presented before his eyes. So they brought Donotknow into the palace, and the people came up from all parts, seen and unseen, to gaze on him.
Then the King began to ask him, "What sort of a man are you?"
"Idonotknow."
"From what lands have you come?"
"Idonotknow."
"From what race and from what place?"
"Idonotknow."
Then the King put Donotknow into the garden as a scarecrow, to frighten the birds from the apple trees, and he bade him be fed from his royal kitchen.
Now this king had three daughters: the elder ones were beautiful, but the younger fairer still. Very soon the son of the King of the Arabs began asking for the hand of the youngest daughter, and he wrote to the King with threats such as this, "If you do not give her to me of your good will, I will take her by force."
This did not suit the King at all, so he answered the Arab prince in this wise, "Do you begin the war, and it shall go as God shall will."
So the Prince assembled a countless multitude and laid siege.
Donotknow shook off his oxhide, took off his bladder, went into the open fields, burnt one of the hairs, and cried out in a grim voice with a knightly whistle. From some source or other a wondrous horse appeared in front of him, and the steed galloped up, and the earth trembled. "Hail, doughty youth, why do you want me so speedily?"
"Go and prepare for war!"
So Donotknow sat on his good horse, and the horse asked him, "Where shall I carry you—aloft, under the trees, or over the standing woods?"
"Carry me over the standing woods."
