"What art thou poking about there for?"
And he said to her: "For the golden hare."
She said to him: "It is not here, for this is a snake's hole," and when she had said this she went away. Presently the girl also came out and said to him:
"What! hast thou not got the hare? Did nothing come out, then?"
"No," said he, "nothing but an old woman who asked me what I was seeking, and I told her the golden hare, and she said, 'It is not here,' so I let her go."
Then the girl replied: "Why didst thou not lay hold of her? for she was the very golden hare itself, and now thou never wilt catch it unless I turn myself into a hare and thou take and lay me on the table, and give me into my mother's, the she dragon's hands, and go away, for if she find out all about it she will tear the pair of us to pieces."
So she changed herself into a hare, and he took and laid her on the table, and said to the she dragon:
"There's thy hare for thee, and now let me go away!"
She said to him: "Very well—be off!"