and they are restored to their proper forms.  The bat then conducts them to their father’s house, where he asks lodgings and is refused by the childless wife.  The husband takes them in however and kills a sheep for their entertainment.  The childless wife poisons the meat, and the bat warns the children, bidding them try a cock, a dog, and a cat with it, which is done, and the animals die.  The brothers now decline the food and ask that their sister be allowed to prepare somewhat for them to eat.  Then the bat touches the eyes of the children, who immediately recognise their parents, and great is the rejoicing.  The childless wife is torn in pieces by being dragged at the tail of a wild horse, and the bat, having been dressed in silver and gold, is sent back to his tree.

Sir Richard has given (p. 313, note) some particulars of the version in Hahn’s collection of modern Greek tales, which generally corresponds with Galland’s story.  There is a different version in M. Legrand’s “Recueil de Contes Populaires Grecs” (Paris, 1881), which combines incidents in the modern Arabic story of Arab Zandyk with some of those in Galland and some which it has exclusively: 

Modern Greek version.

Three daughters of an old woman disobey the order of the King, not to use a light at night because of the scarcity of oil, and work on as usual.  The King in going round the town to see if his order is obeyed comes to their house, and overhears the eldest girl express a wish that she were married to the royal baker, so that she should have plenty of bread.  The second wishes the King’s cook for her husband, to have royal meals galore.  The youngest wishes to have the King himself, saying she would bear him as children, “Sun,” “Moon,” and “Star.”  Next day the King sends for them and marries each as she had wished.  When the youngest brings forth the three children, in successive years, her mother-in-law, on the advice of a “wise woman,” (? the midwife) substitutes a dog, a cat and a serpent, and causes the infants to be put in a box and sent down the river, and the queen is disgraced.

An old monk, in the habit of going down to the river and taking one fish daily, one day gets two fishes, and asks God the reason.  In reply he is told that he will henceforth have two mouths to feed.  Presently, he finds the box with the infant “Sun” in it and takes him home.  Next year he gets one day three fishes, and finds the infant “Moon”, and the third year he has four fishes one day and finds the baby-girl, “Star.”  When the children have grown up the monk sends them to town in order that they should learn the ways of the world.  The eldest hearing a Jew offering a box for sale, saying, “Whoever buys this box will be sorry for it, and he who does not buy it will be equally sorry,” purchases it and on taking it home finds his sister weeping for the golden apple which the “wise woman” (who had found them out) told her she must get.  He opens the Jew’s