Comb and collar

Once upon a time, there was a king in Lombardy (the name of the northern Italian state) who was uglier than any of his nationals, but he especially liked to appreciate the beauty of others. Therefore, he married the most beautiful woman in the eyes of others, but some people secretly said that she was the most unscrupulous woman. She couldn't stand other people's beauty, and the maids around her were mediocre. To make matters worse, she was jealous of the two children born to the king and his ex-wife.

Unfortunately, despite her bad character and all kinds of abuse to the prince and princess, the king was obedient to her. She arranged for the princess to have a governess who was as bad-tempered as herself. This cruel stepmother did everything she could to deprive the princess of her beauty, and she forced the princess to appear in the ugliest way. However, no matter what she tried, when the princess took off her ugly clothes and wiped the terrible brown paint on her face, she still looked as radiant as ever.

Recently, the cousin of the King of Lombardy, Archduke Prasenza, lost his mind, which dealt a great blow to his son Praseretz and daughter Filantina. The doctors were helpless one by one, so the prince and princess sent a messenger to consult a famous witch. She was called the Mother of Scalves. Because her cave was lined with scabbards, and everyone who visited her brought a knife, and she would insert them into the scabbard. However, they took little comfort from her, and she told them to tell their father to find it where he lost his mind. Praseretz and Filantina, despite the objections of the ministers, ran to the mysterious castle where the king slept, because it was there that the king lost his mind. There they wanted to help their father find his mind. However, after the two of them entered, there was no news of them again.

Three weeks passed, and there was still no news of the princess and the prince, so the minister told the council to deal with the matter. Finally, the council decided to send a team of elites to visit the Mother of the Scabbard again. This time, they had to bring pure gold knives inlaid with jewels. The witch was very happy to see such a beautiful gift. So she not only listened carefully to the story they told, but also took out a box from the hole containing a comb and an iron collar locked with a gold key.

"Take this comb and this collar to every court, and there find a woman beautiful enough to open the collar, and a man kind enough to take this comb out of the box. When you find these two people, the prince and princess can come back.

"But we don't quite understand," the ambassadors said. "How can these things help us find princes and princesses?"

"That's all I can do for you," replied the Mother of the Scabbard. She turned back to her cave, and the ambassadors did not dare to follow.

Over the next few months, the mad king's ministers traveled from court to court, and finally they came to the court of Lombardy, where people had already heard their stories. So as soon as the ambassadors arrived in the reception room of the palace in Lombardy, the king greeted them with open arms. The king thought that his wife was undoubtedly a beauty who could open that collar. Indeed, makeup, hair dyeing, and fancy clothes could make her look beautiful. The king had been so confused by this bad woman that he had lost his judgment, so he did not know that her beauty was in disguise.

When the appointed time came, the queen entered the hall, and the young princess followed her. The princess was in dire condition: the back of her clothes had been bulged out by the queen's instigation of the tailor, which made the princess look like a hunchback; her pink skin was covered with thick yellow paint; her black hair was wrapped in a tight brown cloth hat. The princess' outfit caused a lot of talk around the people around, and the ambassadors were often surprised when they heard comparisons between the princess and their lovely princess Felontina. And the king, now too ashamed to lift his head, ordered his son to temporarily take his place, exercise his powers, and fled the scene himself.

The prince ascended the throne and announced that the test would begin immediately. The collar first passed to the princess governess, who was one of the ugliest women anyone had ever seen, and naturally did not open the key. The prince seized the opportunity of his temporary power and decided to punish the hateful schoolmistress, because it was she who often encouraged the queen to treat the princess cruelly. So the terrible schoolmistress was pulled out and died amid cheers.

The prince then hurriedly ordered the maid to take his sister to be groomed, and then dressed her in the queen's most beautiful dress, because the princess herself did not have a dress, so she could only wear the queen's. Although the queen was very angry about this, she did not dare to interfere.

Soon, the princess returned to the hall after changing her dress, she looked so beautiful. If anyone had suspected that no one in the palace could open the locked collar before, now as soon as these people saw the princess, they were immediately convinced that she would be able to open the collar. The prince glanced at his sister, said nothing, and motioned for an ambassador to try the comb. The box for the comb was passed from one person to another, and everyone tried with all their might to get the comb out of the box, but failed. In the end, the prince was the only one who didn't try, because he was the chief judge, so he had to wait until the end.

