THE SERPENT-PERI AND THE MAGIC MIRROR
There was once upon a time a poor wood-cutter
who had an only son. One day this poor man fell
sick and said to his son: "If I should die follow thou
my handicraft, and go every day into the wood.
Thou mayest cut down whatever trees thou dost find
there, but at the edge of the wood is a cypress-tree,
that thou must leave standing." Two days after-*wards
the man died and was buried.
But the son went into the wood and cut down the trees, only the cypress-tree he left alone. One day the youth stood close to this tree and thought to himself: "What can be the matter with this tree, seeing that I am not allowed to lay a hand upon it?" So he looked at it, and considered it curiously, till at last he took his axe and went with evil intent towards the tree. But he had scarcely lifted his foot when the cypress-tree drew away from him. The
