If you go on every year sending twelve youths and twelve maidens to the King of the Beasts , your country will very soon be ruined . Mount upon my back : I will take you to a woman who can direct you how to kill the Seven-headed Serpent . ' Then the youth mounted his horse , who carried him far away to a mountain which was hollow , for in its side was a great underground cavern . In the cavern sat an old woman spinning . This was the cloister of the nuns , and the old woman was the Abbess . They all spent their time in spinning , and that is why the convent has this name . All round the walls of the cavern there were beds cut out of the solid rock , upon which the nuns slept , and in the middle a light was burning . It was the duty of the nuns to watch the light in turns , that it might never go out , and if anyone of them let it go out the others put her to death . As soon as the King 's son saw the old Abbess spinning he threw himself at her feet and entreated her to tell him how he could kill the Seven-headed Serpent . She made the youth rise , embraced him , and said , ` Know , my son , that it is I who sent the nun to your mother and caused you to be born , and with you the horse , with whose help you will be able to free the world from the monster . I will tell you what you have to do . Load your horse with cotton , and go by a secret passage which I will show you , which is hidden from the wild beasts , to the Serpent 's palace . You will find the King asleep upon his bed , which is all hung round with bells , and over his bed you will see a sword hanging . With this sword only it is possible to kill the Serpent , because even if its blade breaks a new one will grow again for every head the monster has . Thus you will be able to cut off all his seven heads . And this you must also do in order to deceive the King : you must slip into his bed-chamber very softly , and stop up all the bells which are round his bed with cotton . Then take down the sword gently , and quickly give the monster a blow on his tail with it . This will make him waken up , and if he catches sight of you he will seize you . But you must quickly cut off his first head , and then wait till the next one comes up . Then strike it off also , and so go on till you have cut off all his seven heads . '
The old XXXXX then gave the Prince her blessing , and he set out upon his enterprise , arrived at the Serpent 's castle by following the secret passage which she had shown him , and by carefully attending to all her directions he happily succeeded in killing the monster .
Abbess King back bed-chamber blow cloister feet first son year