Ever since she started menstruating, Princess Pä employed every trick in the book not to get engaged, let alone married. The whole court was amazed by her tomfooleries. “None of the neighboring kingdoms are to my discerning taste,” she would explain to everyone in court with all the disdain she could muster. “Besides,” she would smile defiantly among her confidants, “women are nothing but slaves to their children.” And she would sometimes add a few words to the effect that it was the mother’s wretched job to ensure that at least one of her sons grabbed the blessed throne, as well as that all her daughters were eventually married to the most promising princes in the neighborhood. But she would occasionally wink at the chummiest of her crew, and invite them closer to her bosom. “All that a clever woman actually needs is a shapely dildo,” she would whisper, “and a few masters of the art of wielding it!” There would be a few guarded sniggers around her, and then the subject of marriage would be pushed aside for a while. To Princess Pä’s sorrow, though, it would inevitably come up again soon. As well as way too often for her exquisite taste.