The three seated themselves, ate, drank, and found all excellent.
After they had partaken of the repast, three beautiful ladies in rich attire entered, and told the brothers they were accursed and doomed to remain for ever under the earth. But if they would remain there three years without seeing the light of day, they would be released.
The ladies promised them the best table during the time, and conducted them to see their treasures, and pointing out three casks filled with gold, promised each one.
They also told them they must now become black, and would only visit them once a year, exhorted the brothers to firmness, and left them.
At the end of the first year they returned; they were become somewhat whiter.
At the next visit, at the end of the second year, they were grown still whiter. They exhorted the brothers earnestly to perseverance and again left them.
The first half of the third year passed happily, but in the last half the eldest brother grew impatient, and asked: "Why should we remain here any longer?"
But the younger reminded them of their promise. At last the second brother became undecided and restless, and finally the two resolved to remain no longer.
They threatened to murder the youngest if he would not accompany them, and to save his life he yielded to their entreaties.
At the proposal of the eldest, they took as much of the gold as they could carry with them.