A Riddling Tale

THREE women were changed into flowers which grew in the field, but one of them was allowed to be in her own home at night. Then once when day was drawing near, and she was forced to go back to her companions in the field and become a flower again, she said to her husband, "If thou wilt come this afternoon and gather me, I shall be set free and henceforth stay with thee." And he did so. Now the question is, how did her husband know her, for the flowers were exactly alike, and without any difference? Answer: as she was at her home during the night and not in the field, no dew fell on her as it did on the others, and by this her husband knew her.

NOTES

From a popular book on riddles of the beginning of the sixteenth century, communicated in Haupt's Zeitschrift, 3. 34. Being changed into a flower in the field occurs also in Dearest Roland, (No. 56). The deliverance here reminds us of the Queen of the Bees, who discovered the maiden who had eaten honey by lighting on her mouth (No. 62). There are other riddling-tales in Müllenhoff, pp. 503, 504.

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Household Tales. Margaret Hunt, translator. London: George Bell, 1884, 1892. 2 volumes.

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