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 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.

XIV

THE DRAGON AND THE PRINCE

There was an emperor who had three sons.  One day the eldest son went out hunting, and, when he got outside the town, up sprang a hare out of a bush, and he after it, and hither and thither, till the hare fled into a water-mill, and the prince after it.  But it was not a hare, but a dragon, and it waited for the prince and devoured him.  When several days had elapsed and the prince did not return home, people began to wonder why it was that he was not to be found.  Then the middle son went hunting, and as he issued from the town, a hare sprang out of a bush, and the prince after it, and hither and thither, till the hare fled into the water-mill and the prince after it; but it was not a hare, but a dragon, which waited for and devoured him.  When some days had elapsed and the princes did not return, either of them, the whole court was in sorrow.  Then the third son went hunting, to see whether he could not find his brothers.  When he issued from the town, again up sprang a hare out of a bush, and the prince after it, and hither and thither, till the hare fled into the water-mill.  But the prince did not choose to follow it, but went to find other game, saying to himself:  “When I return I shall find you.”  After thus he went for a long time up and down the hill, but found nothing, and then returned to the water-mill; but when he got there, there was only an old woman in the mill.  The prince invoked God in addressing her:  “God help you, old woman!” The old woman replied:  “God help you, my son!” Then the prince asked her:  “Where, old woman, is my hare?” She replied:  “My son, that was not a hare, but a dragon.  It kills and throttles many people.”  Hearing this, the prince was somewhat disturbed, and said to the old woman:  “What shall we do now?  Doubtless my two brothers also have perished here.”  The old woman answered:  “They