All right! The Gypsy went and had a fine blow-out at the peasant’s. Night came, and the Gypsy went off to the sheep. And the cheese he put in his pocket, and in his hand he took an iron bar weighing three hundredweight, besides which he made himself quite a light wooden rod. And off he went to the sheepfold. There was nobody there but the shepherd’s man.
‘Go you home, my lad,’ says the Gypsy, ‘and I’ll stop here.’
Midnight came. The Gypsy made himself a big fire, and straightway the dragon comes to the Gypsy by the fire.
He said to him, ‘Wait a bit. I’ll give it your mother for this;[8] what are you wanting here?’
‘Just wanting to see if you are such a strong chap, though you do eat three sheep every night.’
He was terrified.
‘Sit down beside me by the fire, and let’s just have a little trial of strength, to see which of us is the stronger. Do you throw this stick so high up in the air that it never falls down again, but stays there.’ (It was the bar that weighed three hundredweight.)
The dragon throws, threw it so high, that then and there [[84]]it remained somewhere or other up in the sky. ‘Now,’ says the dragon to the Gypsy, ‘now do you throw, as I threw.’
The Gypsy threw—it was the little light wooden stick—threw it somewhere or other behind him, so that the dragon couldn’t see where he threw it, but he fancied he had thrown it where he had thrown his own.
‘Well, all right! Let’s sit down, and see whether you really are a clever chap. Just take this stone and squeeze it so that the water runs out of it, and the blood, like this.’ The Gypsy took the cheese; he squeezed it till the water ran out of it; then he said to the dragon, ‘Do you take it now and squeeze.’