and this shall be
the last. I have a negro who will fight with you to-morrow, and if you
are the conqueror you shall wed my daughter.'

The stranger returned, full of joy, to the house of the old woman, and
that evening was so merry that the princess called to him; 'You seem
very cheerful this evening; what has my father told you that makes you
so glad?'

He answered: 'Your father has told me that to-morrow I must fight with
his negro. He is only another man like myself, and I hope to subdue him,
and to gain the contest.'

But the princess answered: 'This is the hardest of all. I myself am
the black man, for I swallow a drink that changes me into a negro of
unconquerable strength. Go to-morrow morning to the market, buy twelve
buffalo hides and wrap them round your horse; fasten this cloth round
you, and when I am let loose upon you to-morrow show it to me, that I
may hold myself back and may not kill you. Then when you fight me you
must try to hit my horse between the eyes, for when you have killed it
you have conquered me.'

Next morning, therefore, he went to the market and bought the twelve
buffalo hides which he wrapped round his horse. Then he began to fight
with the black man, and when the combat had already lasted a long time,
and eleven hides were torn, then the stranger hit the negro's horse
between the eyes, so that it fell dead, and the black man was defeated.

Then said the king: 'Because you have solved the three problems I take
you for my son-in-law.'

But the stranger answered: 'I have some business to conclude first; in
fourteen days I will return and bring the bride home.'

So he arose and went into another country, where he came to a great
town, and alighted at the house of an old woman. When he had had supper
he begged of her some water to drink, but she answered: 'My son, I have
no water; a giant has taken possession of the spring, and only lets us
draw from it once a year, when we bring him a maiden. He eats her up,
and then he lets us draw water; just now it is the lot of the king's
daughter, and to-morrow she will be led forth.'

The next day accordingly the princess was led forth to the spring, and
bound there with a golden chain. After that all the people went away and
she was left alone.

When they had gone the stranger went to the maiden and asked her what
ailed her that she lamented so much, and she answered that the reason
was because the giant would come and eat her up. And the