“Serve to the little princess
Broth of the finest rice;
Grate into it fox’s liver
For magical, healing spice.
For a wildwood fox, search far and near,
And the princess’s ills will disappear.”
“A fox’s liver,” cried the young warrior joyously. “My beloved, now shall you be saved!” He repeated the song of the sunrise to the mother of the princess and she told the emperor. Then he sent far and wide to all the great hunters of the hills.
“Bring us the liver of a fox,” he commanded, “a clean and healthy fox. Do this as quickly as possible, for my daughter is sick unto death.”
The hunters sought on every hill and in every valley, through every tangled wildwood and over every moor, but they found no fox.
“There are no foxes!” they cried to the emperor. “We have searched far and near, and not one is to be found.”