married lived. And when he came into the town all the people
were in great sorrow because their prince had disappeared.

But when they saw his youngest brother, and the beasts following
him, they thought it was their own prince, and they rejoiced
greatly, and told him how they had sought him everywhere. Then
they led him to the king, and he too thought that it was his
son-in-law. But the princess knew that he was not her husband,
and she begged him to go out into the woods with his beasts, and
to look for his brother till he found him.

So the youngest prince set out to look for his brother, and he
too lost his way in the wood and night overtook him. Then he
came to the clearing among the trees, where the fire was burning
and where the old woman was raking sticks and leaves into the
flames. And he asked her if he might spend the night beside her
fire, as it was too late and too dark to go back to the town.

And she answered: 'Certainly you may. But I am afraid of your
beasts. May I give them a stroke with my rod, then I shall not
be afraid of them.'

And he said she might, for he did not know that she was a witch.
So she stretched out her rod, and in a moment the beasts and
their master were turned into stone.

It happened soon after that the second brother returned from his
wanderings and came to the cross-roads where the three birches
grew. As he went round the trees he saw that blood poured from
the cuts in the bark of two of the trees. Then he wept and said: