but it really was quite different, for he had scarcely tasted it when he felt another change come over him, and soon saw that he was lucky enough to have found his old shape, and to have become Peter again.

Then he laid himself down and slept off a little of his weariness; and when he awoke the next morning he brake off a head of each sort of salad, and thought to himself, "This will help me to my fortune again, and enable me to punish some folks for their treachery." So he set about trying to find the castle of his old friends; and, after wandering about a few days, he luckily found it. Then he stained his face all over brown, so that even his mother would not have known him, and went into the castle and asked for a lodging; "I am so tired," said he, "that I can go no further." "Countryman," said the fairy, "who are you? and what is your business?" "I am," said he, a messenger sent by the king to find the finest salad that grows under the sun. I have been lucky enough to find it, and have brought it with me; but the heat of the sun is so scorching that it begins to wither, and I don't know that I can carry it any further."

When the fairy and the young lady heard of this beautiful salad, they longed to taste it, and said, "Dear countryman, let us just taste it!" "To be sure!" answered he; "I have two heads of it with me, and I will give you one;" so he opened his bag and gave them the bad sort. Then the fairy herself took it into

the kitchen to be dressed; and when it was ready she could not wait till it was carried up, but took a few leaves immediately, and put them in her mouth: but scarcely were they swallowed when she lost her own. form, and ran braying down into the court in the form Now the servant-maid came into the kitchen, and seeing the salad ready was going to carry it up; but on the way she, too, felt a wish to taste it, as the old woman had done, and ate some leaves: so she also was turned into an ass, and ran after the other, letting the dish with the salad fall on the ground.

of an ass.

Peter had been sitting all this time chatting with the fair Meta, and as nobody came with the salad, and she longed to taste it, she said, "I don't know where the salad can be." Then he thought something must have happened, and said, "I will go into the kitchen and see." And as he went he saw two asses in the court running about, and the salad lying on the ground. "All right!" said he; "those two have had their share." Then he took up the rest of the leaves, laid them on the dish, and brought them to the young lady, saying, "I bring you the dish myself, that you may not wait any longer." So she ate of it, and, like the others ran off into the court braying away.

Then Peter the huntsman washed his face and went into the court, that they might know him. "Now you shall be paid for your roguery," said he, and tied them all three to a rope, and took them along with him, till he came to a mill, and knocked at the window. "What's the matter ?" said the miller. tiresome beasts here," said the other;

"I have three

"if you will

take them, give them food and room, and treat them as I tell you, I will pay you whatever you ask." "With all my heart," said the miller; "but how shall I treat them?" Then the huntsman said, "Give the old one stripes three times a-day and hay once; give the next (who was the servant-maid) stripes once a-day and hay three times; and give the youngest (who was the pretty Meta) hay three times a-day and no stripes:" for he could not find it in his heart to have her beaten. After this he went back to the castle, where he found everything he wanted.

Some days after the miller came to him and told him the old ass was dead. "The other two," said he, "are alive and eat; but they are so sorrowful that they cannot last long." Then Peter pitied them, and told the miller to drive them back to him; and when they came, he gave them some of the good salad to eat.

The moment they had eaten, they were both changed into their right forms, and poor Meta fell on her knees before the huntsman and said, "Forgive me all the ill I have done thee; my mother forced me to it, and it was sorely against my will, for I always loved you well. Your wishing-cloak hangs up in the closet; and as for the bird's heart, I will give you that too." But Peter said, "Keep it; it will be just the same thing in the end, for I mean to make you my wife."

So Meta was very glad to come off so easily; and they were married, and lived together very happily till they died.

HEADS OFF.*

THERE was once a merchant who had only one child, a son, that was very young, and barely able to run alone. He had two richly-laden ships then making a voyage upon the seas, in which he had embarked all his wealth, in the hope of making great gains, when the news came that both were lost. Thus from being a rich man he became all at once so very poor

that no

*"Der König vom Goldenen Berg" of Grimm; from Zwehrn and other quarters. There are many remarkable features in this story, more especially its striking resemblance to the story of Sigurd or Siegfred, as it is to be collected from the Edda, the Volsunga Saga, Wilkina Saga, the Niebelungen Lied, and the popular tale of The Horny Siegfred. It is neatly abridged in Herbert's Misc. Poetry, vol. ii. part ii. p. 14. The placing upon the waters; the arrival at the castle of the dragon or snake; the treasures there; the disenchantment of Brynhilda (see our tale of Rose-bud); the wishing-ring; the gift of the ring or girdle; the separation, from which jealousy and mischief are to flow; the disguise of the old cloak, which we can easily believe to have been a genuine tarn-cap; the encountering of the discordant guardians of the treasures, as in the Niebelungen Lied: the wonderful sword Balmung or Mimung;

ever,

"(Thro' hauberk as thro' harpelon

The smith's son's swerd shall hew ;)" *

the boots "once worn by Loke when he escaped from Valhalla ;" and the ultimate revenge ;—are all points more or less coincident with adventures well known to those who have made the old fables of the North the objects of their researches. It should be recollected, howthat both the cap of invisibility and the boots of swiftness are to be found in the Relations of Ssidi Kur. The Hungarian tales published by Georg von Gaal, Vienna, 1822, contain one very similar to this in many particulars. Three dwarfs are there the inheritors of the wonderful treasures, which consist of a cloak, mile-shoes, and a purse which is always full.

*"Ettin Langshanks," translated from the Kämpe Visir in the Illustrations of Northern Antiquities.