Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/310

 302 The king said, "Take them away and hang them ; but if you hear them say anything to one another, bring them back again to me." They sent them off to be hanged, and then one of them said to another, "You said that if you saw a man on a dark night you would recognize him again anywhere by day." The other replied, "I have recognized him ; our companion was the king." They brought them back again to the king, and he asked them what they had been saying to one another. That man said, "I recognized our companion as the king, but now before the king I can say nothing." Then the king said, "I promised my companions that if I shook my head the king would not hang them, and now I have done what I promised." He presented them with one box of treasure, and took back the other, and made them promise never to commit theft again, and then let them go.