singed, and the horse answered:

"We are now in the domain of the Scorpion Witch; she is the Woodpecker
Fairy's sister, but they are both so wicked that they can't live
together. Their parents' curse has fallen upon them, and so, as you
see, they have become monsters; their enmity goes beyond all bounds;
they are always trying to get possession of each other's lands. When
this one is very angry she spits fire and pitch; she must have had
some quarrel with her sister, and, to drive her out of her kingdom,
has burned the grass on which she was standing. She is even worse than
her sister, and has three heads. We will rest awhile now, and be ready
at the first peep of dawn to-morrow."

The next day they prepared themselves just as they did when they
expected to meet the Woodpecker fairy, and set out. Soon they heard a
howling and rustling unlike any thing ever known before.

"Make ready, master, the Scorpion Witch is coming."

The Scorpion Witch, with one jaw in the sky and the other on the
earth, approached like the wind, spitting fire as she came, but the
horse darted upward as swiftly as an arrow, and then rushed over her a
little on one side. The hero shot an arrow and one of her heads fell,
but when he was going to strike off another, the Scorpion Witch
entreated him to forgive her, she would do him no harm, and to
convince him of this she gave him her promise, written in her own
blood.

Like the Woodpecker Fairy, she entertained the prince, who returned
her head, which grew on again, and at the end of three days he resumed
his travels.

When the hero and his horse had reached the boundaries of the Scorpion
Witch's kingdom they hurried on without resting till they came to a
field covered with flowers, where reigned perpetual spring. Every
blossom was remarkably beautiful and filled with a sweet, intoxicating
fragrance; a gentle breeze fanned them all. They remained here to
rest, but the horse said:

"We have arrived so far successfully, master, but we still have one
great peril to undergo and, if the Lord helps us to conquer it, we
shall really be valiant heroes. A short distance further on is the
palace where dwell Youth without Age and Life without Death. It is
surrounded by a high, dense forest, where roam all the wild animals in
the world, watching it day and night. They are very numerous, and it
is almost beyond the bounds of possibility to get through the wood by
fighting them; we must try, if we can, to