Donkey Skin

: The Grey Fairy Book

There was once upon a time a king who was so much beloved by his

subjects that he thought himself the happiest monarch in the

whole world, and he had everything his heart could desire. His

palace was filled with the rarest of curiosities, and his gardens

with the sweetest flowers, while in the marble stalls of his

stables stood a row of milk-white Arabs, with big brown eyes.



Strangers who had heard of the marvels which the king had

collected, and made long journeys to see them, were, however,

surprised to find the most splendid stall of all occupied by a

donkey, with particularly large and drooping ears. It was a very

fine donkey; but still, as far as they could tell, nothing so

very remarkable as to account for the care with which it was

lodged; and they went away wondering, for they could not know

that every night, when it was asleep, bushels of gold pieces

tumbled out of its ears, which were picked up each morning by the

attendants.



After many years of prosperity a sudden blow fell upon the king

in the death of his wife, whom he loved dearly. But before she

died, the queen, who had always thought first of his happiness,

gathered all her strength, and said to him:



‘Promise me one thing: you must marry again, I know, for the good

of your people, as well as of yourself. But do not set about it

in a hurry. Wait until you have found a woman more beautiful and

better formed than myself.'



‘Oh, do not speak to me of marrying,' sobbed the king; ‘rather

let me die with you!' But the queen only smiled faintly, and

turned over on her pillow and died.



For some months the king's grief was great; then gradually he

began to forget a little, and, besides, his counsellors were

always urging him to seek another wife. At first he refused to

listen to them, but by-and-by he allowed himself to be persuaded

to think of it, only stipulating that the bride should be more

beautiful and attractive than the late queen, according to the

promise he had made her.



Overjoyed at having obtained what they wanted, the counsellors

sent envoys far and wide to get portraits of all the most famous

beauties of every country. The artists were very busy and did

their best, but, alas! nobody could even pretend that any of the

ladies could compare for a moment with the late queen.



At length, one day, when he had turned away discouraged from a

fresh collection of pictures, the king's eyes fell on his adopted

daughter, who had lived in the palace since she was a baby, and

he saw that, if a woman existed on the whole earth more lovely

than the queen, this was she! He at once made known what his

wishes were, but the young girl, who was not at all ambitious,

and had not the faintest desire to marry him, was filled with

dismay, and begged for time to think about it. That night, when

everyone was asleep, she started in a little car drawn by a big

sheep, and went to consult her fairy godmother.



‘I know what you have come to tell me,' said the fairy, when the

maiden stepped out of the car; ‘and if you don't wish to marry

him, I will show you how to avoid it. Ask him to give you a dress

that exactly matches the sky. It will be impossible for him to

get one, so you will be quite safe.' The girl thanked the fairy

and returned home again.



The next morning, when her father (as she had always called him)

came to see her, she told him that she could give him no answer

until he had presented her with a dress the colour of the sky.

The king, overjoyed at this answer, sent for all the choicest

weavers and dressmakers in the kingdom, and commanded them to

make a robe the colour of the sky without an instant's delay, or

he would cut off their heads at once. Dreadfully frightened at

this threat, they all began to dye and cut and sew, and in two

days they brought back the dress, which looked as if it had been

cut straight out of the heavens! The poor girl was thunderstruck,

and did not know what to do; so in the night she harnessed her

sheep again, and went in search of her godmother.



‘The king is cleverer than I thought,' said the fairy; ‘but tell

him you must have a dress of moonbeams.'



And the next day, when the king summoned her into his presence,

the girl told him what she wanted.



‘Madam, I can refuse you nothing,' said he; and he ordered the

dress to be ready in twenty-four hours, or every man should be

hanged.



They set to work with all their might, and by dawn next day, the

dress of moonbeams was laid across her bed. The girl, though she

could not help admiring its beauty, began to cry, till the fairy,

who heard her, came to her help.



‘Well, I could not have believed it of him!' said she; ‘but ask

for a dress of sunshine, and I shall be surprised indeed if he

manages that! ‘



The goddaughter did not feel much faith in the fairy after her

two previous failures; but not knowing what else to do, she told

her father what she was bid.



