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244 else to lean on now he had lost his daughter. But for all that, neither prayers nor preaching were any good; the lad turned himself into a falcon and flew off. But when he could not see them anywhere, he called to mind that wonderful rock in the lake, where he had rested the first time he ever flew. So he settled there; and after he had done that, he turned himself into an ant, and crept down through a crack in the rock. So when he had crept about awhile, he came to a door which was locked. But he knew a way how to get in, for he crept through the keyhole, and what do you think he saw there? Why, a strange princess combing a hill-ogre's hair that had three heads.

"I have come all right," said the lad to himself; for he had heard how the king had lost two daughters before, whom the Trolls had taken.

"Maybe I shall find the second also," he said to himself, as he crept through the keyhole of a second door. There sat a strange princess combing a hill-ogre's hair who had six heads. So he crept through a third keyhole still, and there sat the youngest princess combing a hill-ogre's hair with nine heads. Then he crept up her leg and stung her, and so she knew it