oms," said he. "No, I have not," answered
the youth. "That I shall soon be able to see," said the man, going into
the room the youth had entered. "But thou hast been in," said he, "and
now thou shalt die." The youth cried and entreated to be forgiven, so
that he escaped with his life but had a severe beating; when that was
over, they were as good friends as before.

Some time after this, the man took another journey. This time he would
be away a fortnight, but first forbade the youth again from going into
any of the rooms he had not already been in; but the one he had
previously entered he might enter again. This time all took place just
as before, the only difference being that the youth abstained for eight
days before he entered the forbidden rooms. In one apartment he found
only a shelf over the door, on which lay a huge stone and a
water-bottle. "This is also something to be in such fear about," thought
the youth again. When the man came home, he asked whether he had been in
any of the rooms. "No, he had not," was the answer. "I shall soon see,"
said the man; and when he found that the youth had nevertheless been in,
he said, "Now I will no longer spare thee, thou shalt die." But the
youth cried and implored that his life might be spared, and thus again
escaped with a beating; but this time got as much as could be laid on
him. When he had recovered from the effect of this beating he lived as
well as ever, and he and the man were as good friends as before.

Some time after this, the man again made a journey, and now he was to be
three weeks absent. He warned the youth anew not to enter the third
room; if he did he must at once prepare to die. At the end of a
fortnight, the youth had no longer any command over himself, and stole
in; but here he saw nothing save a trap-door in the floor. He lifted it
up and looked through; there stood a large copper kettle, that boiled
and boiled, yet he could see no fire under it. "I should like to know if
it is hot," thought the youth, dipping his finger down into it; but when
he drew it up again he found that all his finger was gilt. He scraped
and washed it, but the gilding was not to be removed; so he tied a rag
over it, and when the man returned and asked him what was the matter
with his finger, he answered he had cut it badly. But the man, tearing
the rag off, at once saw what ailed the finger. At first he was going to
kill the youth, but as he cried and begged again, he merely