rkled the gold piece, and the
next morning he found another, and so on every time he got up. He
collected a heap of gold, but at last he thought to himself, 'What
good is all my gold to me if I stay at home? I will travel and look a
bit about me in the world.' So he took leave of his parents, slung his
hunting knapsack and his gun round him, and journeyed into the world.

It happened that one day he went through a thick wood, and when he
came to the end of it there lay in the plain before him a large
castle. At one of the windows in it stood an old woman with a most
beautiful maiden by her side, looking out. But the old woman was a
witch, and she said to the girl, 'There comes one out of the wood who
has a wonderful treasure in his body which we must manage to possess
ourselves of, darling daughter; we have more right to it than he. He
has a bird's heart in him, and so every morning there lies a gold
piece under his pillow.'

She told her how they could get hold of it, and how she was to coax it
from him, and at last threatened her angrily, saying, 'And if you do
not obey me, you shall repent it!'

When the Hunter came nearer he saw the maiden, and said to himself, 'I
have travelled so far now that I will rest, and turn into this
beautiful castle; money I have in plenty.' But the real reason was
that he had caught sight of the lovely face.

He went into the house, and was kindly received and hospitably
entertained. It was not long before he was so much in love with the
witch-maiden that he thought of nothing else, and only looked in her
eyes, and whatever she wanted, that he gladly did. Then the old witch
said, 'Now we must have the bird-heart; he will not feel when it is
gone.' She prepared a drink, and when it was ready she poured it in a
goblet and gave it to the maiden, who had to hand it to the hunter.

'Drink to me now, my dearest,' she said. Then he took the goblet, and
when he had swallowed the drink the bird-heart came out of his mouth.
The maiden had to get hold of it secretly and then swallow it herself,
for the old witch wanted to have it. Thenceforward he found no more
gold under his pillow, and it lay under the maiden's; but he was so
much in love and so much bewitched that he thought of nothing except
spending all his time with the maiden.

Then the old witch said, 'We have the bird-heart, but we must also get
the wishing-cloak from him.'

The maiden answered, 'We will leave him that; he has alrea