The king made no difficulties about it, and even gave his finest

rubies and diamonds to ornament the dress, which was so dazzling,

when finished, that it could not be looked at save through smoked

glasses!



When the princess saw it, she pretended that the sight hurt her

eyes, and retired to her room, where she found the fairy awaiting

her, very much ashamed of herself.



‘There is only one thing to be done now,' cried she; ‘you must

demand the skin of the ass he sets such store by. It is from that

donkey he obtains all his vast riches, and I am sure he will

never give it to you.'



The princess was not so certain; however, she went to the king,

and told him she could never marry him till he had given her the

ass's skin.



The king was both astonished and grieved at this new request, but

did not hesitate an instant. The ass was sacrificed, and the skin

laid at the feet of the princess.



The poor girl, seeing no escape from the fate she dreaded, wept

afresh, and tore her hair; when, suddenly, the fairy stood before

her.



‘Take heart,' she said, ‘ all will now go well! Wrap yourself in

this skin, and leave the palace and go as far as you can. I will

look after you. Your dresses and your jewels shall follow you

underground, and if you strike the earth whenever you need

anything, you will have it at once. But go quickly: you have no

time to lose.'



So the princess clothed herself in the ass's skin, and slipped

from the palace without being seen by anyone.



Directly she was missed there was a great hue and cry, and every

corner, possible and impossible, was searched. Then the king sent

out parties along all the roads, but the fairy threw her

invisible mantle over the girl when they approached, and none of

them could see her.



The princess walked on a long, long way, trying to find some one

who would take her in, and let her work for them; but though the

cottagers, whose houses she passed, gave her food from charity,

the ass's skin was so dirty they would not allow her to enter

their houses. For her flight had been so hurried she had had no

time to clean it.



Tired and disheartened at her ill-fortune, she was wandering, one

day, past the gate of a farmyard, situated just outside the walls

of a large town, when she heard a voice calling to her. She

turned and saw the farmer's wife standing among her turkeys, and

making signs to her to come in.



‘I want a girl to wash the dishes and feed the turkeys, and clean

out the pig-sty,' said the w omen, ‘and, to judge by your dirty

clothes, you would not be too fine for the work.'



The girl accepted her offer with joy, and she was at once set to

work in a corner of the kitchen, where all the farm servants came

and made fun of her, and the ass's skin in which she was wrapped.

But by-and-by they got so used to the sight of it that it ceased

to amuse them, and she worked so hard and so well, that her

mistress grew quite fond of her. And she was so clever at keeping

sheep and herding turkeys that you would have thought she had

done nothing else during her whole life!



One day she was sitting on the banks of a stream bewailing her

wretched lot, when she suddenly caught sight of herself in the

water. Her hair and part of her face was quite concealed by the

ass's head, which was drawn right over like a hood, and the

filthy matted skin covered her whole body. It was the first time

she had seen herself as other people saw her, and she was filled

with shame at the spectacle. Then she threw off her disguise and

jumped into the water, plunging in again and again, till she

shone like ivory. When it was time to go back to the farm, she

was forced to put on the skin which disguised her, and now seemed

more dirty than ever; but, as she did so, she comforted herself

with the thought that to-morrow was a holiday, and that she would

be able for a few hours to forget that she was a farm girl, and

be a princess once more.



So, at break of day, she stamped on the ground, as the fairy had

told her, and instantly the dress like the sky lay across her

tiny bed. Her room was so small that there was no place for the

train of her dress to spread itself out, but she pinned it up

carefully when she combed her beautiful hair and piled it up on

the top of her head, as she had always worn it. When she had

done, she was so pleased with herself that she determined never

to let a chance pass of putting on her splendid clothes, even if

she had to wear them in the fields, with no one to admire her but

the sheep and turkeys.



Now the farm was a royal farm, and, one holiday, when ‘Donkey

Skin' (as they had nicknamed the princess) had locked the door of

her room and clothed herself in her dress of sunshine, the king's

son rode through the gate, and asked if he might come and rest

himself a little after hunting. Some food and milk were set

before him in the garden, and when he felt rested he got up, and

began to explore the house, which was famous throughout the whole

kingdom for its age and beauty. He opened one door after the

other, admiring the old rooms, when he came to a handle that

would not turn. He stooped and peeped through the keyhole to see

what was inside, and was greatly astonished at beholding a

beautiful girl, clad in a dress so dazzling that he could hardly

look at it.



