nger of my left hand, then
I can fly like a bird through the air wherever I wish to go. If I put
it on the third finger of my left hand I am invisible, and I can see
everything that passes around me, though no one can see me. If I put the
ring upon the middle finger of my left hand, then neither fire nor water
nor any sharp weapon can hurt me. If I put it on the forefinger of my
left hand, then I can with its help produce whatever I wish. I can in a
single moment build houses or anything I desire. Finally, as long as I
wear the ring on the thumb of my left hand, that hand is so strong that
it can break down rocks and walls. Besides these, the ring has other
secret signs which, as I said, no one can understand. No doubt it
contains secrets of great importance. The ring formerly belonged to King
Solomon, the wisest of kings, during whose reign the wisest men lived.
But it is not known whether this ring was ever made by mortal hands: it
is supposed that an angel gave it to the wise King.'

When the youth heard all this he determined to try and get possession of
the ring, though he did not quite believe in all its wonderful gifts.
He wished the maiden would let him have it in his hand, but he did not
quite like to ask her to do so, and after a while she put it back into
the box. A few days after they were again speaking of the magic ring,
and the youth said, 'I do not think it possible that the ring can have
all the power you say it has.'

Then the maiden opened the box and took the ring out, and it glittered
as she held it like the clearest sunbeam. She put it on the middle
finger of her left hand, and told the youth to take a knife and try as
hard as he could to cut her with it, for he would not be able to hurt
her. He was unwilling at first, but the maiden insisted. Then he tried,
at first only in play, and then seriously, to strike her with the knife,
but an invisible wall of iron seemed to be between them, and the maiden
stood before him laughing and unhurt. Then she put the ring on her third
finger, and in an instant she had vanished from his eyes. Presently she
was beside him again laughing, and holding the ring between her fingers.

'Do let me try,' said the youth, 'whether I can do these wonderful
things.'

The maiden, suspecting no treachery, gave him the magic ring.

The youth pretended to have forgotten what to do, and asked what finger
he must put the ring on so that no sharp weapon could hurt him?'

'Oh,