Then the second was lowered in his turn; but he also begin to cry as had the former, and was drawn out.
Now it was the turn of the youngest brother, who said: “Let me down, and the more I cry, ‘I am burning! I am roasting!’ the further let me descend.”
So they did, and the more he cried, the more they let him descend. At last he reached the bottom, and began to ramble about. Soon he saw a terrible giant lying down, with his head in the lap of a beautiful maiden; so beautiful that she seemed to say to the moon, “Moon, you need not shine, since I am shining.”
She was working with her needle, and before her a golden rat and a golden cat were playing in a golden basin. The maiden, seeing the lad, said:
“Human being! neither the snake on its belly, nor the bird with its wing would dare to come here. How could you venture to come?”
“Your love brought me hither,” answered the lad.
“Young man!” said the maiden, “if you love your life, go away; because if this giant, who is sleeping now, wakes he will cut you into pieces no larger than your ear.”
“Wake him up,” answered the lad; “I have come on purpose to fight him.”
“He sleeps forty days,” said the maiden, “and it is only eight days since he began to sleep; you have thirty-two days more to wait before he will awake. But if you will not wait so long, put yonder ploughshare into the fire, and heating it red-hot, press it on his legs and he will awake.”
The lad, heating the ploughshare, pressed it on the legs of the giant, who began to awake, saying, “Oh! what insects are biting my legs?”