be to thee!" The archer believed the bird. He climbed up the
tree, took the eagle down, and carried it home. Then the eagle said to
him, "Put me in a hut, and feed me with flesh till my wings have grown
again."

Now this archer had two cows and a steer, and he at once killed and
cut up one of the cows for the eagle. The eagle fed upon this cow for
a full year, and then he said to the archer, "Let me go, that I may
fly. I see that my wings have already grown again!" Then the archer
let him loose from the hut. The eagle flew round and round, he flew
about for half a day, and then he returned to the archer and said, "I
feel I have but little strength in me, slay me another cow!" And the
archer obeyed him, and slew the second cow, and the eagle lived upon
that for yet another year. Again the eagle flew round and round in the
air. He flew round and about the whole day till evening, when he
returned to the archer and said, "I am stronger than I was, but I have
still but little strength in me, slay me the steer also!" Then the man
thought to himself, "What shall I do? Shall I slay it, or shall I not
slay it?" At last he said, "Well! I've sacrificed more than this
before, so let this go too!" and he took the steer and slaughtered it
for the eagle. Then the eagle lived upon this for another whole year
longer, and after that he took to flight, and flew high up right to
the very clouds. Then he flew down again to the man and said to him,
"I thank thee, brother, for that thou hast been the saving of me! Come
now and sit upon me!"--"Nay, but," said the man, "what if some evil
befall me?"--"Sit on me, I say!" cried the eagle. So the archer sat
down upon the bird.

Then the eagle bore him nearly as high as the big clouds, and then let
him fall. Down plumped the man; but the eagle did not let him fall to
the earth, but swiftly flew beneath him and upheld him, and said to
him, "How dost thou feel now?"--"I feel," said the man, "as if I had
no life in me."--Then the eagle replied, "That was just how I felt
when thou didst aim at me the first time." Then he said to him, "Sit
on my back again!" The man did not want to sit on him, but what could
he do? Sit he must. Then the eagle flew with him quite as high as the
big clouds, and shook him off, and down he fell headlong till he was
about two fathoms from the ground, when the bird again flew beneath
him and held him up. Again the eagle asked him, "How dost thou feel?"
And the man replied,