The head ran to the cottage and said: "Mistress, mistress, open the door!" The maid opened it. " Mistress, mistress, carry me over the threshold!" The maid did it. "Mistress, mistress, give me some supper!" She gave it some. "Mistress, mistress, make me up a bed." She made one up. "Mistress, mistress, tell me some stories!" She began to tell one. "Mistress, mistress, climb into my left ear and climb out again by the right!"
She climbed into the left ear and out by the right and had become indescribably beautiful, then she seated herself in a golden coach with silver horses and started for her kingdom. First, however, she went home and gave her father and mother all the treasures of the world but to her sister, the daughter of the wife she gave nothing.
After a year had passed the old man was speaking with his wife when she commanded him: "Take my daughter forth, you know where! Take her to the place to which you brought your daughter."
So the old man took her daughter and led her into the dark forest. In the forest stood a cottage. Then he said to her: "Sit here and wait while I go and chop wood." The little board swayed and rattled in the wind. "What has the old turkey-cock fastened up there?" asked the maid angrily and listened. Between the trees the horse's head was noisily stretched. It ran to the cottage: "Mistress, mistress, open the door!" "You are not a great man, do it yourself." It opened the door. "Mistress, mistress, carry me over the threshold!" "You are not a great man, come in yourself." The horse's head came in. "Mistress, mistress, give me some supper!" "You are not a great man, get it yourself." The head got it. "Mistress, mistress, make me up a bed and put me to sleep." "You are not a great man, do it yourself." The head did it. "Mistress, mistress, climb into my left ear and climb out again by the right!" The maid climbed into the left ear and climbed out of the right and had become old, an old gipsy without teeth, with a crutch. She ran into the woods and drowned herself from grief in the marsh.
There are in fairy stories similarly masculine Cinderellas that at the end marry a princess.
The fairy stories, in which simpletons or imbeciles are affec-
