s in the boat or
where he was to go, but as the dove had come to his rescue before, he
was ready to obey her blindly.

When he reached the boat he found the dove perched on one of the masts,
and at a signal from her he put to sea; the wind was behind them and
they soon lost sight of land. The dove then spoke for the first time and
said, 'Take that knife and cut off my head, but be careful that not a
single drop of blood falls to the ground. Afterwards you must throw it
into the sea.'

Wondering at this strange order, the prince picked up his knife and
severed the dove's head from her body at one stroke. A little while
after a dove rose from the water with a ring in its beak, and laying
it in the prince's hand, dabbled itself with the blood that was in the
basin, when its head became that of a beautiful girl. Another moment and
it had vanished completely, and the prince took the ring and made his
way back to the palace.

The king stared with surprise at the sight of the ring, but he thought
of another way of getting rid of the young man which was surer even than
the other two.

'This evening you will mount my colt and ride him to the field, and
break him in properly.'

The prince received this command as silently as he had received the
rest, but no sooner was he in his room than he called for the dove, who
said: 'Attend to me. My father longs to see you dead, and thinks he will
kill you by this means. He himself is the colt, my mother is the saddle,
my two sisters are the stirrups, and I am the bridle. Do not forget to
take a good club, to help you in dealing with such a crew.'

So the prince mounted the colt, and gave him such a beating that when he
came to the palace to announce that the animal was now so meek that it
could be ridden by the smallest child, he found the king so bruised that
he had to be wrapped in cloths dipped in vinegar, the mother was too
stiff to move, and several of the daughters' ribs were broken. The
youngest, however, was quite unharmed. That night she came to the prince
and whispered to him:

'Now that they are all in too much pain to move, we had better seize our
chance and run away. Go to the stable and saddle the leanest horse
you can find there.' But the prince was foolish enough to choose the
fattest: and when they had started and the princess saw what he had
done, she was very sorry, for though this horse ran like the wind, the
other flashed like thought. However, it was dangerou