They came to a city.
The young man remained some time in the well where they had put him, until
one day a caravan passing that way stopped to draw water. While the people
were drinking they heard something moving at the bottom of the well. "Wait
a moment," they said; they let down a rope, the young man caught it and
climbed up. He was as black as a negro. The people took him away and sold
him to a man who conducted him to his house. He stayed there a month and
became white as snow. The wife of the man said:
"Come, let us go away together."
"Never!" he answered.
At evening the man returned and asked, "What is the negro doing?"
"Sell him," said the woman.
He said, "You are free. Go where you please."
The young man went away and came to a city where there was a fountain
inhabited by a serpent. They couldn't draw water from this fountain without
his eating a woman. This day it was the turn of the King's daughter to be
eaten. The young man asked her:
"Why do you weep?"
"Because it is my turn to be devoured to-day."
The stranger answered, "Courage, I will kill the serpent, if it please
God.
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