“No, no, Your Majesty,” stammered Scissors, trembling.  “I was referring to our learned friend, Doublewit, who undoubtedly knows his way about the otherworld as well as he does this palace.  If Your Majesty would order his body to be burned on a funeral pyre, I am sure his soul will find its way to the next world where Your Majesty’s royal parents are.  He will also find a way out again, I trust, to come back and tell you all about his trip.”

The wise king saw through Scissors’ wicked intention, yet he accepted the advice, for he was curious to see how Doublewit would handle this thorny problem.

“Very well.  We will ask Doublewit if he would go to visit my blessed parents in the otherworld, then report back to tell us what he has seen and heard,” said the king.  Turning to Doublewit, he asked, “Are you ready, Mr. Doublewit?”

The jester bowed deeply and said: “As Your Majesty wishes! I have only two things to request.  First, I humbly beg Your Majesty for five thousand pieces of silver for expenses on the long journey to the otherworld.  Second, I beg you for one month’s leave of absence to go and say good-bye to my mother.”

Doublewit avoids the trap set for him by Mr. Scissors.

The king consented to both requests.  The royal jester received the sum he had asked for and left for his native province.  There he visited his mother and kinsmen and asked them to help him build a hut on top of a pile of firewood.  This they readily agreed to do.  He then went to a narrow cave at the base of a cliff near the village, a place where he had played as a boy.  He found a large stone that just fit the entrance; this he placed near the cave.  He put firewood all round the entrance to the cave.  Then, he built a hut on top of the pyre with the help of his kinsmen, whom he swore to silence.

When his month’s leave had passed, he returned to the capital.  He reported to the king that he had consulted the spirits of the otherworld, and they had told him where the funeral pyre should be placed to guarantee his quick arrival in the land of the dead.  “I have taken the liberty, Your Majesty,” he continued, “of erecting my own funeral pyre, which I will mount as soon as you have selected suitable witnesses to testify to my complete consumption by the fire.”