Sleeping Beauty Hong kong
'Don't you know I'm spinning?' asked the old woman.
'That looks very pretty,' said the princess. 'How do you do it?'
She took the spindle from the old woman and at once it pierced her hand. The princess fell down unconscious in a faint.
The poor old woman was in a fearful state. She called out for help, she ran down the stairs, she poured cold water on the young girl's face, unlaced her dress, slapped the palms of her hands and rubbed perfume on her temples, all to no avail.
The palace was in an uproar. The king was recalled immediately.
'There is not much we can do,' he said. 'This is the old fairy's curse.'
He laid the young princess on a bed embroidered with gold and silver. There she looked as beautiful as an angel, even in her sleep. Her cheeks were the colour of carnations and her lips the colour of coral. She slept gently, breathing softly,
with her eyes lightly closed. The king commanded that no one should disturb her-not that anyone could have woken her in any case!
'We must find the youngest fairy, who promised that she would nnot die but would only fall into a deep sleep,'said the king.
A dwarf in seven league boots found her twelve thousand leagues away. She returned within an hour riding in a fiery chariot drawn by dragons.
She said, 'The princess must not be alone when she wakes a hundred years from now. I'll make all ready.'
She touched with her wand everyone in the palace, everyone exept the king and queen, for they were needed to rule the kingdom.She touched the governesses and maids of honour, the ladies of the bedchamber, the gentlemen, officers, stewards, cooks, under-cooks, sculions, guards, pages and footmen. She touched all the nhorses in the stables, the great dogs in the ncourtyard and the princess's favorite spaniel puppy Mopsey, which lay on the end other bed.
The moment she touched them, they all fell asleep. nThe guards fell asleep propped up on their spears, the cooks fell asleeep nwith their heads in the pastry and the fell asleep sliding half-way down the banisters. Even the greate fire, over which pheasants and partridges roasted on a spit, died down to wait for a hundred years. Let no one come near the palace,'said the king as the left, but no one could have done so anyway.There grew up instantly around the palace such a thick fence of trees with dense shrubs and possibly get through. Only the very tops of the palace towers could be seen above the trees.The princess and all the palaces slept for a hundred years.Another royal family ruled the kingdom and poeple forgot the old story of the sleeping princess. Strange rumours were heard about the hidden palace in the forest. Some said that it was an old castle haunted by evil spirits. Others said that witches and sorcerers held their seert meetings there. Most poeple belived thet the castls belonged to an ogre, with long teeth and claws, who carried children away to eat them. The king's son heard these rumours when he hunted near the forest one day and asked about the distant towers just visible above the tree tops.
I don't belives a word of it,'he said.Then an old him a different story.'I heard it some fifty years ago from my father who heard it from my grandfather,' said the old man, 'that there was a wonderful princess asleep in the castle that must wait a hundred years for a king's son to wake her.'
