“Who told you?”

“A bird that flew into the sky.”  He added, “I will go with you.”

“Come,” said Hamed.  The shepherd took the millstone from his neck, and the sheep were changed into stones.

On the way they met a naked man, who was rolling in the snow.  They said [to themselves], “The cold stings us, and yet that man rolls in the snow without the cold killing him.”

The man said to them, “You are Hamed-ben-Ceggad, who built the house of coral-wood?”

“Who told you that?”

“A bird that passed flying in the sky told me.  I will accompany you.”

“Come,” said Hamed.  After they had pursued their way some time, they met a man with long ears.

“By the Lord,” they said, “we have only small ears, and this man has immense ones.”

“It is the Lord who created them thus, but if it pleases God I will accompany you, for you are Hamed-ben-Ceggad.”

They arrived at the house of the woman with the silver ornaments, and Hamed said to the inhabitants, “Give us this woman, that we may take her away.”

“Very well,” said her brother, the ogre.  They killed an ox, placed it upon a hurdle, which they lifted up and put down with the aid of ninety-nine men.

“Give us one of your men who can lift this hurdle.”

He who wore millstones hanging from his neck said, “I can lift it.”  When he had placed it on the ground, they served a couscous with this ox.  The ogre said, “Eat all that we give you.”  They ate a little, and the man with the long ears hid the rest of the food.  The brother continued:  “You give us one of you who will go to gather a branch of a tree that stands all alone on the top of a mountain two days’ march in the snow.”  The one who had rolled in the snow departed, and brought back the branch.

“There remains one more proof,” said the ogre.  “A partridge is flying in the sky; let one of you strike it.”  Hamed-ben-Ceggad killed it.

They gave him the woman, but before her departure her brother gave her a feather and said to her, “When anyone shall try to do anything to you against your will, cast this feather on the hearth and we will come to you.”

People told the woman, “The old Sultan is going to marry you.”

She replied, “An old man shall never marry me,” and cast the feather into the fire.  Her brother appeared, and killed all the inhabitants of the city, as well as the King, and gave the woman to Hamed-ben-Ceggad.

* * * * *

THE MAGIC NAPKIN

A taleb made a proclamation in these terms:  “Is there anyone who will sell himself for 100 mitquals?” A man agreed to sell himself.  The stranger took him to the cadi, who wrote out the bill of sale.  He took the 100 mitquals and gave them to his mother and departed with the taleb.  They went to a place where the latter began to repeat certain formulas.  The earth opened and the man entered it.  The other said to him, “Bring me the candlestick of reed and the box.”  He took this and came out keeping it in his pocket.