The old woman answered at once, ‘Kill the cow, my son, and cut it in pieces.’
‘But how will that bring me back my money with profit?’ asked the young shepherd, hesitating whether he should follow her advice or no.
‘Don’t be afraid, my son, but do as I say,’ returned the old woman. Accordingly he did as she advised him, killed the cow and cut her into pieces. This done, he asked again, ‘And now, what shall I do?’ The old woman said quietly, ‘Well, now we will eat the meat, and the suet we will melt down and put into a pot to keep for some other occasion.’
The shepherd did not at all like this proposal, for he could not see what return he could hope to get for such an investment of his capital. However, he thought within himself, ‘Well, since I have been foolish enough to follow her counsel on the two former occasions, I may as well follow it also this third time.’ So he remained with the old woman many days, until the last piece of meat had been eaten up. When, however, he thought over all that had happened, he grew very sad, and, seeing no sign of anything better, said one morning to the old woman reproachfully, ‘Now you see by following your counsel I have spent all the king’s money, and am now a ruined man!’
‘Don’t be afraid, my son,’ said the old woman; ‘you can now take that pot of suet with you and go to the black world, where all the people are black as chimney-pots, and there you can sell for a good deal of money your suet, for it has the power to make the black skin white.’
The poor shepherd was very glad at hearing this, and next morning took the pot of suet on his shoulder and started on his journey. After he had travelled many, many days, he came to a strange-looking country, and, going a little farther, he saw a man who was quite black, just as the old woman had said—as black as a chimney-pot. He was immediately going to offer to sell some of his fat to the black man, when the latter, frightened at the sight of a white man, ran away. Many other black men who saw him did the same, but after a while, when they saw that he went on quietly carrying his pot on his shoulder, they took courage, and came to him one by one, until at last quite a large crowd had gathered about him. At length, one of them ventured to say to him, ‘You strange-looking man, tell us who you are, and where you come from, and why did you come here?’ The shepherd answered, ‘I am a white man from a white world, and I come to bring you some fat which will make you also white—that is, of course, if you choose to buy it from me and pay me for it well.’
Now the black men, though they had been quite shocked at first to see the white man, began to think they also would like to be white; so they said they were willing to pay him as much as he liked to ask for his wonderful fat, because they were very rich.
However, they doubted a little if the fat would really make them white as he said, and wished to see it tried before they bought it. Thereupon he set the pot on the ground, and walked round and round it, saying some queer words as if he were charming it. Then he took out of the pot a little of the fat, and with it smeared one of the black men. In a moment the black skin became quite white, and the other blacks, seeing that he had told them the truth, crowded eagerly round him, begging that he would make them white also, and outbidding each other in offers of money, provided only that he made them white in a short time. The young shepherd worked hard, smearing one black skin after the other, until he got quite weary and had become very rich, for they gave him a good deal of money, and there were a great many of them who wished to be made white.
Just as he had thus whitened the last of the black men about him, one of them said to him, ‘Wonder-working man! We have a king who, being our chief, is the blackest of us all; therefore, if you think you can make him white also, we are sure he will be very glad to get rid of his blackness, and will pay you more money than you ever dreamt of.’
‘I will do it very gladly,’ answered the shepherd; ‘for you must know I am doing this not so much for the sake of money as for charity; only, show me at once the way to your king.’