The Grey Fairytales. Andrew Lang

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      But when it was done, Dschemil looked at her in horror, and said, 'She is really a donkey, and not a woman at all!'

      And he left her, and went home.

      For two days poor Dschemila wandered about alone, weeping bitterly. When her cousin drew near his native town, he began to think over his conduct, and to feel ashamed of himself.

      'Perhaps by this time she has changed back to her proper shape,' he said to himself, 'I will go and see!'

      So he made all the haste he could, and at last he saw her seated on a rock, trying to keep off the wolves, who longed to have her for dinner. He drove them off and said, 'Get up, dear cousin, you have had a narrow escape.'

      Dschemila stood up and answered, 'Bravo, my friend. You persuaded me to fly with you, and then left me helplessly to my fate.'

      'Shall I tell you the truth?' asked he.

      'Tell it.'

      'I thought you were a witch, and I was afraid of you.'

      'Did you not see me before my transformation? and did you not watch it happen under your very eyes, when the ogre bewitched me?'

      'What shall I do?' said Dschemil. 'If I take you into the town, everyone will laugh, and say, "Is that a new kind of toy you have got? It has hands like a woman, feet like a woman, the body of a woman; but its head is the head of an ass, and its hair is fur."'

      'Well, what do you mean to do with me?' asked Dschemila. 'Better take me home to my mother by night, and tell no one anything about it.'

      'So I will,' said he.

      They waited where they were till it was nearly dark, then Dschemil brought his cousin home.

      'Is that Dschemil?' asked the mother when he knocked softly.

      'Yes, it is.'

      'And have you found her?'

      'Yes, and I have brought her to you.'

      'Oh, where is she? let me see her!' cried the mother.

      'Here, behind me,' answered Dschemil.

      But when the poor woman caught sight of her daughter, she shrieked, and exclaimed, 'Are you making fun of me? When did I ever give birth to an ass?'

      'Hush!' said Dschemil, 'it is not necessary to let the whole world know! And if you look at her body, you will see two scars on it.'

      'Mother,' sobbed Dschemila, 'do you really not know your own daughter?'

      'Yes, of course I know her.'

      'What are her two scars then?'

      'On her thigh is a scar from the bite of a dog, and on her breast is the mark of a burn, where she pulled a lamp over her when she was little.'

      'Then look at me, and see if I am not your daughter,' said Dschemila, throwing off her clothes and showing her two scars.

      And at the sight her mother embraced her, weeping.

      'Dear daughter,' she cried, 'what evil fate has befallen you?'

      'It was the ogre who carried me off first, and then bewitched me,' answered Dschemila.

      'But what is to be done with you?' asked her mother.

      'Hide me away, and tell no one anything about me. And you, dear cousin, say nothing to the neighbours, and if they should put questions, you can make answer that I have not yet been found.'

      'So I will,' replied he.

      Then he and her mother took her upstairs and hid her in a cupboard, where she stayed for a whole month, only going out to walk when all the world was asleep.

      Meanwhile Dschemil had returned to his own home, where his father and mother, his brothers and neighbours, greeted him joyfully.

      'When did you come back?' said they, 'and have you found Dschemila?'

      'No, I searched the whole world after her, and could hear nothing of her.'

      'Did you part company with the man who started with you?'

      'Yes; after three days he got so weak and useless he could not go on. It must be a month by now since he reached home again. I went on and visited every castle, and looked in every house. But there were no signs of her; and so I gave it up.'

      And they answered him: 'We told you before that it was no good. An ogre or an ogress must have snapped her up, and how can you expect to find her?'

      'I loved her too much to be still,' he said.