Page:Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo.djvu/109

 "Sir," he said, "this iron, which you see, will completely restore your health to its previous state without any other potion."

And he gave the order to lit a fire. "It is necessary," he added, "that you let each of your buttocks be branded, and if you are not completely free of your ailment, I shall be severely punished as a guilty and malicious woman.

The counselor replied that letting his buttocks be branded would cause him much reproach, but in order to be rid of his ailment he would be happy to suffer this and even greater pain.

So, the young man placed the branding iron into the fire and when it was well heated, he placed one mark on each of the buttocks of the counselor. He ordered the spirit immediately that he should no longer strike him. He asked to leave and said that he would return in eight days. At the end of this period the counselor would be sure whether the remedy had benefitted him.

When he returned to the residence of the counselor in his usual disguise, he found him healthy and happy, and he was showered with great gifts by him. And because it seemed to the counselor that he would be condemned if it became known that he had been branded on his buttocks, he begged the old woman dearly, not to speak with anyone about the cure she had used for him. After he received the old woman as if she were his mother, he wanted her to have long conversations with his wife and daughters, and he showed her all his most precious possessions.