r
Pedro sets out--meets the same fate. At last Juan goes, seeing that
his brothers do not return. Because of his charity a leper directs
the youth to a hermit's house. The hermit tells Juan how to avoid
the enchantment, secure the bird, and liberate his brothers. Juan
successful. On the return, however, the envious brothers beat Juan
senseless, and, taking the bird from him, make their way back to their
father's kingdom alone. But the bird becomes very ugly in appearance,
refuses to sing, and the king grows worse. Juan, meantime, is restored
by an angel sent from heaven. He finally reaches home; and the Adarna
bird immediately becomes beautiful again, and sings of the treachery of
Diego and Pedro. The king, recovered, wishes to banish his two older
sons; but Juan pleads for them, and they are restored to favor. The
king now charges his three sons with the safe-keeping of the bird,
threatening with death the one who lets it fly away.

One night, while Juan is on watch, he falls asleep. His envious
brothers open the cage, and the bird escapes. When Juan awakens and
sees the mischief done, he leaves home to look for the Adarna. Next
day the king, missing both Juan and the bird, sends Pedro and Diego in
search of their brother. They find him in the mountains of Armenia. In
their joint search for the bird, the three come to a deep well. Diego
and Pedro try in turn to go down, but fear to make the descent to
the bottom. Juan is then lowered. At the foot of the well he finds
beautiful fields. In his wanderings he comes to a large house where a
princess is looking out of the window. She tells Juan that she is in
the power of a giant; and so, when the monster returns, Juan kills
it. He likewise liberates her sister Leonora, who is in the power
of a seven-headed snake. All three--Juan and the two princesses--are
hoisted to the top of the well; but when Juan starts back for a ring
that Leonora has forgotten, his cruel brothers cut the rope. Leonora
sends her pet wolf to cure Juan, and the two brothers with the two
princesses return to Berbania. Juana is married to Diego; but Leonora
refuses to marry Pedro, asking for a seven-year respite to wait for
Juan's return.

Meantime Juan has been restored. One day the Adarna bird appears,
and sings over his head that there are three beautiful princesses in
the kingdom "de los Cristales." Juan sets out to find that place. He
meets an old man, who gives him a piece of his shirt and tells h