The younger brother carried his burden home and sent for his sister-in-law. When she came and saw her dead husband she wept and would not be comforted. At last she said: “We must get a tailor to sew him together. I cannot bury him like that, in two pieces.”
So the man went out and got a tailor, who sewed the head on to the body, and afterward the burial took place. Then the younger brother gave his sister-in-law some money, and said, “Go and provide for yourself and your children, and if you are in want again, do not hesitate to come and ask me for what you need.”
Meanwhile the dragons had returned to their castle and found the dead man gone. “So the thief had an accomplice!” they exclaimed. “We must destroy him also.”
The chief dragon was a powerful magician, and the next day he assumed the form of a man, and went to the town to try to discover who had come to their castle and removed the body with its severed head. While he was loitering about, uncertain how to get the desired information, he concluded he would go to a tailor and have a suit of clothes made. The tailor took his measure, and the dragon said: “Now mind you sew the seams well so the stitches won’t come out. You must do a careful job, or I will not pay you. It’s not often I have a nice suit made, and I am particular. Use good strong thread and—”
“Stop!” cried the tailor with rising anger. “There is no need for you to make such a fuss. Why, yesterday I had to sew together a dead man whose head had been separated from his body. His relations were entirely satisfied with the way I did the difficult task. If I can do a job like that so well, in spite of the fact that it was out of my line, you can be assured I have the skill to make you a satisfactory suit. So have done with your advising, or you will drive me crazy.”
“Do you know the person who hired you to sew the dead man?” asked the dragon.
“Of course I do,” answered the tailor. “He lives near by. If you like, I will point out his house, and you can go in and ask him whether the body was well sewed or not.”
So he took the dragon a little way along the street and showed him where the brother of the dead man dwelt. But instead of going into the house, the dragon went to a carpenter’s shop and ordered forty-eight chests, each just big enough to contain one of the dragons. When the chests were finished he had them sent to a lonely spot outside of the town, and thither he summoned his dragons. They got into the chests, and he hired wagons to bring the chests to the house of the dead man’s brother. He himself went on ahead, and toward evening he found the former poor man seated in his doorway. “Sir,” said he, “I have had forty-eight chests sent to me. You can see them coming down the street on those wagons. Would you be so kind as to let me leave them in your yard for the night?”
“You are welcome to leave them there for the night,” said the man, “and as much longer as suits your convenience.”
After the wagons had been unloaded and the dragon chief had gone, the man’s children began climbing about and jumping on the chests. The dragons who were inside groaned from time to time, and said, “Ah, would it were dark that we might eat them all.”