So he mounted the horse, and rode to the old woman’s. [[106]]And the horse said to him, ‘Turn a somersault,[20] and you’ll become a flea, and creep into her breast and bite her. And she’ll fling off her smock, and do you go and take the bird.’
And he took the bird, and departed to his master; the master made him a lackey.
And there was in the Danube a lady, a virgin; and of a Sunday she would go out on the water in a boat. And his brothers came to their master and said, ‘Master, Tropsyn boasts that he’ll bring the lady from the bottom of the Danube.’
‘Tropsyn, come here. What is this you’ve been boasting, that you’ll bring me the lady?’
‘I didn’t.’
‘You’ve got to, else I shall cut off your head.’
He went to his horse. ‘What am I to do, horse, for how shall I bring her?’
And the horse said, ‘Fear not, let him give you twelve hides and a jar of pitch,[21] and put them on me, and let him make you a small ship, not big, and let him put various drinks in the ship. And do you hide yourself behind the door. And she will come, and drink brandy, and get drunk, and sleep. And do you seize her, and jump on my back with her, and I will run off home.’
The horse ran home to the master, and Tropsyn gave her to his master in the castle. The count shut the doors, and set a watch at the window to prevent her escape, for she was wild. The count wanted to marry her; she will not.
‘Let them bring my herd of horses, then I will marry you. He who brought me, let him bring also my horses.’