se. When this happened their hearts sank within them, and their faces
fell.

'Have you spent your fortune?' asked the head from its corner, when it
saw how sad they looked. 'Well, then, go at midnight, good mother, to
the bridge, and call out "Mahomet!" three times, as loud as you can. A
negro will appear in answer, and you must tell him to open the trunk,
and to give you the red purse which he will find there.'

The old woman did not need twice telling, but set off at once for the
bridge.

'Mahomet! Mahomet! Mahomet!' cried she, with all her might; and in an
instant a negro, still larger than the last, stood before her.

'What do you want?' asked he.

'The head, your master, bids you open the trunk, and to give me the red
purse which you will find in it.'

'Very well, good mother, I will do so,' answered the negro, and, the
moment after he had vanished, he reappeared with the purse in his hand.

This time the money seemed so endless that the old woman built herself a
new house, and filled it with the most beautiful things that were to
be found in the shops. Her daughters were always wrapped in veils that
looked as if they were woven out of sunbeams, and their dresses shone
with precious stones. The neighbours wondered where all this sudden
wealth had sprung from, but nobody knew about the head.

'Good mother,' said the head, one day, 'this morning you are to go to
the city and ask the sultan to give me his daughter for my bride.'

'Do what?' asked the old woman in amazement. 'How can I tell the sultan
that a head without a body wishes to become his son-in-law? They will
think that I am mad, and I shall be hooted from the palace and stoned by
the children.'

'Do as I bid you,' replied the head; 'it is my will.'

The old woman was afraid to say anything more, and, putting on her
richest clothes, started for the palace. The sultan granted her an
audience at once, and, in a trembling voice, she made her request.

'Are you mad, old woman?' said the sultan, staring at her.

'The wooer is powerful, O Sultan, and nothing is impossible to him.'

'Is that true?'

'It is, O Sultan; I swear it,' answered she.

'Then let him show his power by doing three things, and I will give him
my daughter.'

'Command, O gracious prince,' said she.

'Do you see that hill in front of the palace?' asked the sultan.

'I see it,' answered she.

'Well, in forty days the man who has sent you must make that hill
vanish, and pl