'Then go at once to the well, and fetch me a cup of water. Your brother can stay with me,' quoth the girl.
But when the elder brother had gone, the snake-girl turned to the younger, saying, 'Fly with me, for I love you! My promise to your brother was a trick to get him away!'
'Not so!' returned the young man; 'you are his promised wife, and I look on you as my sister.'
On this the girl became angry, weeping and wailing, until the elder brother returned, when she called out, 'O husband, what a villain is here! Your brother asked me to fly with him, and leave you!'
Then bitter wrath at this treachery arose in the elder brother's heart, so that he drew his sword and challenged the younger to battle. Then they fought all day long, until by evening they both lay dead upon the field, and then the girl took the form of a snake once more, and behind it followed the old man silent as a shadow. But at last it changed into the likeness of an old white-bearded man, and when he who had followed so long saw one like himself, he took courage, and laying hold of the white beard, asked, 'Who and what are you?'
Then the old man smiled and answered, 'Some call me the Lord of Death, because I go about bringing death to the world.'
'Give me death!' pleaded the other, 'for I have followed you far, silent as a shadow, and I am aweary.'
But the Lord of Death shook his head, saying, 'Not so! I only give to those whose years are full, and you have sixty years of life to come!'
Then the old white-bearded man vanished, but whether he really was the
Lord of Death, or a devil, who can tell?