ay, Sharpeye went to the palace, and it was arranged that the
shooting feat should come off on the following morning; and the princess
declared that she would part with all she possessed to ensure his
success. The man who held the apple on the mountain looked no bigger
than a crow, and fearing for his own safety, did not hold the apple by
the stalk, but in his mouth, thinking that the marksman would be more
likely to shoot the arrow at a safe distance from him. But Sharpeye
struck the apple precisely in the middle, carrying away a bit of flesh
from each cheek of the holder with it.

Sharpeye declined the king's proposal to betroth him to his daughter
immediately, and he returned to his brothers, when they rejoiced in
their success like children, and then cast lots[12] for the
princess.[13] The lot fell to Sharpeye, who married the princess, while
his two brothers returned home, when they bought large estates and lived
like princes.

The brothers are once spoken of as "Swedes," for what reason does not
appear. Another story on similar lines is that of the Swift-footed
Princess (Kreutzwald); but here the various feats, including the race
against the princess, who will not marry unless she is worsted in a
foot-race, are performed by the gifted servants in the train of the
prince who seeks her in marriage.

[Footnote 7: The word used means a little girl or a doll; Loewe
translates it "doll," which seems to be incorrect in this place.]

[Footnote 8: The God of Death.]

[Footnote 9: Combings or cuttings of hair are never burned or allowed to
be blown about in the air in Esthonia, but carefully buried; otherwise
the owner would suffer from violent headache.]

[Footnote 10: This word would have no apparent meaning as a proper name;
but Loewe suggests that it might be a corruption of Virgilius, which,
though not impossible, seems rather far fetched.]

[Footnote 11: Compare vol. i. p. 176.]

[Footnote 12: Their good faith and absence of envy is as conspicuous as
in the case of the sons of Kalev (vol. i. p. 58).]

[Footnote 13: When the five Pandavas, the heroes of the Maha-Bharata,
were returning victorious from an expedition during which Arjuna had won
the princess Draupadi in a contest with the bow, their mother, hearing
them coming, but not knowing what had happened, cried out, "Share
equally what you have brought." Upon which it was arranged that she
should become the joint wife of the five brother princes.]