“You are no good at all, you others. I will climb up.”
And he climbs to the top, to the very tip-top. The others say to him:
“And do you not see anything?”
He says to them:
“Yes; I see a long column of smoke, but very, very thin, and far, very far away. Let us go towards that.”
And the three brothers set out together. At eight o’clock in the evening they come to a grand castle, and they knock at the door, and the Basa-Andre (wild woman) comes to answer. She asks:
“Who is there?”
And they reply, “It is we who are here.”
“What do you want, young children? Where are you going to at this time of night?”
“We ask and beg of you to give us shelter for to-night; we will be satisfied with a corner of the floor, poor wretches as we are.”