Meat and bread were set before the three brothers, and the prince
went out. The eldest said, "The prince is a slave;" the second,
"This is dog's flesh;" the youngest, "This bread has grown over
the legs of a dead body." The prince heard them. He took a
knife and ran to find his mother. "Tell me the truth," cried he-
-"were you unfaithful to my father during his absence? A man who
is here has called me a slave." "My son," replied she, "If I
don't tell the truth, I shall die; if I tell it, I shall die.
When thy father was absent, I gave myself up to a slave." The
prince left his mother and ran to the house of the shepherd:
"The meat which you have cooked to-day--what is it? Tell the
truth, otherwise I'll cut your head off." "Master, if I tell it,
I shall die; if I don't, I shall die. I will be truthful. It was
a lamb whose mother had no milk; on the day of its birth, it was
suckled by a bitch: that is to-day's ewe." The prince left the
shepherd and ran to the house of the husbandman: "Tell the truth,
or else I'll cut off your head. Three young men have come to my
house. I have placed bread before them, and they say that the
grain has grown over the limbs of a dead man." "I will be frank
with you. I ploughed with my plough in a place where were
(buried) the limbs of a man; without knowing it, I sowed some
wheat, which grew up." The prince quitted his slave and returned
to his house, where were seated the strangers. He said to the
first, "Young man, how do you know that I am a slave?" "Because
you went out as soon as the repast was brought in." He asked the
second, "How do you know that the meat which was served was that
of a dog?" "Because it has a disagreeable taste like the flesh of
a dog." Then to the third: "How come you to know that this bread
was grown over the limbs of a dead person?" "What shall I say?
It smells of the limbs of a dead body; that is why I recognised
it. If you do not believe me, ask your slave; he will tell you
that what I say is true."
In the same paper (col. 516) M. Ren� Basset cites a somewhat
elaborate variant, from Stier's "Ungarische Sagen und Märchen,"
in which, once more, the knowledge of the "quintessence of
things" is concentrated in a single individual.