Beaten and bewildered, the officer returned to the king and told him all, and when his majesty heard that the lad had a stick which beat of its own accord, he longed so much for it that he quite forgot the cloth. So he sent off some of his soldiers to the lad with orders to bring the stick. The soldiers came to the hut and found the fool on the stove.
“Give us the cudgel,” said they. “The king will give you what you ask for it. If you will not give it to us we shall take it.”
Instead of making a reply, the lad put on his girdle, and said—
“Wonderful girdle, for my safety, and not for my pleasure, let me find myself on the water.”
There was a murmuring in the air, and a great change took place. A magnificent lake—long, wide, and deep—appeared in the middle of the plain, and in it swam fish with golden scales and eyes of pearls. In the middle of the lake, in a silver skiff, was a man whom the soldiers recognised as the fool. For a time they looked on in wonder, and then they set off to tell the king all about it. When the king heard of such a girdle he longed to have it. He took counsel with his officer, and then sent off a whole battalion of soldiers to take the fool prisoner.
This time they tried to catch him while he was asleep. Just as they were about to lay hands on him, however, the fool turned his hat, and said—
“Hat that shoots, to please me, strike those who trouble me.”
At that instant a hundred bullets whistled in the air. The place rang with the noise of guns, and the air was filled with smoke. Some of the soldiers fell dead on the ground, others ran off to hide themselves in the woods, and some went to tell the king.
The king was dreadfully angry to think that he could not get the better of the fool. He had desired to have the cloth, to have the stick, to have the girdle, but what were any of these things to the wonderful six-cornered hat which, of its own accord, fired and shot down its opponents as well as if it had been a battery of cannon!
Having considered for some time, he thought it would, perhaps, be best to try persuasion. So he sent to the lad’s mother, and said to her—