"Comb, with thy power, let there be formed before my father hedges
and thorns, and before me a good road."
It is done as she wished. They go a good way, and she says again:
"Look, I beg you, if you see anything again."
The husband looks back, and sees nothing; but in the clouds he sees
something terrible, and tells so to his wife. And his wife says,
taking her comb:
"Comb, with thy power, let there be formed where he is a fog, and hail,
and a terrific storm."
It happens as they wish. They go a little way farther, and his wife
says to him:
"Look behind you, then, if you see anything."
The husband says to her: "Now it is all over with us. We have him
here after us; he is on us. Use all your power."
She throws again a comb immediately, and says:
"Comb, with thy power, form between my father and me a terrible river,
and let him be drowned there for ever."
As soon as she has said that, they see a mighty water, and there
their father and enemy drowns himself. [130]
The young lady says, "Now we have no more fear of him, we shall live
in peace."
They go a good distance, and arrive at a country into which the young
lady could not enter. She says to her husband:
"I can go no farther. It is the land of the Christians there; I
cannot enter into it. You must go there the first. You must fetch
a priest. He must baptize me, and afterwards I will come with you;
but you must take great care that nobody kisses you. If so, you will
forget me altogether. Mind and pay great attention to it; and you,
too, do not you kiss anyone."
He promises his wife that he will not. He goes, then, on, and on, and
on. He arrives in his own country, and as he is entering it an old aunt
recognises him, and comes behind him, and gives him two kisses. [131]
It is all over with him. He forgets his wife, as if he had never seen
her, and he stays there amusing himself, and taking his pleasure.
The young lady, seeing that her husband never returned, that something
had happened to him, and that she could no longer count upon him,
she takes a little stick, and striking the earth, she says:
"I will that here, in this very spot, is built a beautiful hotel,
with all that is necessary, servants, and all the rest."
There was a beautiful garden, too, in front, and she had put over
the door:
"Here they give to eat without payment."
One day the young man goes out hunting with two comrades, and while
they were in the forest they said one to the other:
"We never knew of this hotel here before. We must go there too. One
can eat without payment."
They go off then. The young lady recognises her husband very well, but
he does not recognise her at all. She receives them very well. These
gentlemen are so pleased with her, that one of them asks her if she
will not let him pass the night with her. [132] The young lady says
to him, "Yes." The other asks also, "I, too, was wishing it." The
young lady says to him:
"To-morrow then, you, if you wish it, certainly."