is with the negro and
his wife. Only--she too is black,' he added softly, but his brothers did
not hear him, and pushed past joyfully.

'How are you, good old Barka?' they said to the negro; 'and how comes it
that we never knew that we had a sister till now?' and they greeted Udea
warmly, while she shed tears of relief and gladness.

The next morning they all agreed that they would not go out hunting. And
the eldest brother took Udea on his knee, and she combed his hair and
talked to him of their home till the tears ran down his cheeks and
dropped on her bare arm. And where the tears fell a white mark was made.
Then the brother took a cloth and rubbed the place, and he saw that she
was not black at all.

'Tell me, who painted you over like this?' cried he.

'I am afraid to tell you,' sobbed the girl, 'the negro will kill me.'

'Afraid! and with seven brothers!'

'Well, I will tell you then,' she answered. 'The negro forced me to
dismount from the camel and let his wife ride instead. And the stones
cut my feet till they bled and I had to bind them. And after that, when
we heard your castle was near by, he took pitch and smeared my body with
it.'

Then the brother rushed in wrath from the room, and seizing his sword,
cut off first the negro's head and then his wife's. He next brought in
some warm water, and washed his sister all over, till her skin was white
and shining again.

'Ah, now we see that you are our sister!' they all said. 'What fools the
negro must have thought us, to believe for an instant that we could have
a sister who was black!' And all that day and the next they remained in
the castle.

But on the third morning they said to their sister: 'Dear sister, you
must lock yourself into this castle, with only the cat for company. And
be very careful never to eat anything which she does not eat too. You
must be sure to give her a bit of everything. In seven days we shall be
back again.'

'All right,' she answered, and locked herself into the castle with the
cat.

On the eighth day the brothers came home. 'How are you?' they asked.
'You have not been anxious?'

'No, why should I be anxious? The gates were fast locked, and in the
castle are seven doors, and the seventh is of iron. What is there to
frighten me?'

'No one will try to hurt us,' said the brothers, 'for they fear
us greatly. But for yourself, we implore you to do nothing without
consulting the cat, who has grown up in the house, and t