And about midnight very many devils assembled on the boat and began to tell each other what tricks they had played. The first said: “I started a quarrel between two peasants, backed up the one who was in the wrong; and the one, who was in the right, had his hand hacked off.”
“That’s not much of a feat! If he were to wave his hand, three times over the dew, his hand would grow again,” said the second.
Then the third began to boast, “I have sucked a lord’s daughter dry, and she can hardly stir.”
“What! if any one had any compassion on the lord, he would heal the daughter at once. It is as simple as possible. You have only to take this herb”—pointing to a herb on the shore—“cook it, boil her in the brew, and she will be healed.”
“In a certain pond,” a fifth devil said, “there is a peasant who has put up a water-mill, and for many years he has been striving to make it go, but whenever he lets the water through the sluice, I make a hole in it, and all the water flows through.”
“What a fool your peasant is!” said the sixth devil. “He ought to dam it up well, and as soon as the water breaks through, throw in a sheaf of straw, and all your work would be no good.”
Naúm had listened very attentively. Next day he grew his hand on again, then he saw to the peasant’s dam, and he healed the lord’s daughter. Both the peasant and the lord rewarded him richly, and he lived a fine life.
Once he met his former companion, who was very much astonished, and asked: “How is it you have become so rich, and how did you grow your hand on again?”
Naúm told him exactly what had happened, and kept nothing back.
Iván listened very attentively, and thought, “Ha! I shall do the same, and shall become richer than he!” So he went to the river and lay down on the shore, in the boat.