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By Root 2282 0

did not know what answer to make, and the blame rested with him. Then they were just going to fall upon him, but he entreated them and said: “Kill me not, I will bring our master to life again. I know a mountain on which a root grows which, when placed in the mouth of anyone, cures him of all illness and every wound. But the mountain lies two hundred hours’ journey from here.” The lion said: “In four-and-twenty hours must you have run thither and have come back, and have brought the root with you.” Then the hare sprang away, and in four-and-twenty hours he was back, and brought the root with him. The lion put the huntsman’s head on again, and the hare placed the root in his mouth, and immediately everything united together again, and his heart beat, and life came back. Then the huntsman awoke, and was alarmed when he did not see the maiden, and thought: “She must have gone away whilst I was sleeping, in order to get rid of me.” The lion in his great haste had put his master’s head on the wrong way round, but the huntsman did not observe it because of his melancholy thoughts about the King’s daughter. But at noon, when he was going to eat something, he saw that his head was turned backwards and could not understand it, and asked the animals what had happened to him in his sleep. Then the lion told him that they, too, had all fallen asleep from weariness, and on awaking, had found him dead with his head cut off, that the hare had brought the life-giving root, and that he, in his haste, had laid hold of the head the wrong way, but that he would repair his mistake. Then he tore the huntsman’s head off again, turned it round, and the hare healed it with the root.

The huntsman, however, was sad at heart, and traveled about the world, and made his animals dance before people. It came to pass that precisely at the end of one year he came back to the same town where he had rescued the King’s daughter from the dragon, and this time the town was gaily hung with red cloth. Then he said to the host: “What does this mean? Last year the town was all hung with black crape, what means the red cloth to-day?” The host answered: “Last year our King’s daughter was to have been delivered over to the dragon, but the marshal fought with it and killed it, and so to-morrow their wedding is to be solemnized, and that is why the town was then hung with black crape for mourning, and is to-day covered with red cloth for joy.”

Next day when the wedding was to take place, the huntsman said at mid-day to the inn-keeper: “Do you believe, sir host, that I while with you here to-day shall eat bread from the King’s own table?” “Nay,” said the host, “I would bet a hundred pieces of gold that that will not come true.” The huntsman accepted the wager, and set against it a purse with just the same number of gold pieces. Then he called the hare and said: “Go, my dear runner, and fetch me some of the bread which the King is eating.” Now the little hare was the lowest of the animals, and could not transfer this order to any of the others, but had to get on his legs himself. “Alas!” thought he, “if I bound through the streets thus alone, the butchers’ dogs will all be after me.” It happened as he expected, and the dogs came after him and wanted to make holes in his good skin. But he sprang away, you have never seen the like, and sheltered himself in a sentry-box without the soldier being aware of it. Then the dogs came and wanted to have him out, but the soldier did not understand a jest, and struck them with the butt-end of his gun, till they ran away yelling and howling. As soon as the hare saw that the way was clear, he ran into the palace and straight to the King’s daughter, sat down under her chair, and scratched at her foot. Then she said: “Will you get away?” and thought it was her dog. The hare scratched her foot for the second time, and she again said: “Will you get away?” and thought it was her dog. But the hare did not let itself be turned from its purpose, and scratched her for the third time. Then she peeped down, and knew the hare by its collar. She