He answered that he wanted nothing more than to be as he had been, before he disfigured himself at the bidding of the cruel young woman.
Accordingly the crone prepared a bath for him, and when he came out his skin was smooth and fine, without any mark upon it. She combed his hair with a comb of ivory, and it became long and splendid and fell over his shoulders like a mantle, so that he was far handsomer than before.
When he went back to the village, all the people admired him as a being from another world, and his cousin put on her best robes and walked to and fro, trying to attract his attention, but he did not even glance at her. Finally she sent her servant with a message, asking him to come and see her.
When he did not appear, she sent a second time, and inquired very humbly what she could do to please him. He told the messenger to say that if she would slash her right cheek with a knife, he would come.
So the princess cut open her right cheek, and when the cut had healed she sent to her cousin again. This time he made answer that she must first cut her left cheek also, and she did as he ordered.
When her messenger came to the prince a fourth time, he directed that her mistress cut off all her beautiful hair, declaring that he would then be entirely satisfied. Crying bitterly, the poor girl cut it off and sent it to her lover, but he threw it on the ground with contempt, saying that nothing would induce him to look upon the face of a woman who had so disfigured herself.
The wise men say that since this happened, women have not been allowed to choose their husbands, or to refuse the men who have been selected for them to marry.
GRIZZLY BEAR AND THE FOUR CHIEFS
There were once four chiefs who were brothers and lived in one village. In the dead of winter, when food was scarce, a lean stranger came among them and stopped at the hut of the eldest brother.
He was courteously received and seated by the fire, as is the custom, and the chief asked him where he came from.