-LRB- Japanische Marchen . -RRB- THE THREE PRINCES AND THEIR BEASTS -LRB- LITHUANIAN FAIRY TALE -RRB- Once on a time there were three princes , who had a step-sister . One day they all set out hunting together . When they had gone some way through a thick wood they came on a great grey wolf with three cubs . Just as they were going to shoot , the wolf spoke and said , ` Do not shoot me , and I will give each of you one of my young ones . It will be a faithful friend to you . ' So the princes went on their way , and a little wolf followed each of them . Soon after they came on a lioness with three cubs . And she too begged them not to shoot her , and she would give each of them a cub . And so it happened with a fox , a hare , a boar , and a bear , till each prince had quite a following of young beasts padding along behind him . Towards evening they came to a clearing in the wood , where three birches grew at the crossing of three roads . The eldest prince took an arrow , and shot it into the trunk of one of the birch trees . Turning to his brothers he said : ` Let each of us mark one of these trees before we part on different ways . When any one of us comes back to this place , he must walk round the trees of the other two , and if he sees blood flowing from the mark in the tree he will know that that brother is dead , but if milk flows he will know that his brother is alive . ' So each of the princes did as the eldest brother had said , and when the three birches were marked by their arrows they turned to their step-sister and asked her with which of them she meant to live . ` With the eldest , ' she answered . Then the brothers separated from each other , and each of them set out down a different road , followed by their beasts . And the step-sister went with the eldest prince . After they had gone a little way along the road they came into a forest , and in one of the deepest glades they suddenly found themselves opposite a castle in which there lived a band of robbers . The prince walked up to the door and knocked .
The moment it was opened the beasts rushed in , and each seized XXXXX a robber , killed him , and dragged the body down to the cellar .
After along at by down if on opposite through till