Then she sang

She laughed and shook her head. "Oh! Easy to say! If you really pity me, we will agree that from now on, every ten days, the devil will have one of my days, and I will share the other nine with you, and then I will be satisfied."

By this time I was quite drunk and out of my mind, and staggered to my feet, determined to save her for good, saying: "Now I will erase the writing on the roof, and let the devil come here. I'll fight him to the death. I'm good at getting rid of demons!"

At my words, her face turned white with fear and she said, "By Allah, you must not act recklessly, lest you get burned and regret it."

Then she sang:

"The runaway horses gallop,

Those who are to be separated,

You walk as slowly as you can,

Because time is gone and never comes back,

The end is the end."

I didn't listen to her dissuasion and went ahead and kicked through the roof. The sky darkened at once, and the ground shook with lightning, thunder, wind and rain. Then I woke up with fear and asked:

"How did this happen?"

"The devil is coming. I warned you just now not to be rash. Allah is my witness. You put me through hell. You must run away from this place by the other way."

I panicked, turned and ran, leaving my shoes and axe on the ground. As soon as I stepped on the steps, I heard a loud noise. The ground opened, and a terrible devil came out of the crack in the ground and asked her:

"Why did you summon me suddenly? Are you in any danger?"

"There is no danger. It's just a moment of boredom. I need a drink. I was drunk and somehow ran into the writing on the roof."

"Bastard, how dare you deceive me!" He looked around and saw my shoes and axe. "These are human things," he said. "Who do you think has been here?"

"I've only just found this out. Maybe you've just been involved."

'Nonsense! The devil swore and tore off her clothes, pulled her hands and feet apart and tied her to four stakes, and brutally tortured her to make her tell the truth.

I could not bear to hear her cry and groan. Trembling with fear, I staggered out, put on the wooden cover as it was, and covered it with earth. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have put her in trouble. I thought of that beautiful girl at the hands of the devil, of her captivity of twenty-five years, and now of my torture, of my father and his throne, and of myself as a woodcutter in a strange land, and my feelings were so mixed that I sobbed and sang:

"In times of adversity,

You should reminisce about the past.

Life is too short to avoid setbacks,

You should console yourself and lift your spirits with memories."

I hurried to find my way out of the forest and back to the tailor's house.

He was on pins and needles waiting for me. As soon as she saw me, she came forward and said, "I was afraid for you all night lest you should meet some wild animal or have any accident in the mountains. Praise Allah, now you have come back safe and sound."