The devil said angrily: "You must be blind if you can't see it; we
are just above the roof." And he seized him in anger, and set him on
the golden table in that royal castle.
The three princesses were sitting at the table, knitting with golden
thread. His own wife was the middle one, and she knew him at once. She
sprang up right gladly and welcomed him with joy. She nearly fainted,
she was so pleased that he had been able to come so many miles in
such a short time.
"Welcome, dear husband, welcome! Welcome, our deliverer! You will
save us from the enchantment under which we are in this castle."
The time passed very slowly there. So one day his wife brought him
the keys and showed him through all the rooms and closets, letting
him see everything except one room, which she would not open for him.
The three princesses had to take the shape of doves for two hours
in the morning and three hours before the evening, and they had to
go to the Red Sea to bathe there. One day when they had gone out to
bathe he thought: "Why don't you want to open that room for me?" So
he went and searched among the other keys for the key, and opened
the room for himself.
In the room he saw a three-headed dragon, and each of its heads was
stuck upon a hook so that it hung down from it. Under the dragon were
placed three glasses of water. The lad was terrified and started to run
away. But the dragon kept on calling out: "Don't be frightened, don't
run away, but come back again and give me that glass of water. Your
life shall be spared this once."
So he gave him the glass of water; the dragon drained it up, and
instantly one of the heads fell from the hook. He begged again: "Now
give me that other glass of water, and your life shall be spared a
second time."
He gave it him; the dragon drank it up, and immediately the second
head fell from the hook. Then the dragon said: "Now do as you like. But
you must give me the third glass of water, whether you like it or not!"
In terror he gave him the third glass; the third head drank it up and
fell from its hook. Now the dragon was quite free, and instantly he
made for the Red Sea, and began to chase after the three doves until
he caught one of them. It was the lad's wife.
The other two princesses came back again and began to weep and to wail.
"Thou luckless fellow! we were happy in the hope that thou wouldst
deliver us, and now we are worse off than ever--now our torments will
last till doomsday!"
He, too, burst into tears, for he was sad at heart that the dragon
had carried off his wife, whom he had won at the risk of his life.
The princesses' three brothers were under enchantment too. One of
them was in the castle, changed into the shape of a horse. One day
the horse said to the sorrowing husband: "The dragon is away from
home now. Let us go and steal the princess."
So they went to the dragon's castle, carried off the princess, and
ran for home. The other brother of the three princesses was in the
dragon's castle under enchantment in the shape of a horse.
When the dragon came home, he said to the horse: "Where is my
princess?"