Page:Turkish fairy tales and folk tales (1901).djvu/35

 teeth." So she gave the forty sons forty wooden stakes to clean their teeth with, and out of one's tooth fell an arm, and out of another's a thigh, and out of another's an arm, till they had all cleaned their teeth. Then they sat them down to eat and drink, and in the middle of the meal their mother said to them: "If now ye had a man for your brother, what would ye do with him?"

"Do," they replied, "why love him like a brother, of course!"

Then the Mother of Devils tapped the water-jar, and the King's son stood there again. "Here is your brother!" cried she to her forty sons.

The devils thanked the King's son for his company with great joy, invited their new brother to sit down, and asked their mother why she had not told them about him before, as then they might all have eaten their meal together.

"Nay but, my sons," cried she, "he does not live on the same sort of meat as ye; fowls, mutton, and such-like is what he feeds on."

At this one of them jumped up, went out, fetched a sheep, slew it, and laid it before the new brother.

"Oh, what a child thou art!" cried the Mother of Devils. "Dost thou not know that thou must first cook it for him?"

Then they skinned the sheep, made a fire, roasted