So the crow summoned all the crows, and they searched upon every side, till they lighted on her. So they took her in their beaks, and brought her to the lad. So the lad took her, and led her to the old woman.
‘You have one day more,’ said the old woman. [[40]]
So the day came when the lad had to find the mare once more. (That night the old woman had thrashed the white mare and pretty nigh killed it. And the mare had said to the old woman, ‘If he lights on me this time, old woman, you may know I have burst, for I will go right into the sea.’)
So when the lad departed with her, she went into the sea. And the lad searched for her, and it wanted but little of night. And the fish came into his mind. So the fish emerged before him and said, ‘What’s the matter, lad?’
‘I don’t know where the white mare has gone to.’
And the fish went and summoned all the fishes; and they gave up the white mare with her colt behind her. And the lad took her. He went with her to the old wife, and she said to him, ‘Take, deary, whichever pleases you.’
The lad chose the youngest colt.
And the old wife said, ‘Don’t take that one, my lad; it isn’t a good one. Take a handsomer.’
And the lad said, ‘Let be.’
And the lad went further; and the colt turned a somersault,[17] and became golden, with twenty-and-four wings. And the Serpent had none like his. And he went to his sisters, and took the three of them, and took too the Serpent-Maiden, and went with them home. Neither the Unclean Spirit nor the dragon could catch him. And he went home. So he made a marriage; and they ate and drank. And I left them there, and came and told my tale to your lordships.