ousand pieces, and amongst them glittered the precious stone. They
took it up and brought it to the prince, and when he let it fall on the
ground, the princess again stood there. When afterward the wizard came
and saw her there, his eyes flashed with spite, and bang! again an iron
hoop cracked upon him and flew off. He growled and led the princess out
of the room.

That day all was again as it had been the day before. After supper the
wizard brought the princess in again, looked the prince keenly in the
face, and scornfully uttered the words, "It will be seen who's a match
for whom; whether you are victorious or I," and with that he departed.
This night they all exerted themselves still more to avoid going to
sleep. They wouldn't even sit down, they wanted to walk about all night
long, but all in vain; they were bewitched; one fell asleep after the
other as he walked and the princess vanished away from them.

In the morning the prince again awoke earliest, and, when he didn't see
the princess, woke Sharpsight. "Hey! get up, Sharpsight! look where the
princess is!" Sharpsight looked out for a long time. "Oh, sir," says he,
"she is a long way off, a long way off! Three hundred miles off is a
black sea, and in the midst of the sea a shell on the bottom, and in
the shell is a gold ring, and she's the ring. But never mind! we shall
obtain her, but to-day Long must take Broad with him as well; we shall
want him." Long took Sharpsight on one shoulder, and Broad on the other,
and went thirty miles at a step. When they came to the black sea,
Sharpsight showed him where he must reach into the water for the shell.
Long extended his hand as far as he could, but could not reach the
bottom.

"Wait, comrades! wait only a little and I'll help you," said Broad, and
swelled himself out as far as his paunch would stretch; he then lay down
on the shore and drank. In a very short time the water fell so low that
Long easily reached the bottom and took the shell out of the sea. Out of
it he extracted the ring, took his comrades on his shoulders and
hastened back. But on the way he found it a little difficult to run with
Broad, who had half a sea of water inside him, so he cast him from his
shoulder on to the ground in a wide valley. Thump he went like a sack
let fall from a tower, and in a moment the whole valley was under water
like a vast lake. Broad himself barely crawled out of it.

Meanwhile the prince was in great trouble in the cast