A great crowd had come together; they discussed; they proferred counsel. Said some: there is naught for it but to take a hatchet and cut the yard. Said others: no, ‘tis a bad plan. Why lose two souls? For as soon as the yard is cut, the woman will fall and kill herself. ‘Tis better to pray to God that perchance by some miracle the old woman will disentangle herself from it.
During this time the son-in-law awoke, and perceived that his ring had descended to the base of his finger, that his yard raised itself towards the sky to a height of seven versts, and that it nailed him solidly to the earth, in such wise that he could not turn upon his other side.
He withdrew very softly the ring from his finger; his yard descended to the height of a cubit’s span; and the son-in-law saw his mother-in-law suspended upon it.
“How camest thou there, little mother?”
“Pardon, my little son-in-law. I will not do it any more!”
VARIANT.
Once on a time a tailor possessed a magic ring; as soon as he put it upon his finger, his yard assumed an extraordinary development. It fell out that he went to work at the house of a woman; by nature he was gay and given to jesting, and when he lay down to slumber he neglected always to cover his genitals.
The woman observed that he had a yard of great proportions; desirous of sampling the power of such an instrument, she summoned the tailor to her chamber.