“So they are! so they are!” chimed in the gullible multitude.
“Then I thought it would be fine to bring a flock of such fine goats home—and, after all, it was easy to go back again when I wanted to see that deep blue sky and those rich pastures again; so home I came. Here am I, and here are the goats; and if you don’t believe I got them there, you can go and fetch some thence and compare them.”
“But shall we really find such goats if we go?” eagerly inquired the credulous villagers.
“To be sure you will—and sheep, and oxen, and cows too, without number.”
“Cows too! Oh, let’s come and supply ourselves, and make good our losses! But first show the way you came up by.”
“Oh, it’s a long, steep, weary way, and would take you two days to get down! Much the nearest way is to jump down the side of the Hoch Gerach.”
“But are you sure we shan’t hurt ourselves? Didn’t you get hurt at all?”
“Not a bit. Feel me; I’m quite sound.”
“To be sure, you couldn’t hurt falling on to such soft, beautiful meadows!” they replied; and off they set, only eager which should reach the Hoch Gerach first, and which should be the first to make the bold spring, and which should have the first pick and choice of the fair flocks and herds in the enchanted world underground!
Slap! bang! plump! they all went over the side of the Hoch Gerach, one after the other, never to return! And Taland thus alone remained to inherit the houses and goods of the whole village, all for himself—and, from being the poorest of all, became possessed of the riches of all.