As soon as it was dark twelve murderers arrived, with the full intention
of killing and robbing the strangers. Before they set to work, however,
they sat down to table, and the landlord and the old witch joined them,
and they all ate some broth in which the flesh of the raven had been
stewed down. They had hardly taken a couple of spoonfuls when they all
fell down dead, for the poison had passed from the horse to the raven
and so into the broth. So there was no one left belonging to the house
but the landlord’s daughter, who was a good, well-meaning girl, and had
taken no part in all the evil doings.
She opened all the doors, and showed the strangers the treasures the
robbers had gathered together; but the Prince bade her keep them all
for herself, as he wanted none of them, and so he rode further with his
servant.
After travelling about for some length of time they reached a town where
lived a lovely but most arrogant Princess. She had given out that anyone
who asked her a riddle which she found herself unable to guess should
be her husband, but should she guess it he must forfeit his head. She
claimed three days in which to think over the riddles, but she was so
very clever that she invariably guessed them in a much shorter time.
Nine suitors had already lost their lives when the King’s son arrived,
and, dazzled by her beauty, determined to risk his life in hopes of
winning her.
So he came before her and propounded his riddle. ‘What is this?’ he
asked. ‘One slew none and yet killed twelve.’
She could not think what it was! She thought, and thought, and looked
through all her books of riddles and puzzles, but she found nothing to
help her, and could not guess; in fact, she was at her wits’ end. As she
could think of no way to guess the riddle, she ordered her maid to steal
at night into the Prince’s bedroom and to listen, for she thought that
he might perhaps talk aloud in his dreams and so betray the secret. But
the clever servant had taken his master’s place, and when the maid came
he tore off the cloak she had wrapped herself in and hunted her off with
a whip.
On the second night the Princess sent her lady-in-waiting, hoping that
she might succeed better, but the servant took away her mantle and
chased her away also.
On the third night the King’s son thought he really might feel safe,
so he went to bed. But in the middle of the night the Princess came
herself, all huddled up in a misty grey mantle, and sat down near him.
When she thought he was fast asleep, she spoke to him, hoping he would
answer in the midst of his dreams, as many people do; but he was wide
awake all the time, and heard and understood everything very well.
Then she asked: ‘One slew none--what is that?’ and he answered: ‘A raven
which fed on the carcase of a poisoned horse.’
She went on: ‘And yet killed twelve--what is that?’ ‘Those are twelve
murderers who ate the raven and died of it.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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