There was a man who was very poor, but so well supplied with
children that he was utterly unable to maintain them, and one
morning more than once prepared to kill them, in order not to see
their misery in dying from hunger, but his wife prevented him. One
night a child came to him in his sleep, and said to him: 'Man! I see
that you are making up your mind to destroy and to kill your poor
little children, and I know that you are distressed thereat; but in
the morning you will find under your pillow a mirror, a red
kerchief, and an embroidered pocket-handkerchief; take all three
secretly and tell nobody; then go to such a hill; by it you will
find a stream; go along it till you come to its fountain-head; there
you will find a damsel as bright as the sun, with her hair hanging
down over her back, and without a scrap of clothing. Be on your
guard, that the ferocious she-dragon do not coil round you; do not
converse with her if she speaks; for if you converse with her, she
will poison you, and turn you into a fish, or something else, and
will then devour you; but if she bids you examine her head, examine
it, and as you turn over her hair, look, and you will find one hair
as red as blood; pull it out and run back again; then, if she
suspects and begins to run after you, throw her first the
embroidered pocket-handkerchief, then the kerchief, and, lastly, the
mirror; then she will find occupation for herself. And sell that
hair to some rich man; but don't let them cheat you, for that hair
is worth countless wealth; and you will thus enrich yourself and
maintain your children.'
When the poor man awoke, he found everything under his pillow, just
as the child had told him in his sleep; and then he went to the
hill. When there, he found the stream, went on and on alongside of
it, till he came to the fountain-head. Having looked about him to
see where the damsel was, he espied her above a piece of water, like
sunbeams threaded on a needle, and she was embroidering at a frame
on stuff, the threads of which were young men's hair. As soon as he
saw her, he made a reverence to her, and she stood on her feet and
questioned him: 'Whence are you, unknown young man?' But he held his
tongue. She questioned him again: 'Who are you? Why have you come?'
and much else of all sorts; but he was as mute as a stone, making
signs with his hands, as if he were deaf and wanted help. Then she
told him to sit down on her skirt. He did not wait for any more
orders, but sat down, and she bent down her head to him, that he
might examine it. Turning over the hair of her head, as if to
examine it, he was not long in finding that red hair, and separated
it from the other hair, pulled it out, jumped off her skirt and ran
away back as he best could. She noticed it, and ran at his heels
full speed after him. He looked round, and seeing that she was about
to overtake him, threw, as he was told, the embroidered
pocket-handkerchief on the way, and when she saw the
pocket-handkerchief, she stooped and began to overhaul it in every
direction, admiring the embroidery, till he had got a good way off.
Then the damsel placed the pocket-handkerchief in her bosom, and ran
after him again. When he saw that she was about to overtake him, he
threw the red kerchief, and she again occupied herself, admiring and
gazing, till the poor man had again got a good way off. Then the
damsel became exasperated, and threw both the pocket-handkerchief
and the kerchief on the way, and ran after him in pursuit. Again,
when he saw that she was about to overtake him, he threw the mirror.
When the damsel came to the mirror, the like of which she had never
seen before, she lifted it up, and when she saw herself in it, not
knowing that it was herself, but thinking that it was somebody else,
she, as it were, fell in love with herself in the mirror, and the
man got so far off that 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 had
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.