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to do her bidding when the man, his intended victim, said, "O my bundles of thread, twist yourselves into a thick and strong bond, and with it tie up the executioner's hands." The bundles obeyed their master, and the executioner was rendered powerless. The stranger then commanded some lines of his thread to enter the nostrils of the pretended queen who had ordered him to be killed. They did so, and she fell to the ground senseless. But his work was not yet fully accomplished. He had to free the king from his torments; and so, by a spell, he made each single thread in the bundles get into the eye of each needle that pierced the sufferer's body and draw it out. The exercise of magical power did not end there. The needles with the long thread in the eye of each sewed up the eyes, ears, and lips of the woman who had up to that moment masqueraded as the royal spouse. She fell to the ground and struggled in torture; while the king, having his eyes opened, saw and recognized his old friend the goat-herd, asked his pardon for having neglected him, and appointed him his prime minister. After this the two friends always remained together, the goat-herd entertaining the king in the evenings with the charming music of the flute of gold which the former had given him as a token of affection in the old days of their friendship. The queen, on the return of her former beauty and prosperity, enjoyed a happy and peaceful life, admired and adored by her husband, while the wretched woman who had supplanted her died a miserable death.