The third year the youngest of the three brothers said to his father:
“Long live the King! I will go and bring the fruit.”
“Why,” said the King, “your older brothers failed, and do you think you will succeed?”
But the lad importuned the King again and again until he gave him permission to go. The lad, taking his bow and arrow, came to the tree. During the critical night when the Apple would ripen he felt that a heavy sleep was taking possession of his senses. To prevent it, however, he wounded one of his little fingers and put salt on the wound, and the sharp pain did not let him sleep. In the middle of the night, as it was lightning and thundering, lo! a terrible giant appeared and began to climb the tree. The lad took aim with his bow and arrow and shot the giant in the leg. The giant roared and ran away. The lad climbed the tree, and picking off the Apple of Life brought it to his father, who ate it and was soon after healed.
Then the youngest of the three brothers said to the King:
“Please give me permission to go and avenge myself upon my enemy.”
The King consented, and his two older brothers also went with him. They found that the giant had fled from the tree of the Apple of Life, leaving a track of blood that came from his wound. The three brothers followed the bloody track till they came to the mouth of an immeasurably deep abyss, into which the giant had entered. The oldest brother said:
“Bind me by the waist and let me down; I want to fight him.”
The other two did as he said, but before he was half-way down he began to cry out:
“I am burning! I am roasting! Draw me up!” And they drew him up.