‘I will, brother.’
So he gave him a bit more bread, and took him by the hand, and led him under the gallows, and left him there, and departed. At nightfall came the devils, and perched on the gallows. And the biggest devil asked, ‘What have you done? where have you been to in the world?’
One said, ‘Don’t tell, for there was lately a blind man under the gallows, and he heard what we said. And he made himself eyes, and made the water run, and raised up the emperor’s daughter. Stay, while I look under the gallows.’
And they found the blind man. ‘There’s a blind man here.’ And they rent him all in pieces. Then the devils departed; the man was dead.
This story is told as well as story may be. There is a Gypsy variant, longer but not half so good, from the Hungarian Carpathians, in Miklosich’s Beiträge, p. 3:—
No. 31.—The Three Brothers
There was, there was not, a lord; and he had three sons. And one was the eldest son, and he said to his father, ‘We will go somewhere to seek a livelihood.’
‘Well, go, my sons,’ said their father.
When they went, he baked loaves for each one to put in his wallet. Then they went a long way, and the youngest had most bread. And that youngest brother said, ‘Brothers mine, I cannot carry this wallet, so first we will eat from my wallet, brothers mine.’