XLII.—THE WONDERFUL HAIR.
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 from 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 thereat; 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, and without
a scrap of clothing. 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 fountainhead.
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
had 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.
