So spoke the King of our little country. My father and I went into the wilderness to search for the Bird of Gold around the place where the egg had been laid. And in the very place where before he had lain my father put down his bundle of brambles and thorns. Laying his head upon the bundle, he went to sleep. I watched beside the brambles and thorns. And after a time a bird came running along the ground, and went fluttering up on the bundle and made a nest for herself there. Small she was and all golden except for the blue that was under her throat, and the blue that was upon her feet. As she was making a nest for herself I put my hands upon her and caught her. I held her to my breast to keep her from fluttering away. And I said aloud, “O bird, now I shall be rewarded for taking thee. For the King would make an amulet of thy feet that he may have wealth, and he would eat thy heart that his enemies may not be able to slay him. Greatly will he reward me for having taken thee, O Bird of Gold.” And as I spoke to her and held her to my breast the bird made a cry that sounded as “Alas, Alas!” I looked upon her again and my heart was filled with sorrow for the bird I had taken. Why should her claws be made into an amulet for the King, and why should her heart be eaten by him? I sat there thinking while my father slept, holding the bird very gently to my breast. And when she cried again “Alas, Alas!” I opened my hands and I let her fly away. She fluttered near for a while as if to show herself to me, and then she rose up and flew away. My father awakened, and he said, “It is near dark, and the Bird of Gold will not come now. Perhaps we will find her on another day. The King should reward us for our search, and now we will go and tell him of it.” So we rose up and we went into the city. And when we came before him, my father spoke to the King and told him that the Bird of Gold was not to be seen in the places where we had searched. Then the King would have sent us away without doing any evil to us only that one who was near him cried out: “Behold, O King, and decree a punishment for these two deceivers. One has declared that the Bird of Gold did not come near where they searched. But look on the dress of the girl: All around her breast are the feathers of the Bird of Gold.” Thereupon I looked down and I saw that the bird’s golden feathers were all strewn around the place where I had held her to me. I was grasped by the hands and brought before the King. And he cried out, “Have you the bird hidden?” I said: “No, O King. I let the bird fly out of my hands.” Then the King spoke to one who stood beside him, and he commanded that I should be taken and put upon a ship and thrown into the depths of the sea.