Is it acceptable for the victorious woman to be wicked? If so, then Child Owlet (Child 291) should be included. Lady makes a pass at her husband's nephew, who indignantly refuses. She stabs herself with the usual penknife, and tells her husband that she has incurred the injury defending herself against the nephew's attempted rape. The family resolves to have him torn apart by wild horses, but in the end makes do with tame ones.

--- Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net

||: April is the cruellest month, Breeding lilacs out of the dead land, :||