A certain merchant died. His son was nineteen years old at the time. He said to his mother: “Mother dear, I’m going to try my luck in the world.”

His mother answered: “Go, dear son, but don’t stay long there, for I am old, and should like some help in my old age.” She fitted him out for the journey, and said good-bye to him.

Out into the world went the son, and he travelled on till he came into a forest. He had been going through it for three days, and no end appeared. On the third day he kept on and came at last to a cottage. He went into the cottage and he saw a horrible being seated on a stool. The fellow asked him where he was going.

“I don’t know where I am going. I’m seeking my fortune in some service.”

“Well, if you like, you can enter my service.” [72]

The lad was very hungry, so he took service with the other.

His master said to him: “You must serve me for a year at least.”

So he served him for a year. He was treated very well, and he was a faithful servant to his master. The master was a sorcerer, but he didn’t do any harm to the lad. He had a big pond, and three doves used to come there to bathe. Each of them had three golden feathers. These three doves were three enchanted princesses.

When the year’s service was ended, the sorcerer said: “What wages shall I give you?”

The lad said he left it to him.

“You’re a good lad,” said the sorcerer. “Come with me to my cellar and take as much money as you like, gold or silver, just as you wish.”

So the lad took as much as he could carry, and the sorcerer gave him one of the three doves too, saying:

“When you get home, if you haven’t got a house of your own, have one built, and then pluck those three feathers out of the dove, and hide them away so carefully that no human [73]eye can see them. The dove will turn into a lovely princess and you may marry her.”

So he took the dove and returned home. He had a house built and made a secret place in one of the walls for the three feathers. When he plucked out the feathers the dove became a beautiful princess, but she did not know where the feathers were. But his mother knew quite well, for he had told her all and showed her where the feathers were hidden.

When they had been living together for three years he went a-hunting one day with another lord, and his mother stayed at home with her daughter-in-law. The mother said to her: “Dear daughter-in-law, I can’t tell you how beautiful I think you. If one were to search the whole world through, one couldn’t find so beautiful a woman.”

The daughter-in-law answered: “Dear lady, the beauty I have now is nothing to what I should have had I but one of my golden feathers.”

The mother went straight off, fetched one of the feathers, and gave it to her.

She thrust it into her skin, and she was immediately far more beautiful than before. The mother kept looking at her, and said: [74]“If you had the others as well, you would be even more beautiful.” Then she fetched the other two feathers and gave them to her.

She thrust them into her skin, and behold! she was a dove again. She flew off through the window, thanking her mother-in-law: “Thank you, dearest mother, for giving me these three feathers. I will wait a little for my husband, to say good-bye to him.”

So she perched on the roof to wait till her husband should return from the forest.

Now, the husband’s nose fell to bleeding violently. He grew frightened, and began to wonder what great misfortune had befallen him at home. He mounted his horse and hastened home. As he was approaching the door the dove called out: “Good-bye, dear husband. I thank you for your true love, but you will never see me more.”

Then the dove flew away, and the husband began to weep and to wail. Of course, he was very angry with his mother, and he decided to go away again and follow wherever his eyes might lead him. So he started off, and he went back to the sorcerer in whose service he had been before. As soon as he entered the sorcerer said: [75]

“Aha! you have not followed my advice. I won’t help you this time; the three doves are gone from here. But go to my brother, for all the birds and animals are under his power, and perhaps some of them might know where the doves are. I will give you a ball, and when you roll it three times, you will get there this evening. You must ask him whether he knows anything about the doves, and you must tell him, too, that I sent you to him.”

The lad thanked him heartily and went on his way. He rolled the ball thrice and reached the other brother’s by evening. He told him that his brother had asked to be remembered kindly to him, and then he asked whether he knew where the doves that used to bathe in his brother’s pond were.

The brother answered: “My good lad, I know nothing at all about them. You must wait till morning. All the birds and animals are under my power, and if they know anything about it, it will be all right.”

In the morning they went to the forest. The brother blew a whistle, and instantly swarms of birds gathered round, asking what was their master’s will. [76]

He said: “Tell me, does any one of you know about those three golden doves which used to bathe in my brother’s pond?”

None of them knew, so he blew his whistle again and all manner of animals gathered round him: bears, lions, squirrels, wolves, every kind of wild animal, and they asked what was their master’s will.

He said: “I would know whether any one of you knows anything about three golden doves which used to bathe in my brother’s pond.”

None of them knew. So he said:

“My dear lad, I cannot help you any more in this matter, but I have another brother, and, if he cannot tell you anything about them, then you will never hear of them any more. He dwells twice seventy miles from here, and all the devils of Hell are subjected to him. I will give you another ball like the one you had yesterday, and, when you have rolled it thrice, you will get there before evening.”

He rolled the ball thrice and got there the same evening. The sorcerer was sitting in his garden on the grass. His hair was all dishevelled like a mop, his paunch was bare [77]like a pail, his nose reached to his middle, and was as bare as a stick—in fact, his appearance was terrible.

The lad was terrified, but the sorcerer said: “Don’t be frightened, my boy; though I look so hideous, yet I have a good heart. What do you want?”

“I have come from your brother to ask whether you can tell me about the three doves which used to bathe in your brother’s pond.”

“My dear lad, I know nothing about them, but as soon as you get up in the morning I will call my apprentices, to find if any one of them knows anything about the doves.”

In the morning they got up and went into the forest. The sorcerer blew a whistle, and at once hosts of devils appeared, such a multitude that they darkened the whole forest.