The dark gallery seemed darker than ever as he turned away, but

he went back to the kitchen and inquired who slept in the room at

the end of the passage. The scullery maid, they told him, whom

everybody laughed at, and called ‘ Donkey Skin;' and though he

perceived there was some strange mystery about this, he saw quite

clearly there was nothing to be gained by asking any more

questions. So he rode back to the palace, his head filled with

the vision he had seen through the keyhole.



All night long he tossed about, and awoke the next morning in a

high fever. The queen, who had no other child, and lived in a

state of perpetual anxiety about this one, at once gave him up

for lost, and indeed his sudden illness puzzled the greatest

doctors, who tried the usual remedies in vain. At last they told

the queen that some secret sorrow must be at the bottom of all

this, and she threw herself on her knees beside her son's bed,

and implored him to confide his trouble to her. If it was

ambition to be king, his father would gladly resign the cares of

the crown, and suffer him to reign in his stead; or, if it was

love, everything should be sacrificed to get for him the wife he

desired, even if she were daughter of a king with whom the

country was at war at present!



‘Madam,' replied the prince, whose weakness would hardly allow

him to speak, ‘do not think me so unnatural as to wish to deprive

my father of his crown. As long as he lives I shall remain the

most faithful of his subjects! And as to the princesses you speak

of, I have seen none that I should care for as a wife, though I

would always obey your wishes, whatever it might cost me.'



‘Ah! my son,' cried she, ‘we will do anything in the world to

save your life ----and ours too, for if you die, we shall die

also.'



‘Well, then,' replied the prince, ‘I will tell you the only thing

that will cure me ---a cake made by the hand of "Donkey Skin." ‘



‘Donkey Skin?' exclaimed the queen, who thought her son had gone

mad; ‘and who or what is that?'



‘Madam,' answered one of the attendants present, who had been

with the prince at the farm, "'Donkey Skin" is, next to the wolf,

the most disgusting creature on the face of the earth. She is a

girl who wears a black, greasy skin, and lives at your farmer's

as hen-wife.'



‘Never mind,' said the queen; ‘my son seems to have eaten some of

her pastry. It is the whim of a sick man, no doubt; but send at

once and let her bake a cake.'



The attendant bowed and ordered a page to ride with the message.



Now it is by no means certain that ‘Donkey Skin' had not caught a

glimpse of the prince, either when his eyes looked through the

keyhole, or else from her little window, which was over the road.

But whether she had actually seen him or only heard him spoken

of, directly she received the queen's command, she flung off the

dirty skin, washed herself from head to foot, and put on a skirt

and bodice of shining silver. Then, locking herself into her

room, she took the richest cream, the finest flour, and the

freshest eggs on the farm, and set about making her cake.



As she was stirring the mixture in the saucepan a ring that she

sometimes wore in secret slipped from her finger and fell into

the dough. Perhaps ‘Donkey Skin' saw it, or perhaps she did not;

but, any way, she went on stirring, and soon the cake was ready

to be put in the oven. When it was nice and brown she took off

her dress and put on her dirty skin, and gave the cake to the

page, asking at the same time for news of the prince. But the

page turned his head aside, and would not even condescend to

answer.



The page rode like the wind, and as soon as he arrived at the

palace he snatched up a silver tray and hastened to present the

cake to the prince. The sick man began to eat it so fast that the

doctors thought he would choke; and, indeed, he very nearly did,

for the ring was in one of the bits which he broke off, though he

managed to extract it from his mouth without anyone seeing him.



The moment the prince was left alone he drew the ring from under

his pillow and kissed it a thousand times. Then he set his mind

to find how he was to see the owner---for even he did not dare to

confess that he had only beheld ‘Donkey Skin' through a keyhole,

lest they should laugh at this sudden passion. All this worry

brought back the fever, which the arrival of the cake had

diminished for the time; and the doctors, not knowing what else

to say, informed the queen that her son was simply dying of love.

