ne hanging to his neck and playing the
flute. Hamed said to him: "By the Lord, I cannot lift a small rock, and
this man hangs a millstone to his neck." The shepherd said: "You are
Hamed-ben-Ceggad, who built the house of coral-wood?"

"Who told you?"

"A bird that flew into the sky." He added, "I will go with you."

"Come," said Hamed. The shepherd took the millstone from his neck, and the
sheep were changed into stones.

On the way they met a naked man, who was rolling in the snow. They said [to
themselves], "The cold stings us, and yet that man rolls in the snow
without the cold killing him."

The man said to them, "You are Hamed-ben-Ceggad, who built the house of
coral-wood?"

"Who told you that?"

"A bird that passed flying in the sky told me. I will accompany you."

"Come," said Hamed. After they had pursued their way some time, they met a
man with long ears.

"By the Lord," they said, "we have only small ears, and this man has
immense ones."

"It is the Lord who created them thus, but if it pleases God I will
accompany you, for you are Hamed-ben-Ceggad."

They arrived at the house of the woman with the silver ornaments, and Hamed
said to the inhabitants, "Give us this woman, that we may take her away."

"Very well," said her brother, the ogre. They killed an ox, placed it upon
a hurdle, which they lifted up and put down with the aid of ninety-nine
men.

"Give us one of your men who can lift this hurdle."

He who wore millstones hanging from his neck said, "I can lift it." When he
had placed it on the ground, they served a _couscous_ with this ox.
The ogre said, "Eat all that we give you." They ate a little, and the man
with the long ears hid the rest of the food. The brother continued: "You
give us one of you who will go to gather a branch of a tree that stands all
alone on the top of a mountain two days' march in the snow." The one who
had rolled in the snow departed, and brought back the branch.

"There remains one more proof," said the ogre. "A partridge is flying in
the sky; let one of you strike it." Hamed-ben-Ceggad killed it.

They gave him the woman, but before her departure her brother gave her a
feather and said to her, "When anyone shall try to do anything to you
against your will, cast this feather on the hearth and we will come to
you."

People told the woman, "The old Sultan is going to marry you."

She replied, "An old man shall never marry me," and cast the feather into
the f