ABSTRACT

The Devil, seeing such great love between mother and son, tempted them to abominable behaviour, to such an extent that the son had intercourse with his mother. The queen, in fact, at once conceived. But when she became pregnant the son in deep grief abandoned his kingdom completely and went off to distant parts. When the time of her labour arrived, the mother bore a most beautiful male child, but seeing the little one born, she at once cut its throat, slitting its windpipe in the middle. Some blood from the baby's throat fell on to the palm of the queen's left hand, and made there four circles like this: 000 O. The queen could by no means remove the circles from her hand, and because of this she was so ashamed that she always had a glove on that hand, so that nobody could see the spots of blood.