The queen, stricken with horror, rushed into the king's presence

with the news, and together they hastened to their son's bedside.



‘My boy, my dear boy!' cried the king, ‘who is it you want to

marry? We will give her to you for a bride; even if she is the

humblest of our slaves. What is there in the whole world that we

would not do for you?'



The prince, moved to tears at these words, drew the ring, which

was an emerald of the purest water, from under his pillow.



‘Ah, dear father and mother, let this be a proof that she whom I

love is no peasant girl. The finger which that ring fits has

never been thickened by hard work. But be her condition what it

may, I will marry no other.'



The king and queen examined the tiny ring very closely, and

agreed, with their son, that the wearer could be no mere farm

girl. Then the king went out and ordered heralds and trumpeters

to go through the town, summoning every maiden to the palace. And

she whom the ring fitted would some day be queen.



First came all the princesses, then all the duchesses' daughters,

and so on, in proper order. But not one of them could slip the

ring over the tip of her finger, to the great joy of the prince,

whom excitement was fast curing. At last, when the high-born

damsels had failed, the shopgirls and chambermaids took their

turn; but with no better fortune.



‘Call in the scullions and shepherdesses,' commanded the prince;

but the sight of their fat, red fingers satisfied everybody.



‘There is not a woman left, your Highness,' said the chamberlain;

but the prince waved him aside.



‘Have you sent for "Donkey Skin," who made me the cake?' asked

he, and the courtiers began to laugh, and replied that they would

not have dared to introduce so dirty a creature into the palace.



‘Let some one go for her at once,' ordered the king. ‘ I

commanded the presence of every maiden, high or low, and I meant

it.'



The princess had heard the trumpets and the proclamations, and

knew quite well that her ring was at the bottom of it all. She,

too, had fallen in love with the prince in the brief glimpse she

had had of him, and trembled with fear lest someone else's finger

might be as small as her own. When, therefore, the messenger from

the palace rode up to the gate, she was nearly beside herself

with delight. Hoping all the time for such a summons, she had

dressed herself with great care, putting on the garment of

moonlight, whose skirt was scattered over with emeralds. But when

they began calling to her to come down, she hastily covered

herself with her donkey-skin and announced she was ready to

present herself before his Highness. She was taken straight into

the hall, where the prince was awaiting her, but at the sight of

the donkey-skin his heart sank. Had he been mistaken after all?



‘Are you the girl,' he said, turning his eyes away as he spoke,

‘are you the girl who has a room in the furthest corner of the

inner court of the farmhouse?'



‘Yes, my lord, I am,' answered she.



‘Hold out your hand then,' continued the prince, feeling that he

must keep his word, whatever the cost, and, to the astonishment

of every one present, a little hand, white and delicate, came

from beneath the black and dirty skin. The ring slipped on with

the utmost ease, and, as it did so, the skin fell to the ground,

disclosing a figure of such beauty that the prince, weak as he

was, fell on his knees before her, while the king and queen

joined their prayers to his. Indeed, their welcome was so warm,

and their caresses so bewildering, that the princess hardly knew

how to find words to reply, when the ceiling of the hall opened,

and the fairy godmother appeared, seated in a car made entirely

of white lilac. In a few words she explained the history of the

princess, and how she came to be there, and, without losing a

moment, preparations of the most magnificent kind were made for

the wedding.



The kings of every country in the earth were invited, including,

of course, the princess's adopted father (who by this time had

married a widow), and not one refused.



But what a strange assembly it was! Each monarch travelled in the

way he thought most impressive; and some came borne in litters,

others had carriages of every shape and kind, while the rest were

mounted on elephants, tigers, and even upon eagles. So splendid a

wedding had never been seen before; and when it was over the king

announced that it was to be followed by a coronation, for he and

the queen were tired of reigning, and the young couple must take

their place. The rejoicings lasted for three whole months, then

the new sovereigns settled down to govern their kingdom, and made

themselves so much beloved by their subjects, that when they

died, a hundred years later, each man mourned them as his own

father and mother.