The ghost who had before questioned him now began to repeat his
questions, commanding him to tell who he was and how he came there;
but the young man was not to be made to speak. Then the spokesman
ordered one of his comrades to go below and bring up an anvil and four
hammers, and when these had been brought, one of the ghosts blew up a
fire and threw the young man upon it. When he was heated to a glow
they laid him upon the anvil and beat him with hammers until he was as
flat as paper. But with all this he was not to be forced to speak.
The time was up and the ghosts must go. Before they went they told him
that he and all around him were blessed; and then the door flew open
and they vanished. He again arose, laid himself upon the bed, and sank
at once into slumber.
Next morning the three ladies, all in white from head to foot, came,
with the sound of music, to thank him for ransoming them, and they
gave him to choose among them for a wife. Now the youngest of them had
grown nearest his heart, and he declared himself ready to marry her,
not at once, but later, for first he wished to see something of the
world.
This being the case, they gave him a ham, a wooden flask of wine, a
loaf of bread, three dogs, and a pipe which hung by a golden chain,
and they told him that these dogs would come to his aid in every time
of need; he had only to call them by means of his pipe. And should he
be tired, he had only to seat himself upon one of them. So he took all
these things and went forth to see the world.
One day when he was travelling through a forest he arrived at a castle
and turned aside to enter. But the steps which led up were of such a
kind that he could not climb them; so he seated himself upon one of
his dogs and the animal carried him up. As he passed through the
entrance he peeped through a window and saw a Tiger and his wife, who
was combing his hair.
He went in to where they were, and the Tiger at once arose, led him
from room to room, and showed him many wonderful things. Everything
pleased the young man, except that the Tiger's wife kept the dogs shut
up in a room apart.
When he entered the fourth room he went around it, gazing upon the
many statues and paintings; and while thus doing he stepped upon a
board which gave way and let him fall into a cellar where it was as
dark as pitch. He groped around for a way of escape, but a damp, heavy
wind seemed to sweep all around him, and first he would wound his hand
and then his foot. So he thought to himself, "You won't come safely
out of this!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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