And the priest said, ‘So righteous am I in the sight of God that He sends His saints for me.’ [[46]]
The thief let out all the crabs, each with a candle fastened to its claw, and he said, ‘Come, O priest, for God calls thee by His messengers to Himself, for thou art righteous.’
The priest said, ‘And how am I to go?’
‘Get into this sack.’
And he let down the sack; and the priest got in; and he lifted him up, and dragged him down the steps. And the priest’s head went tronk, tronk. And he took him on his back, and carried him to the king, and tumbled him down. And the king burst out laughing. And straightway he gave his daughter to the thief, and made him king in his stead.
Good as this version is, the last episode is much better told in the Slovak-Gypsy variant from Dr. Rudolf von Sowa’s Mundart der Slovakischen Zigeuner (Gött. 1887), No. 8, p. 174:—
No. 12.—The Gypsy and the Priest
There was a very poor Gypsy, and he had many little children. And his wife went to the town, begged herself a few potatoes and a little flour. And she had no fat.
‘All right,’ she thought; ‘wait a bit. The priest has killed a pig; I’ll go and beg myself a bit of fat.’