After the girls had cleaned the entire house and mended the furniture, the eldest began preparing supper: She cleaned the fish they had brought, put them in the pan, and lit the fire. But as soon as the fish began to sizzle, a hand—just a hand, without even a wrist to hold it—appeared.

Thin and lean, the hand floated in the direction of the pan. Suddenly a voice spoke out: “Give me food, I am starving.” The voice sounded genuinely hungry. The girl, though terrified, felt pity for the hand and politely answered: “Excuse me, sir, whoever you are, but the fish are too hot: You would burn your fingers. Please have patience, and they will cool down. There now, they are ready. Here, take this big one. You must be very hungry.” The hand seized the offered fish and vanished with it through the wall, to where she did not know.

The six girls sat down for their meal. Immediately, there appeared a strange ghostly shape in the circle of their candlelight. It was an ugly green man with two noses. He was immediately joined by a blue man with three noses. They complained of aching hunger. The girls trembled but were too polite to show their fear and kindly invited the ghastly creatures to join their meal. Soon three more man-shaped monsters emerged from the darkness, one red, one yellow, and one violet; with four, five, and six noses respectively.

Beautiful rings. After the meal (the food was soon finished, for there was just enough for the six), the green man rose and produced a golden ring set with an emerald, which he offered the second sister. The blue man offered a gold ring with a sapphire to the third sister. The red man had a gold ring with a ruby, the yellow had a ring with a diamond, and the violet had one with an amethyst. They put these beautiful rings on the ring fingers of the fourth, fifth, and sixth sisters respectively.

They told the girls not to tell anyone about what they had seen that night. “Come back here the day after tomorrow, and bring your father, but do not tell him who told you,” the colorful men said. Then they vanished.

Suddenly a whirring sound was heard outside, and a voice cried, “Help me! I have fallen!” The eldest sister jumped up and ran to the garden, where she found a big beetle lying on its back, unable to walk or fly.