The lad was frightened, but the sorcerer said: “Don’t be afraid; not a hair of your head shall be harmed.”

The devils asked what was their master’s will.

He said: “Does any one of you know anything, about the three doves which used to bathe in my brother’s pond?” [78]

None of them knew anything. The sorcerer looked about him and asked: “Where is the lame one?”

The lame one had been left behind, but he was hurrying up for fear he should be too late. He came and asked what was his master’s will. The sorcerer answered: “I want to find out whether you know anything about those three doves that used to bathe in my brother’s pond.”

“Of course I know about them, for I have been driving them before me. They are bathing in the Red Sea now.”

The sorcerer said: “You must take up this man and carry him as far as their gold-roofed palace,” and he took the lad aside and whispered in his ear:

“When the devil asks you how quick he is to take you, if he says: ‘As quickly as the wind blows?’ say ‘No’; and if he says, ‘As quickly as the step goes?’ say ‘No’ again. But if he says, ‘As quickly as the air goes?’ say ‘Even so.’ If your cap falls, do not look after it, and don’t tell the devil about it, or he will let you fall and won’t carry you to the palace. When you are seven miles from the palace you will see it, and the devil [79]will ask you if you see it; but shut your eyes tight and say that you can’t see it. When you are three miles from it, you will see it quite plainly, and he will ask you again whether you see it. But you must shut your eyes tight and say that you can’t see it. Then you will be above the palace roof, and he will ask you again whether you see it. You must say again that you can’t see it, or he will let you drop on the roof and you won’t be able to get down.”

The devil took the man and flew with him as the air goes. When they were seven miles from the palace, the devil asked: “Do you see the palace now? It is quite plain to see now.”

The lad shut his eyes tight and said that he couldn’t see it. So they flew on, and when they were three miles from the castle the devil asked him did he see it now. He shut his eyes tight and said that he couldn’t see it. When they were right over the roof, the devil asked: “Surely you must see it now; we are just over the roof.”

But he shut his eyes tight and said: “I don’t see it.”

The devil said angrily: “You must be [80]blind if you can’t see it; we are just above the roof.” And he seized him in anger, and set him on the golden table in that royal castle.

The three princesses were sitting at the table, knitting with golden thread. His own wife was the middle one, and she knew him at once. She sprang up right gladly and welcomed him with joy. She nearly fainted, she was so pleased that he had been able to come so many miles in such a short time.

“Welcome, dear husband, welcome! Welcome, our deliverer! You will save us from the enchantment under which we are in this castle.”

The time passed very slowly there. So one day his wife brought him the keys and showed him through all the rooms and closets, letting him see everything except one room, which she would not open for him.

The three princesses had to take the shape of doves for two hours in the morning and three hours before the evening, and they had to go to the Red Sea to bathe there. One day when they had gone out to bathe he thought: “Why don’t you want to open that room for me?” So he went and searched [81]among the other keys for the key, and opened the room for himself.

In the room he saw a three-headed dragon, and each of its heads was stuck upon a hook so that it hung down from it. Under the dragon were placed three glasses of water. The lad was terrified and started to run away. But the dragon kept on calling out: “Don’t be frightened, don’t run away, but come back again and give me that glass of water. Your life shall be spared this once.”

So he gave him the glass of water; the dragon drained it up, and instantly one of the heads fell from the hook. He begged again: “Now give me that other glass of water, and your life shall be spared a second time.”

He gave it him; the dragon drank it up, and immediately the second head fell from the hook. Then the dragon said: “Now do as you like. But you must give me the third glass of water, whether you like it or not!”

In terror he gave him the third glass; the third head drank it up and fell from its hook. Now the dragon was quite free, and instantly he made for the Red Sea, and began to chase [82]after the three doves until he caught one of them. It was the lad’s wife.

The other two princesses came back again and began to weep and to wail.

“Thou luckless fellow! we were happy in the hope that thou wouldst deliver us, and now we are worse off than ever—now our torments will last till doomsday!”

He, too, burst into tears, for he was sad at heart that the dragon had carried off his wife, whom he had won at the risk of his life.

The princesses’ three brothers were under enchantment too. One of them was in the castle, changed into the shape of a horse. One day the horse said to the sorrowing husband: “The dragon is away from home now. Let us go and steal the princess.”

So they went to the dragon’s castle, carried off the princess, and ran for home. The other brother of the three princesses was in the dragon’s castle under enchantment in the shape of a horse.

When the dragon came home, he said to the horse: “Where is my princess?”

The horse answered: “They came and carried her away.”

The dragon mounted the horse at once [83]and said: “Now we’ll ride as fast as we can. We must overtake them.”

The horse answered: “We cannot possibly overtake them.”

But the dragon said: “Only let us start; we shall overtake them.”

They started, and they overtook them near the castle. The dragon snapped the princess away at once, saying to the lad: “I promised to spare your life in return for that glass of water; now I have spared it, but don’t dare to come to my castle ever again.”

And with that the dragon rode home, carrying the princess with him.

Some time after that the horse said to the sorrowing husband: “The dragon is away from home again. Let us go and steal the princess.”

So they went and stole her again.

The dragon came home and asked the horse: “Where is my princess?”

The horse answered: “Hibad! They have stolen her again, but we cannot overtake them this time.”

The dragon said: “We must overtake them.”

He mounted the horse, and they went [84]flying after them till at last they overtook them. The dragon snapped away the princess, saying to the lad: “There’s your life spared for the second glass. But if you come again, I’ll tear you to pieces.”............