ess he
had married lived. And when he came into the town all the people were in
great sorrow because their prince had disappeared.

But when they saw his youngest brother, and the beasts following him,
they thought it was their own prince, and they rejoiced greatly, and
told him how they had sought him everywhere. Then they led him to the
king, and he too thought that it was his son-in-law. But the princess
knew that he was not her husband, and she begged him to go out into the
woods with his beasts, and to look for his brother till he found him.

So the youngest prince set out to look for his brother, and he too lost
his way in the wood and night overtook him. Then he came to the clearing
among the trees, where the fire was burning and where the old woman was
raking sticks and leaves into the flames. And he asked her if he might
spend the night beside her fire, as it was too late and too dark to go
back to the town.

And she answered: 'Certainly you may. But I am afraid of your beasts.
May I give them a stroke with my rod, then I shall not be afraid of
them.'

And he said she might, for he did not know that she was a witch. So she
stretched out her rod, and in a moment the beasts and their master were
turned into stone.

It happened soon after that the second brother returned from his
wanderings and came to the cross-roads where the three birches grew. As
he went round the trees he saw that blood poured from the cuts in the
bark of two of the trees. Then he wept and said:

'Alas! both my brothers are dead.' And he too set out towards the town
in which his brother had ruled, and his faithful beasts followed him.
When he entered the town, all the people thought it was their own prince
come back to them, and they gathered round him, as they had gathered
round his youngest brother, and asked him where he had been and why
he had not returned. And they led him to the king's palace, but the
princess knew that he was not her husband. So when they were alone
together she besought him to go and seek for his brother and bring him
home. Calling his beasts round him, he set out and wandered through the
woods. And he put his ear down to the earth, to listen if he could hear
the sound of his brother's beasts. And it seemed to him as if he heard a
faint sound far off, but he did not know from what direction it came. So
he blew on his hunting horn and listened again. And again he heard the
sound, and this time it seemed to come