A peasant woman gives birth to a stick of myrtle, which a prince then purchases for a great price.
It turns out that a stunningly beautiful fairy lives within the myrtle stick, and soon begins sneaking into the prince’s bed in the dark to ‘play at mute sparrow’ with him. The prince takes her for his secret lover, after she confesses that she is a slave to his every whim and desire.

-(Giambattista Basile. Il Pentamerone (Entertainment for the Young) 1634)

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