--- title: The Brown Fairy Book, part 15 — The Brown Fairy Book · full text with trees · page 2 description: The Brown Fairy Book, part 15, «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Not knowing quite what to make of it all, the boy continued on the trail, and went down the right-hand fork till he came to the clump of bushes --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / The Brown Fairy Book, part 15 # The Brown Fairy Book, part 15 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/) **2** - [101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/101/) — Crossing the plain, the girl and her father passed a herd of gazelles feeding. - [102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/102/) — They lifted their heads, wondering who was out so early, and when they caught sight of Thakane, they sang: - [103](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/103/) — Why do you give to the ogre Your child, so fair, so fair? - [104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/104/) — “You had better ask her, replied the man, “she is old enough to answer for herself.” - [105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/105/) — Then, in her turn, Thakane sang: - [106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/106/) — I gave Koumongoé to Koane, Koumongoé to the keeper of beasts; For without Koumongoé they could not go to the meadows: Without Koumongoé they would starve in the hut; That was why I gave him the Koumongoé of my father. - [107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/107/) — And the gazelles all cried: “Wretched man! it is you whom the ogre should eat, and not your beautiful daughter.” - [108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/108/) — At last they arrived at the village where the ogre lived, and they went straight to his hut. - [109](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/109/) — He was nowhere to be seen, but in his place was his son Masilo, who was not an ogre at all, but a very polite young man. - [110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/110/) — He ordered his servants to bring a pile of skins for Thakane to sit on, but told her father he must sit on the ground. - [111](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/111/) — Then, catching sight of the girl’s face, which she had kept down, he was struck by its beauty, and put the same question that the rabbit, and the elands, and the gazelles had done. - [112](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/112/) — Thakane answered him as before, and he instantly commanded that she should be taken to the hut of his mother, and placed under her care, while the man should be led to his father. - [113](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/113/) — Directly the ogre saw him he bade the servant throw him into the great pot which always stood ready on the fire, and in five minutes he was done to a turn. - [114](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/114/) — After that the servant returned to Masilo and related all that had happened. - [115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/115/) — Now Masilo had fallen in loved with Thakane the moment he saw her. - [116](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/116/) — At first he did not know what to make of this strange feeling, for all his life he had hated women, and had refused several brides whom his parents had chosen for him. - [117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/117/) — However, they were so anxious that he should marry, that they willingly accepted Thakane as their daughter-in-law, though she did bring any marriage portion with her. - [118](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/118/) — After some time a baby was born to her, and Thakane thought it was the most beautiful baby that ever was seen. - [119](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/119/) — But when her mother-in-law saw it was a girl, she wrung her hands and wept, saying: - [120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/120/) — “O miserable mother! - [121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/121/) — Miserable child! - [122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/122/) — Alas for you! why were you not a boy!” - [123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/123/) — Thakane, in great surprise, asked the meaning of her distress; and the old woman told her that it was the custom in that country that all the girls who were born should be given to the ogre to eat. [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/) **2** - ← previous: [The Brown Fairy Book, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/14/) - next →: [The Brown Fairy Book, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/16/) - ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/)