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.”
