“By all means,” said he. “You shall have one of them,” and he handed her the green cabbage.
She took it to the kitchen, and with her own hands prepared a salad for her household. But when it was ready for the table she could wait no longer, and put some of it in her mouth and began eating. Immediately the charm worked, and she became an old, gray donkey and ran out into the courtyard.
Presently the servant maid entered the kitchen. She saw the cabbage salad on the table and took it up to carry it to the dining-hall. But on the way, in accord with her usual habit, she tasted of it. At once she turned into a donkey, dropped the dish, and ran out to join the other donkey.
In the meantime, the disguised huntsman sat with the beautiful maiden. She asked him about the wonderful cabbage, and expressed an eager desire to eat some of it.
“I will go to the kitchen and see if it is ready,” said he.
But on the way thither he found the salad on the floor with scattered fragments of the dish that had contained it. Then he looked out of a window and saw the two donkeys running about in the courtyard. “Very good,” said he, and he put the salad in a fresh dish and carried it to the maiden.
“I have brought you this precious salad myself,” said he, “so that you will not have to wait any longer.”
Thereupon she ate some, and lost her human form, and ran out to the courtyard. The huntsman washed the stain from his face, and went out and addressed the donkeys. “Now,” said he, “you see plainly who I am, and I would have you know that I am going to punish you for your treachery.”
He tied them together with a rope, and drove them along the highway until he came to a mill. There he stopped and tapped on a window. The miller put his head out and asked what he wanted.
“I have three bad animals here,” said he, “and I want to get rid of them. If you will take them and feed and treat them as I wish, I will pay you whatever you say is fair for your trouble.”