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 of
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 there at; 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. 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 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.