Note 9 — Chapter II · ROUMANIAN-GYPSY STORIES

The Holy Maid will not marry. The devil creeps in at window. ‘ “Now, thou fair maiden, wilt thou come to me or no?” “No”—this said the maiden—“to a dead one say I it, but to a living one No.” ’ Devil kills first her father, next her mother; lastly threatens herself. She tells the gravedigger, ‘Bear me not over the door [this supplies a lacuna in the Roumanian-Gypsy version], but bury me in a grave under the threshold, and take me not out from there.’ The girl then dies and is buried. Flower grows out of grave. King sees it and sends coachman to pluck it. He cannot [supplies lacuna], but king does, and takes it home. At night the flower turns into a girl and eats. Servant sees and tells. King watches next night. The girl bids him pluck the flower with a clean white cloth with the left hand,9 then she will never change back into a rose, but remain a maiden [supplies lacuna]. King does so, and she marries him on condition he will never force her to go to church [supplies lacuna]. He rues his promise when he sees the other kings going to church with their wives. She consents: ‘But now, as thou wilt, I go. Thy God shall be also my God.’ When she comes into church, there are the twelve robbers [story reverts here to the first half of No. 2]. The robber cuts her throat and she dies. ‘If she is not dead, she is still alive.’