At last they came back to the same spot, and, beginning to weep, they said: 

“Alas!  Alas!  See, here is father’s staff, and here is his coat, and he comes not, and he comes not.”

Whether the brother and sister sat there a long time or a short time is not known.  They rose after a while, and one took the staff and the other the coat, and they went away without knowing whither.  They went on and on and on, until they saw tracks of horses’ hoofs filled with rain-water.

“I am going to drink, sister,” said the brother.

“Do not drink, little brother, or you will become a colt,” said the sister.

They passed on till they saw tracks of oxen’s hoofs.

“O sister dear, how thirsty I am!”

“Do not drink, little brother, or you will be a calf,” the sister said to him.

They went on till they saw the tracks of buffalo hoofs.

“O sister dear, how thirsty I am!”

“Drink not, little brother, or you will be a buffalo calf.”

They passed on and saw the tracks of bears’ paws.

“Oh, I am so thirsty, sister dear.”

“Drink not, little brother, or you will become a little bear.”

They went on and saw the tracks of swine’s trotters.

“O sister dear, I am going to drink.”

“Drink not, little brother, or you will become a little pig.”

They went on and on till they saw the tracks of the pads of wolves.

“O sister dear, how thirsty I am!”

“Do not drink, little brother, or you will become a little wolf.”

They walked on and on till they saw the tracks of sheep’s trotters.

“O sister dear, I am almost dying with thirst.”

“O little brother, you grieve me so!  You will, indeed, be a sheep if you drink.”

He could stand it no longer.  He drank and turned into a sheep.  He began to bleat and ran after his sister.  Long they wandered, and at last came home.

Then the stepmother began to scheme against them.  She edged up to her husband and said:  “Kill your sheep.  I want to eat him.”

The sister got her sheep-brother away in the nick of time and drove him back into the mountains.  Every day she drove him to the meadows and she spun linen.  Once her distaff fell from her hand and rolled into a cavern.  The sheep-brother stayed behind grazing while she went to get the distaff.

She stepped into the cavern and saw lying in a corner a Dew, one thousand years old.  She suddenly spied the girl and said:  “Neither the feathered birds nor the crawling serpent can make their way in here; how then hast thou, maiden, dared to enter?”

The girl spoke up in her fright.  “For love of you I came here, dear grandmother.”