ad betrayed him and
how Sharkan had cut him to pieces.

Vitazko listened but he could feel neither surprise nor grief nor anger
nor anything, for how could he feel since he had no heart?

"You need your heart, my son," Nedyelka said. "You must go after it."

[Illustration: _Vitazko disguised as an old village piper_]

She disguised him as an old village piper and give him a pair of
bagpipes.

"Go to the castle," she told him, "and play on these pipes. When they
offer to reward you, ask for the heart that hangs by a string from the
ceiling."

So Vitazko took the bagpipes and went to the castle. He played under the
castle windows and his mother looked out and beckoned him in.

He went inside and played and Sharkan and his mother danced to his
music. They danced and danced until they could dance no longer.

Then they gave the old piper food and drink and offered him golden
money.

But Vitazko said:

"Nay, what use has an old man for gold?"

"What then can I give you?" the woman asked.

Vitazko looked slowly about the chamber as an old man would.

"Give me that heart," he said, "that hangs from the ceiling. That's all
I want."

So they gave him the heart and Vitazko thanked them and departed.

He carried the heart to Nedyelka who washed it at once in the Water of
Death and the Water of Life. Then she placed it in the bill of the
bird, Pelikan, and Pelikan, reaching its long thin neck down Vitazko's
throat, put the heart in its proper place. The heart began to beat and
instantly Vitazko could again feel joy and pain and grief and happiness.

"Now can you feel?" Nedyelka asked.

"Yes," Vitazko said. "Now, thank God, I can feel again!"

"Pelikan," Nedyelka said, "for this service you shall be freed.... As
for you, my son, you must go back to the castle once more and inflict a
just punishment. I shall change you into a pigeon. Fly to the castle and
there, when you wish to be yourself again, think of me."

So Vitazko took the form of a pigeon and flying to the castle alighted
on the window-sill.

Inside the castle chamber he saw his mother fondling Sharkan.

"See!" she cried. "A pigeon is on the window-sill. Quick! Get your
crossbow and shoot it!"

But before the dragon could move, Vitazko stood in the chamber.

He seized a sword and with one mighty blow cut off the dragon's head.

"And you--you wicked, faithless mother!" he cried. "What am I to do to
you!"

His mother fell on her knees and begged