Golden Bird to you. As soon as you have the cage in your hand, gallop back to us and take up the Maiden again.’
When these plans had succeeded, and the Prince was ready to ride on with all his treasures, the Fox said to him:
‘Now you must reward me for my help.’
‘What do you want?’ asked the Prince.
‘When you reach that wood, shoot me dead and cut off my
head and my paws.’
The Prince carried off the beautiful Maiden on the Golden Horse.
‘That would indeed be gratitude!’ said the Prince. ‘I can’t possibly promise to do such a thing.’
The Fox said, ‘If you won’t do it, I must leave you; but before I go I will give you one more piece of advice. Beware of two things—buy no gallows-birds, and don’t sit on the edge of a well.’ Saying which, he ran off into the wood.
The Prince thought, ‘That is a strange animal; what whims he has. Who on earth would want to buy gallows-birds! And the desire to sit on the edge of a well has never yet seized me!’
He rode on with the beautiful Maiden, and the road led him through the village where his two brothers had stayed behind. There was a great hubbub in the village, and when he asked what it was about, he was told that two persons were going to be hanged. When he got nearer he saw that they were his brothers, who had wasted their possessions and done all sorts of evil deeds. He asked if they could not be set free.
