But when the notion takes him to get married, for the first time he bathes himself, and dresses himself handsomely, then he becomes the most beautiful of men.

In order to win his wife he is obliged to perform miracles of work; yet after he wins her she is killed by wild beasts.

Then he sets to work to forge himself a wife, a wife of silver, a bride of gold.

Very beautiful she is, but she has no heart, and she is always cold, and there is no comfort in her; even all the magic of the world-maker can not give her a warm heart.

But the work is so beautiful that he does not like to destroy it.