hold of me. I wanted to cure the King's daughter all by
myself, but I couldn't. Now they're going to hang me. Do
help me!"

The old man returned with the Pope.

The Pope was taken to the gallows. Says the old man to
the Pope:

"Pope! who ate my loaves?"

"Not I, on my word! So help me Heaven, not I!"

The Pope was hoisted on to the second step. Says the old
man to the Pope:

"Pope! who ate my loaves?"

"Not I, on my word! So help me Heaven, not I!"

He mounted the third step--and again it was "Not I!"
And now his head was actually in the noose--but it's "Not I!"
all the same. Well, there was nothing to be done! Says the
old man to the King:

"O King! O free to do thy will! Permit me to cure the
Princess. And if I do not cure her, order another noose to be
got ready. A noose for me, and a noose for the Pope!"

Well, the old man put the pieces of the Princess's body together,
bit by bit, and breathed on them--and the Princess stood
up alive and well. The King recompensed them both with
silver and gold.

"Let's go and divide the money, Pope," said the old man.

So they went. They divided the money into three heaps.
The Pope looked at them, and said:

"How's this? There's only two of us. For whom is this
third share?"

"That," says the old man, "is for him who ate my loaves."

"I ate them, old man," cries the Pope; "I did really, so
help me Heaven!"

"Then the money is yours," says the old man. "Take my
share too. And now go and serve in your parish faithfully;
don't be greedy, and don't go hitting Nicholas over the shoulders
with the keys."

Thus spake the old man, and straightway disappeared.

[The principal motive of this story is, of course, the
same as that of "The Smith and the Demon," in No. 13
(see above, p. 70). A miraculous cure is effected by a
supernatural being. A man attempts to do likewise, but
fails. When about to undergo the penalty of his
failure, he is saved by that being, who reads him a
moral lesson. In the original form of the tale the
supernatural agent was probably a demigod, whom a
vague Christian influence has in one instance degraded
into the Devil, in another, canonized as St. Nicholas.

The Medea's cauldron episode occurs in very many
folk-tales, such as the German "Bruder Lustig" (Grimm,
No. 81) and "Das junge gegluehte