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Diamonds and Toads

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Diamonds and Toads or Toads and Diamonds is a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault, and titled by him "Les Fees" or "The Fairies."

In his source, as in Mother Hulda, the kind girl was the stepdaughter, not the other daughter. The change was apparently to decrease the similarity to Cinderella.

It is Aarne-Thompson tale 480, the kind and the unkind girls.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler A widow favored her older daughter, who was disagreeable and proud but looked like her, over her younger, who was sweet, courteous, and beautiful, but resembled her father.

One day while drawing water, the younger daughter was asked for a drink by an old woman. After giving it, she found that the woman was a fairy, who blessed her with having either a jewel or a flower fall from her mouth whenever she spoke. The widow sent her older daughter with instruction to act likewise toward an old beggar woman, but the fairy appeared as a fine lady, and the girl spoke rudely. The fairy decreed that either a toad or a snake would fall from her mouth whenever she spoke.

The widow, in a fury, drove her younger daughter out of the house. In the woods, she met a king's son, who fell in love with her and married her. In time, even the widow was sickened by her older daughter, and drove her out, and she died in the woods. Template:Endspoiler

See also