At length one night her mother appeared to her in a dream , and bade her marry the young man . So the next time he asked her -- as he did nearly every day -- to his surprise and joy she consented . The parents then saw they had better make the best of a bad business , and set about making the grand preparations suitable to the occasion . Of course the neighbours said a great many ill-natured things about the wooden helmet , but the bridegroom was too happy to care , and only laughed at them . When everything was ready for the feast , and the bride was dressed in the most beautiful embroidered dress to be found in Japan , the maids took hold of the helmet to lift it off her head , so that they might do her hair in the latest fashion . But the helmet would not come , and the harder they pulled , the faster it seemed to be , till the poor girl yelled with pain . Hearing her cries the bridegroom ran in and soothed her , and declared that she should be married in the helmet , as she could not be married without . Then the ceremonies began , and the bridal pair sat together , and the cup of wine was brought them , out of which they had to drink . And when they had drunk it all , and the cup was empty , a wonderful thing happened . The helmet suddenly burst with a loud noise , and fell in pieces on the ground ; and as they all turned to look they found the floor covered with precious stones which had fallen out of it . But the guests were less astonished at the brilliancy of the diamonds than at the beauty of the bride , which was beyond anything they had ever seen or heard of . The night was passed in singing and dancing , and then the bride and bridegroom went to their own house , where they lived till they died , and had many children , who were famous throughout Japan for their goodness and beauty . -LRB- Japanische Marchen . -RRB- THE MONKEY AND THE JELLY-FISH Children must often have wondered why jelly-fishes have no shells , like so many of the creatures that are washed up every day on the beach . In old times this was not so ; the jelly-fish had as hard a shell as any of them , but he lost it through his own fault , as may be seen in this story . The sea-queen Otohime , whom you read of in the story of Uraschimatoro , grew suddenly very ill . The swiftest messengers were sent hurrying to fetch the best doctors from every country under the sea , but it was all of no use ; the queen grew rapidly worse instead of better . Everyone had almost given up hope , when one day a doctor arrived who was cleverer than the rest , and said that the only thing that would cure her was the liver of an ape . Now apes do not dwell under the sea , so a council of the wisest heads in the nation was called to consider the question how a liver could be obtained . At length it was decided that the turtle , whose prudence was well known , should swim to land and contrive to catch a living ape and bring him safely to the ocean kingdom .
It was easy enough for the council to entrust this mission to the turtle , but not XXXXX all so easy for him to fulfil it .
about at from in like of than to with without