Then the youngest said, “I dreamt that I was going to wash my hands, and that the princes, my brothers, held the basin, whilst the queen, my mother, held fine towels for me to dry my hands with, and your majesty’s self poured water over them from a golden ewer.”
The king, hearing this last dream, became very angry, and exclaimed, “What! I—the king—pour water over the hands of my own son! Go away this instant out of my palace, and out of my kingdom! You are no longer my son.”
The poor young prince tried hard to make his peace with his father, saying that he was really not to be blamed for what he had only dreamed; but the king grew more and more furious, and at last actually thrust the prince out of the palace.
So the young prince was obliged to wander up and down in different countries, until one day, being in a large forest, he saw a cave, and entered it to rest. There, to his great surprise and joy, he found a large kettle full of Indian corn, boiling over a fire: and, being exceedingly hungry, began to help himself to the corn. In this way he went until he was shocked to see he had nearly eaten up all the maize, and then, being afraid some mischief would come of it, he looked about for a place in which to hide himself. At this moment, however, a great noise was heard at the cave-mouth, and he had only time to hide himself in a dark corner before a blind old man entered, riding on a great goat and driving a number of goats before him.
The old man rode straight up to the kettle, but as soon as he found that the corn was nearly all gone, he began to suspect some one was there, and groped about the cave until he caught hold of the prince.
“Who are you?” asked he sharply; and the prince answered, “I am a poor, homeless wanderer about the world, and have come now to beg you to be good enough to receive me.”
“Well,” said the old man, “why not? I shall at least have some one to mind my corn whilst I am out with my goats in the forest.”
So they lived together for some time; the prince remaining in the cave to boil the maize, whilst the old man drove out his goats every morning into the forest.
One day, however, the old man said to the prince, “I think you shall take out the goats to-day, and I will stay at home to mind the corn.”
This the prince consented to very gladly, as he was tired of living so long quietly in the cave. But the old man added, “Mind only one thing! There are nine different mountains, and you can let the goats go freely over eight of them, but you must on no account go on the ninth. The veele live there, and they will certainly put out your eyes as they have put out mine, if you venture on their mountain.” The prince thanked the old man for his warning, and then, mounting the great goat, drove the rest of the goats before him out of the cave.