his
love had betrayed him and left him alone on the wild mountain. 'Oh,'
said he, 'why is faithlessness so great in the world?' and he sat down
in sorrow and trouble, not knowing what to do.

But the mountain belonged to fierce and huge giants, who lived on it
and traded there, and he had not sat long before he saw three of them
striding towards him. So he lay down as if he had fallen into a deep
sleep.

The giants came up, and the first pushed him with his foot, and said,
'What sort of an earthworm is that?'

The second said, 'Crush him dead.'

But the third said contemptuously, 'It is not worth the trouble! Let him
live; he cannot remain here, and if he goes higher up the mountain the
clouds will take him and carry him off.'

Talking thus they went away. But the Hunter had listened to their talk,
and as soon as they had gone he rose and climbed to the summit. When he
had sat there a little while a cloud swept by, and, seizing him, carried
him away. It travelled for a time in the sky, and then it sank down and
hovered over a large vegetable garden surrounded by walls, so that he
came safely to the ground amidst cabbages and vegetables. The Hunter
then looked about him, saying, 'If only I had something to eat! I am so
hungry, and it will go badly with me in the future, for I see here
not an apple or pear or fruit of any kind--nothing but vegetables
everywhere.' At last he thought, 'At a pinch I can eat a salad; it does
not taste particularly nice, but it will refresh me.' So he looked about
for a good head and ate it, but no sooner had he swallowed a couple
of mouthfuls than he felt very strange, and found himself wonderfully
changed. Four legs began to grow on him, a thick head, and two long
ears, and he saw with horror that he had changed into a donkey. But as
he was still very hungry and this juicy salad tasted very good to his
present nature, he went on eating with a still greater appetite. At last
he got hold of another kind of cabbage, but scarcely had swallowed it
when he felt another change, and he once more regained his human form.

The Hunter now lay down and slept off his weariness. When he awoke
the next morning he broke off a head of the bad and a head of the good
cabbage, thinking, 'This will help me to regain my own, and to punish
faithlessness.' Then he put the heads in his pockets, climbed the wall,
and started off to seek the castle of his love. When he had wandered
about for a couple of days he