My cousin Dschemil and I were fleeing the ogre and his dog, but we had the means of throwing obstacles in his way.

“They are close upon us!” I cried to my cousin. “Throw the pin!”

He threw it behind him, and a dense thicket of thorns sprang up in front of the ogre.

I heard the ogre saying, “I will get through it somehow, even if I we have to burrow underground!” Soon he and his dog were on the other side and back in pursuit.

Dschemil flung his hatchet on the ground, and it turned into a lake.

“My dog and I will drink until the lake is dry!” shrieked the ogre. The dog drank so much that he burst and died. But the ogre did not stop drinking, and soon the lake was nearly dry. Then he cast a spell on me, saying, “Dischemila, let your head become a donkey’s head with a donkey’s fur!”

My cousin looked at me in horror, and said, “You really are a donkey, and not a woman at all!”

Then he left me, and went home!

Dschemila in Dschemil and Dschemila, The Grey Fairy Book. Illustration by H.J. Ford.