--- title: The Donkey Cabbage, part 4 — The Yellow Fairy Book · full text with trees description: The Donkey Cabbage, part 4, «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: 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. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/) [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 Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / The Donkey Cabbage, part 4 # The Donkey Cabbage, part 4 The Donkey Cabbage, part 4 of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang: the whole text, 22 sentences and 529 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/1/) — 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. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/2/) — In the cavern sat an old woman spinning. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/3/) — This was the cloister of the nuns, and the old woman was the Abbess. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/4/) — They all spent their time in spinning, and that is why the convent has this name. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/5/) — 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. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/6/) — 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. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/7/) — 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. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/8/) — 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. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/9/) — I will tell you what you have to do. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/10/) — 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. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/11/) — 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. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/12/) — 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. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/13/) — Thus you will be able to cut off all his seven heads. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/14/) — 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. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/15/) — Then take down the sword gently, and quickly give the monster a blow on his tail with it. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/16/) — This will make him waken up, and if he catches sight of you he will seize you. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/17/) — But you must quickly cut off his first head, and then wait till the next one comes up. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/18/) — Then strike it off also, and so go on till you have cut off all his seven heads.’ - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/19/) — The old Abbess 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. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/20/) — As soon as the wild beasts heard of their king’s death, they all hastened to the castle, but the youth had long since mounted his horse and was already far out of their reach. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/21/) — They pursued him as fast as they could, but they found it impossible to overtake him, and he reached home in safety. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/13/22/) — Thus he freed his country from this terrible oppression. - ← previous: [The Donkey Cabbage, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/12/) - next →: [The Grateful Beasts(11), part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/14/) - ↑ back to [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/)