So he took the dove and returned home. He had a house built and made a secret place in one of the walls for the three feathers. When he plucked out the feathers the dove became a beautiful princess, but she did not know where the feathers were. But his mother knew quite well, for he had told her all and showed her where the feathers were hidden.
When they had been living together for three years he went a-hunting one day with another lord, and his mother stayed at home with her daughter-in-law. The mother said to her: “Dear daughter-in-law, I can’t tell you how beautiful I think you. If one were to search the whole world through, one couldn’t find so beautiful a woman.”
The daughter-in-law answered: “Dear lady, the beauty I have now is nothing to what I should have had I but one of my golden feathers.”
The mother went straight off, fetched one of the feathers, and gave it to her.
She thrust it into her skin, and she was immediately far more beautiful than before. The mother kept looking at her, and said: “If you had the others as well, you would be even more beautiful.” Then she fetched the other two feathers and gave them to her.
She thrust them into her skin, and behold! she was a dove again. She flew off through the window, thanking her mother-in-law: “Thank you, dearest mother, for giving me these three feathers. I will wait a little for my husband, to say good-bye to him.”
So she perched on the roof to wait till her husband should return from the forest.
Now, the husband’s nose fell to bleeding violently. He grew frightened, and began to wonder what great misfortune had befallen him at home. He mounted his horse and hastened home. As he was approaching the door the dove called out: “Good-bye, dear husband. I thank you for your true love, but you will never see me more.”
Then the dove flew away, and the husband began to weep and to wail. Of course, he was very angry with his mother, and he decided to go away again and follow wherever his eyes might lead him. So he started off, and he went back to the sorcerer in whose service he had been before. As soon as he entered the sorcerer said:
“Aha! you have not followed my advice. I won’t help you this time; the three doves are gone from here. But go to my brother, for all the birds and animals are under his power, and perhaps some of them might know where the doves are. I will give you a ball, and when you roll it three times, you will get there this evening. You must ask him whether he knows anything about the doves, and you must tell him, too, that I sent you to him.”