30.1 "There aren't any husbands where you live?" Asks the world serpent.
"If I had stayed at home, I would have had to marry my brother."
"It's said that the Gods always marry exclusively their own siblings."
"Well I'm not a god. And I don't want to be one." She said, firmly.
"It's a bit overated, perhaps. But if you don't want to marry your brother, than who do you want to marry?"
"That's a good question." Said the girl. "Maybe a bronze statue."
"A bronze statue?"
"Yes. I've made up my mind. I'm going to marry a bronze statue!"
"Well then." Said the serpent, "As it so happens, I know of a garden full of statues near to the end of the world. If you hold on to one of my scales, I will take you there."
And the girl held on to the snake and she and her boat where carried as he spun. After about vhalf of a day had passed, the serpent said,
"Let go of me and sail. The isle you seek is straight ahead."
She sailed on and soon came to an island with a ruined temple in sight of the beach. There were many statues and she felt it would be rash to choose the bronze one off hand.
She found the stone statue too simple, the tin statue feeble and self effacing, the gold statue vain and self obsessed, the iron statue ill tempered and brash, and the lead statue hopelessly gloomy. (Which was lucky for her, because he was also poisonous.) And although she admired the bronze statue for his courage and good humour, and the marble statue for his intelligence and refined aesthetic, in the end she fell in love with the silver statue, for his gentle touch, and his stories of dreams, and the way his skin reflected the light of the moon. And their children were a race of fairies with skin that shimmered when the moon was full.