a wolf, a fox, and a hare; then they bade farewell to one another, vowed to love each other till death, and stuck the knife, which their foster-father had given them, into a tree; and this done, the one brother turned his steps to the east, the other to the west.
The younger of the two, accompanied by his animals, came to a town which was everywhere hung with black. He went into an inn and asked the innkeeper if he could give shelter to the animals, and the innkeeper put them in one of his stables. There was a hole in the wall of the stable, and the hare crept through and fetched herself a cabbage, and the fox followed and fetched himself a hen, and when he had eaten her up, he went out again and brought in the cock. The wolf, and the bear, and the lion were too big to get through the hole, and would have fared badly, if the innkeeper had not given them one of his cows.
Having attended to his animals, the huntsman now asked the innkeeper the cause of the general mourning. "It is because to-morrow," replied the innkeeper, "the king's only daughter must die."
"Is she then so ill that she cannot recover?" asked the huntsman.
"No," answered the innkeeper, "she is young and in good health, but nevertheless to-morrow she dies."
"But how is that?" said the huntsman.
"Just beyond the town there rises a high mountain, and on it lives a dragon, and every year a young maiden must be given up to him, or he will devastate the whole country. But now he has had all the young maidens of the town, and only one remains, the king's daughter; there is, therefore, no possibility of saving her, she must be sacrificed to him, and this is to take place to-morow."
