t she was no longer able to overtake him. When she saw
that she could not catch him, she turned back, and the man reached his
home safe and sound. After arriving at his home, he showed his wife the
hair, and told her all that had happened to him, but she began to jeer
and laugh at him. But he paid no attention to her, and went to a town to
sell the hair. A crowd of all sorts of people and merchants collected
round him; one offered a sequin, another two, and so on, higher and
higher, till they came to a hundred gold sequins. Just then the emperor
heard of the hair, summoned the man into his presence, and said to him
that he would give him a thousand sequins for it, and he sold it to him.
What was the hair? The emperor split it in two from top to bottom, and
found registered in it in writing many remarkable things, which happened
in the olden time since the beginning of the world. Thus the man became
rich and lived on with his wife and children. And that child, that came
to him in his sleep, was an angel sent by the Lord God, whose will it
was to aid the poor man, and to reveal secrets which had not been
revealed till then.

XIV

THE DRAGON AND THE PRINCE

There was an emperor who had three sons. One day the eldest son went out
hunting, and, when he got outside the town, up sprang a hare out of a
bush, and he after it, and hither and thither, till the hare fled into a
water-mill, and the prince after it. But it was not a hare, but a
dragon, and it waited for the prince and devoured him. When several days
had elapsed and the prince did not return home, people began to wonder
why it was that he was not to be found. Then the middle son went
hunting, and as he issued from the town, a hare sprang out of a bush,
and the prince after it, and hither and thither, till the hare fled into
the water-mill and the prince after it; but it was not a hare, but a
dragon, which waited for and devoured him. When some days had elapsed
and the princes did not return, either of them, the whole court was in
sorrow. Then the third son went hunting, to see whether he could not
find his brothers. When he issued from the town, again up sprang a hare
out of a bush, and the prince after it, and hither and thither, till the
hare fled into the water-mill. But the prince did not choose to follow
it, but went to find other game, saying to himself: "When I return I
shall find you." After thus he went for a long time up and down the
hill, but fou