The donkey
and the hound laid themselves down under a large tree, the cat and the
cock settled themselves in the branches; but the cock flew right to the
top, where he was most safe. Before he went to sleep he looked round on
all four sides, and thought he saw in the distance a little spark
burning; so he called out to his companions that there must be a house
not far off, for he saw a light. The donkey said, “If so, we had better
get up and go on, for the shelter here is bad.” The hound thought that
a few bones with some meat on would do him good too! So they made their way to the place where the light was, and soon saw
it shine brighter and grow larger, until they came to a well-lighted
robber’s house. The donkey, as the biggest, went to the window and
looked in. “What do you see, my grey-horse?” asked the cock. “What do I see?”
answered the donkey; “a table covered with good things to eat and
drink, and robbers sitting at it enjoying themselves.” “That would be
the sort of thing for us,” said the cock. “Yes, yes; ah, how I wish we
were there!” said the donkey. Then the animals took counsel together how they should manage to drive
away the robbers, and at last they thought of a plan. The donkey was to
place himself with his fore-feet upon the window-ledge, the hound was
to jump on the donkey’s back, the cat was to climb upon the dog, and
lastly the cock was to fly up and perch upon the head of the cat. When this was done, at a given signal, they began to perform their
music together: the donkey brayed, the hound barked, the cat mewed, and
the cock crowed; then they burst through the window into the room, so
that the glass clattered! At this horrible din, the robbers sprang up,
thinking no otherwise than that a ghost had come in, and fled in a
great fright out into the forest. The four companions now sat down at
the table, well content with what was left, and ate as if they were
going to fast for a month. As soon as the four minstrels had done, they put out the light, and
each sought for himself a sleeping-place according to his nature and to
what suited him. The donkey laid himself down upon some straw in the
yard, the hound behind the door, the cat upon the hearth near the warm
ashes, and the cock perched himself upon a beam of the roof; and being
tired from their long walk, they soon went to sleep. When it was past midnight, and the robbers saw from afar that the light
was no longer burning in their house, and all appeared quiet, the
captain said, “We ought not to have let ourselves be frightened out of
our wits;” and ordered one of them to go and examine the house. The messenger finding all still, went into the kitchen to light a
candle, and, taking the glistening fiery eyes of the cat for live
coals, he held a lucifer-match to them to light it. But the cat did not
understand the joke, and flew in his face, spitting and scratching. He
was dreadfully frightened, and ran to the back-door, but the dog, who
lay there sprang up and bit his leg; and as he ran across the yard by
the straw-heap, the donkey gave him a smart kick with its hind foot. The cock, too, who had been awakened by the noise, and had become
lively, cried down from the beam, “Cock-a-doodle-doo!”

Then the robber ran back as fast as he could to his captain, and said,
“Ah, there is a horrible witch sitting in the house, who spat on me and
scratched my face with her long claws; and by the door stands a man
with a knife, who stabbed me in the leg; and in the yard there lies a
black monster, who beat me with a wooden club; and above, upon the
roof, sits the judge, who called out, ‘Bring the rogue here to me!’ so
I got away as well as I could.”

After this the robbers did not trust themselves in the house again; but
it suited the four musicians of Bremen so well that they did not care
to leave it any more. And the mouth of him who last told this story is
still warm. 28 The Singing Bone

In a certain country there was once great lamentation over a wild boar
that laid waste the farmer’s fields, killed the cattle, and ripped up
people’s bodies with his tusks. The King promised a large reward to
anyone who would free the land from this plague; but the beast was so
big and strong that no one dared to go near the forest in which it
lived. At last the King gave notice that whosoever should capture or
kill the wild boar should have his only daughter to wife. Now there lived in the country two brothers, sons of a poor man, who
declared themselves willing to undertake the hazardous enterprise; the
elder, who was crafty and shrewd, out of pride; the younger, who was
innocent and simple, from a kind heart. The King said, “In order that
you may be the more sure of finding the beast, you must go into the
forest from opposite sides.” So the elder went in on the west side, and
the younger on the east. When the younger had gone a short way, a little man stepped up to him. He held in his hand a black spear and said, “I give you this spear
because your heart is pure and good; with this you can boldly attack
the wild boar, and it will do you no harm.”

He thanked the little man, shouldered the spear, and went on
fearlessly. Before long he saw the beast, which rushed at him; but he held the
spear towards it, and in its blind fury it ran so swiftly against it
that its heart was cloven in twain. Then he took the monster on his
back and went homewards with it to the King. As he came out at the other side of the wood, there stood at the
entrance a house where people were making merry with wine and dancing. His elder brother had gone in here, and, thinking that after all the
boar would not run away from him, was going to drink until he felt
brave. But when he saw his young brother coming out of the wood laden
with his booty, his envious, evil heart gave him no peace. He called
out to him, “Come in, dear brother, rest and refresh yourself with a
cup of wine.”

The youth, who suspected no evil, went in and told him about the good
little man who had given him the spear wherewith he had slain the boar. The elder brother kept him there until the evening, and then they went
away together, and when in the darkness they came to a bridge over a
brook, the elder brother let the other go first; and when he was
half-way across he gave him such a blow from behind that he fell down
dead. He buried him beneath the bridge, took the boar, and carried it
to the King, pretending that he had killed it; whereupon he obtained
the King’s daughter in marriage. And when his younger brother did not
come back he said, “The boar must have killed him,” and every one
believed it. But as nothing remains hidden from God, so this black deed also was to
come to light. Years afterwards a shepherd was driving his herd across the bridge, and
saw lying in the sand beneath, a snow-white little bone. He thought
that it would make a good mouth-piece, so he clambered down, picked it
up, and cut out of it a mouth-piece for his horn.