After the men had tried the comb, the locked collar was passed on to each woman in turn, and no one could turn the key. At last the collar reached the queen, who turned the key a little, and this success made her heart beat faster, but just then the lock snapped and locked again. The queen's body backed away, fainting in disappointment.

At this time, it was the prince and his sister's turn to test. As soon as the prince touched the box, the box opened automatically, and as soon as the princess touched the key, the lock on the collar opened. The ministers and maids cheered immediately, but a black whirlwind blew suddenly, and then an earthquake occurred.

When everything was calm again and the sun came out again, the prince and princess had disappeared.

The whirlwind took only the prince and princess, but instead of being together, they were taken in opposite directions. The fast-moving airflow made the princess lose consciousness. When she woke up, she found herself taken deep into a dense forest, and alone. The princess nearly lost consciousness again. She ran frantically in the forest, calling her brother's name, hoping that he would help her, but her cries brought only a pack of hungry wolves. They opened their mouths, revealing their blood-red tongues, and lunged at her. She knelt on the ground, one hand covering her face and the other unconsciously clutching the collar, waiting for her doom. Her cheeks already felt their warm tongues, and she curled lower and lower. Suddenly, the wolf rushing ahead saw the collar, howled and ran back, and the other wolves followed. Echoes of wolf howls sounded in the forest.

When the princess regained consciousness, she got up and ran away, but she didn't know where to go. Then she found herself on a wide road and saw two shepherds driving a flock of sheep towards her. She ran forward quickly and asked for their help, but the sheep ran away as soon as they saw her collar.

"There must be something in me that scares all animals," she thought, and she found great comfort in this. She continued to walk, and came to the gate of a castle. She was about to go in for the night when a white snow fox ran across the road and stood in front of her.

It was very beautiful, with bright eyes, as if pleading for something. The princess hurriedly hid the collar under her skirt, lest it run away when it saw it. She approached it gently, hoping that it would enter the castle with her, but it went in the other direction. Although the princess was very tired, there was a force in the snow fox that attracted her to follow it. It turned the corner, and there was a river, and there was a small castle beside the river. It pulled the princess' clothes with its mouth and led her into a room with a table with milk and fruit on it. After she finished eating and drinking, she lay down on a pile of cushions and fell asleep. In her dream, she saw her missing brother, and Xuehu stayed quietly at her feet.

The prince was on a desolate seaside at the moment, thinking also of his sister, who had been blown here by the whirlwind. It was bare everywhere, except for a green island that could be seen on a high rock. He just stood here all day, watching the swaying palm trees and gleaming waterfalls on the island in the distance to pass the time.

"Could she be there?" he said to himself, and although there was no reason to think so, the thought kept hovering in his mind.

Suddenly a beautiful song came, which woke the young prince from his contemplation, and he immediately turned around to find the direction of the song. Although the singer seemed to be very close to him, he could not see her. Everywhere he went, the song seemed to come from another place, so he followed the song around.

Suddenly, he saw a huge fish skin spread on the sand between the sea and the rock. It was so ugly, he backed aside in disgust, and suddenly something jumped into the sea from behind him. He looked behind him, and the fish skin was no longer there. In the rock hole next to him, he found a black wooden bathtub with gold on all sides, gleaming in the sun.

The days passed without surprise, and the prince had almost made up his mind to leave the seaside and go inland to find his sister, when he heard the beautiful singing again and saw the bloody fish skin on the beach, and the bathtub in the hole was full of water. The prince barely slept that night, and before dawn he hid behind the rock, hoping to see the fish swim back again.

He didn't wait long, and when the first rays of sunlight hit the sea, a gleaming white thing blew towards the beach by the breeze. As it approached, he saw a lovely teenage girl sitting in a blue-pink-green colorful shell, with a navigation rope in her hand.

Fascinated by her beauty, the prince forgot that he was hiding behind the rock, and he ran out, got down on his knees on the sand, and stretched out his hands to the beauty. But now the comb and its box fell out of his pocket. When the girl saw the comb, she screamed, and drove her shell back, and soon disappeared in the direction of the island. The prince quickly took off his clothes and prepared to swim towards her. Just then, he saw a white snow fox next to him waving its paws frantically in the same direction, until he saw a small boat coming towards them, and it stopped waving and was happy.