A KING1 was once hunting2 in a great wood,3 and he hunted the game so eagerly that none of his courtiers4 could follow him. When evening came on he stood still and looked round him, and he saw that he had quite lost himself. He sought a way out, but could find none. Then he saw an old woman with a shaking head coming towards him; but she was a witch.5
"Good woman,"' he said to her, "can you not show me the way out of the wood?"
"Oh, certainly, Sir King," she replied, "I can quite well do that, but on one condition,6 which if you do not fulfil you will never get out of the wood, and will die of hunger."
"What is the condition?"' asked the King.
"I have a daughter,"7 said the old woman, "who is so beautiful that she has not her equal in the world,8 and is well fitted to be your wife; if you will make her lady-queen9 I will show you the way out of the wood."