THE DWARF WITH THE LONG BEARD 109

that came to his hand; he imagined it to be a stone, but it
was really a skull, and aiming it at the owl, killed the bird
with the first blow. The rescued hare ran up to him and
gratefully licked his hands, after which it ran away: but the
human skull spoke to him and said, “ Prince Dobrotek, accept
my grateful thanks for the good turn you have done me. I
belonged to an unhappy man who took his own life, and for
this crime of suicide I have been condemned to roll in the
mud until I was the means of saving the life of one of God’s
creatures. I have been kicked about for seven hundred and
seventy years, crumbling miserably on the earth, and without
exciting the compassion of a single individual. You have
been the means of setting me free by making use of me to
save the life of that poor hare. In return for this kindness
I will teach you how to call to your aid a most marvellous
horse, who during my life belonged to me. He will be able
to help you in a thousand ways, and when in need of him
you have only to walk out on the moorland without once
looking behind you, and to say:

‘Dappled Horse with Mane of Gold,
Horse of Wonder! Come to me.
Walk not the earth, for I am told
You fly like birds o’er land and sea.’

Finish your work of mercy by burying me here, so that I
may be at rest until the day of judgment. Then depart in
peace and be of good cheer.”

The prince dug a hole at the foot of a tree, and reverently
buried the skull, repeating over it the prayers for the dead.
Just as he finished he saw a small blue flame come out of