"Now you are without eyes, let Right help you!"
But the other, pitiable as was his plight, still praised God, and said,—
"I have lost my eyes for the Right of Heaven; now I pray you, oh my brother! to give me some water in a vessel, that I may moisten my mouth and wash my wounds, and to lead me forth and leave me under the fir-tree by the spring."
The brother listened to this entreaty; gave him some water in a vessel, led him out, and left him under the fir-tree by the spring. And as the miserable man stood there, he heard at a certain hour in the night, the Vilas[1] come to the spring, and as they bathed in it they said to each other:
"Do you know, sisters, that the king's daughter is ill of leprosy? The king has called all the physicians together, but not one of them can heal her. If any one only knew it, and would take some of this water, immediately after we have left it, and would tell the king's
- ↑ The Vilas are beings peculiar to Servia. They are female genii supposed to inhabit the highest hills and rocks in the neighbourhood of water, and retain perpetual youth. They are represented as beautiful in countenance, with long hair waving over breast and shoulders, and clad in light gauze-like drapery. In a Servian popular song the Vila thus sings: "The mountains gave me birth and folded me in green leaves; the dew of the morning that suckled me, and the breezes of the woods that rocked me to sleep, were my nurses."
