She hid Nameless in a great vessel of water, and bade him keep quiet. At evening the Sun-King came home, a feeble old man with golden head, and got victuals and drink from his mother. When he had eaten and drunk, he laid his golden head in his mother’s lap and fell fast asleep. Then the old lady twitched out a golden hair, and he cried, ‘Mother, why won’t you let me sleep?’
The old lady answered, ‘I saw in a dream a city with a tree which used to bear golden apples, and whoso ate of them grew well and healthy, and died not. For twenty years now the tree has put forth no more fruit, and the people know not what they ought to do.’
The Sun-King said, ‘They should kill the serpent that gnaws at the root of the tree.’
Again he slept, and after a while his mother twitched out a second hair. Then cried the Sun-King, ‘Mother, what’s the meaning of this? why can’t you let me sleep?’
The old lady answered, ‘My dear son, I dreamed of a city with a spring, and whoso drank of it grew young again. Twenty years has this spring ceased to flow, and the people know not what they should do.’
The Sun-King said, ‘A great toad is blocking the source of the spring. They should kill the toad, then the spring will flow as before.’
Again he slept, and after a while the old lady in white twitched out a third hair. Then cried the Sun-King, ‘Mother, do let me sleep.’ [[137]]
The old lady answered, ‘I saw in a dream a great black lake with an old man rowing about it in a boat, and he doesn’t know how to escape from the boat, for only then can he die.’
The Sun-King said, ‘Next time he takes any one over, let him hand him the oars and jump ashore himself; then the other must stop in the boat, and the old man can die.’
Again he slept.