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l wider yet, and sucked, and Pivi disappeared into its mouth, and the shell shut up with a snap! Kabo laughed like a fiend, and then went home. 'Where is Pivi?' asked the two pretty girls. Kabo pretended to cry, and told how Pivi had been swallowed. 'But dry your tears, my darlings,' said Kabo, 'I will be your husband, and my wives shall be your slaves. Everything is for the best, in the best of all possible worlds.' 'No, no!' cried the girls, 'we love Pivi. We do not love anyone else. We shall stay at home, and weep for Pivi!' 'Wretched idiots!' cried Kabo; 'Pivi was a scoundrel who broke my leg, and knocked me into the river.' Then a little cough was heard at the door, and Kabo trembled, for he knew it was the cough of Pivi! 'Ah, dear Pivi!' cried Kabo, rushing to the door. 'What joy! I was trying to console your dear wives.' Pivi said not one word. He waved his hand, and five and twenty of his friends came trooping down the hill. They cut up Kabo into little pieces. Pivi turned round, and there was the good woman of the river. 'Pivi,' she said, 'how did you get out of the living tomb into which Kabo sent you?' 'I had my spear with me,' said Pivi. 'It was quite dry inside the shell, and I worked away at the fish with my spear, till he saw reason to open his shell, and out I came.' Then the good woman laughed; and Pivi and his two wives lived happy ever afterwards. [Moncelon. Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie. Series iii. vol. ix., pp. 613-365.] The Elf Maiden Once upon a time two young men living in a small village fell in love with the same girl. During the winter, it was all night except for an hour or so about noon, when the darkness seemed a little less dark, and then they used to see which of them could tempt her out for a sleigh ride with the Northern Lights flashing above them, or which could persuade her to come to a dance in some neighbouring barn. But when the spring began, and the light grew longer, the hearts of the villagers leapt at the sight of the sun, and a day was fixed for the boats to be brought out, and the great nets to be spread in the bays of some islands that lay a few miles to the north. Everybody went on this expedition, and the two young men and the girl went with them. They all sailed merrily across the sea chattering like a flock of magpies, or singing their favourite songs. And when they reached the shore, what an unpacking there was! For t
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