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THE MAGIC EGG. 239

answered : “I don’t want the lucky penny, give me
the magic egg!”— Come hither, then!” said he,
“and thou shalt have it.” So he went into the hut.
Then the eagle’s father rejoiced and gave him the
egg, and said to him: “Take heed thou dost not
break it anywhere on the road, and when thou gettest
home, hedge it round and build a strong fence about
it, and it will do thee good.”

So he went homewards. He went on and on till
a great thirst came upon him. So he stopped at the
first spring he came to, and as he stooped to drink he
stumbled and the magic egg was broken. Then he
perceived that an ox had come out of the egg and
was rolling away. He gave chase to the ox, but
whenever he was getting close to one side of it, the
other side of it got further away from him. Then
the poor fellow cried: “I shall do nothing with it
myself, I see.”—At that moment an old she-dragon
came up to him and said: “ What wilt thou give me,
O man, if I chase this ox back again into the ege
for thee?”—And the archer replied: “What can I
give?”—The dragon said to him: “Give me what
thou hast at home without thy will and wit !”?—
“Done!” said the archer. Then the dragon chased
the ox nicely into the egg again, patched it up
prettily and gave it into the man’s hand. Then the
archer went home, and when he got home he found