deliver me from my enemy , and I will give you the horn that can be heard the distance of a three days ' journey ; ' while the other cried , ` Fet-Fruners ! help me to conquer this pagan thief , and you shall have my horse , Sunlight . ' Before answering , the princess consulted her own horse as to which offer she should accept , and he advised her to side with the genius who was master of Sunlight , his own younger brother , and still more active than himself . So the girl at once attacked the other genius , and soon clove his skull ; then the one who was left victor begged her to come back with him to his house and he would hand her over Sunlight , as he had promised . The mother of the genius was rejoiced to see her son return safe and sound , and prepared her best room for the princess , who , after so much fatigue , needed rest badly . But the girl declared that she must first make her horse comfortable in his stable ; but this was really only an excuse , as she wanted to ask his advice on several matters . But the old woman had suspected from the very first that the boy who had come to the rescue of her son was a girl in disguise , and told the genius that she was exactly the wife he needed . The genius scoffed , and inquired what female hand could ever wield a sabre like that ; but , in spite of his sneers , his mother persisted , and as a proof of what she said , laid at night on each of their pillows a handful of magic flowers , that fade at the touch of man , but remain eternally fresh in the fingers of a woman . It was very clever of her , but unluckily the horse had warned the princess what to expect , and when the house was silent , she stole very softly to the genius 's room , and exchanged his faded flowers for those she held . Then she crept back to her own bed and fell fast asleep . At break of day , the old woman ran to see her son , and found , as she knew she would , a bunch of dead flowers in his hand . She next passed on to the bedside of the princess , who still lay asleep grasping the withered flowers . But she did not believe any the more that her guest was a man , and so she told her son . So they put their heads together and laid another trap for her . After breakfast the genius gave his arm to his guest , and asked her to come with him into the garden . For some time they walked about looking at the flowers , the genius all the while pressing her to pick any she fancied . But the princess , suspecting a trap , inquired roughly why they were wasting the precious hours in the garden , when , as men , they should be in the stables looking after their horses . Then the genius told his mother that she was quite wrong , and his deliverer was certainly a man . But the old woman was not convinced for all that . She would try once more she said , and her son must lead his visitor into the armoury , where hung every kind of weapon used all over the world -- some plain and bare , others ornamented with precious stones -- and beg her to make choice of one of them .
The princess looked at them closely , and felt the edges and points of their blades , then she hung at her belt an old sword with a curved blade , that would have done credit XXXXX an ancient warrior .
So as at for in like of on that to