rage. The guardian of the well was enraged, so he wished her three evil
wishes, as a punishment for her wickedness. He wished that she should
become three times as ugly as she was, that a dead rat should fall from
her mouth whenever she laughed, and that the fox-tail grass might spring
up in the footsteps wherever she trod. So it was. From that day the
wicked girl was called Maiden Foxtail, and very much talk was there
among the folk of her strange looks and her ill-nature. The hag could
not bear her step-daughter should be more beautiful than her own
daughter, and poor Swanwhite had to put up with all the ill-usage and
suffering that a step-child can meet with.

Swanwhite had a brother whom she loved very much, and he also loved her
with all his heart. He had long ago left home, and he was now the
servant of a king, far, far off in a strange land. The other servants of
the king bore him no good-will because he was liked by his master, and
they wished to ruin him if they could find anything against him.

They watched him closely, and one day, coming to the king, said--

"Lord king, we know well that you do not like evil or vice in your
servants. Thence we think it is only right to tell you that the young
foreigner, who is in your service, every morning and evening bows the
knee to an idol."

When the king heard that he set it down to envy and ill-will, and did
not think there was any truth in it, but the courtiers said that he
could easily discover for himself whether what they said was true or
not. They led the king to the young man's rooms, and told him to look
through the key-hole. When the king looked in he saw the young man on
his knees before a fine picture, and so he could not help believing that