that they shall shoot with the crossbow, and he who shoots farthest shall win the princess.  The second brother shoots farther than the first; but the youngest shoots so far that they cannot find where kits arrow has fallen.  He persists in the search and falls down a deep hole, from the bottom of which he can scarcely see a speck of the sky.  There an ogre (mago) appears to him and also a bevy of young fairy maidens of extreme beauty.  They lead him to a marvellous palace, give him refreshments and provide him with a room and a bed, where every night one of the fairies bears him company.  He spends his days in pleasure until the king’s daughter is almost forgotten.  At last he begins to think he ought to learn what has become of his brothers, his father, and the lady.  The chief fairy however, tries to dissuade him warning him that evil will befall him if he return to his brothers.  He persists, and she tells him that the princess is given to his eldest brother, who reigns in his father-in-law’s stead the latter having died, and that his own father is also dead; and she warns him again not to go.  But he goes.  His eldest brother says that he thought he was dead “in that hole.”  The hero replies that, on the contrary, he fares so well with a bevy of young and beautiful fairies that he does not even envy him, and would not change places with him for all the treasures in the world.  His brother, devoured by rage, demands that the hero bring him within eight days a pavilion of silk which will lodge three hundred soldiers, otherwise he will destroy his palace of delights.  The hero, affrighted, returns to the fairies and relates his brother’s threats.  The chief fairy says, “Didn’t I tell you so?  You deserve that I should leave you to your fate; but, out of pity for your youth, I will help you.”  And he returns to his brother within eight days with the required pavilion.  But his brother is not satisfied:  he demands another silk pavilion for 600 soldiers, else he will lay waste the abode of the fairies.  This pavilion he also receives from the fairies, and it was much finer and richer than the first.  His brother’s demands rise when he sees that the hero does not find any difficulty in satisfying him.  He now commands that a column of iron 12 cubits (braccia) high be erected in the midst of a piazza.  The chief of the fairies also complies with this requirement.  The column is ready in a moment, and as the hero cannot carry it himself, she gives it to the guardian ogre, who carries it upon his shoulders, and presents himself, along with the hero, before the eldest brother.  As soon as the latter comes to see the column set in the piazza the ogre knocks him down and reduces him to pulp (cofaccino, lit., a cake), and the hero marries his brother’s widow and becomes king in his stead.