h the utmost hospitality. The Warlock
drank and drank, revelled and revelled, and then grew
angry. He chased all the guests and relatives out of the house,
threw the wedded pair into a slumber, took out two phials and
an awl, pierced the hands of the bride and bridegroom with the
awl, and began drawing off their blood. Having done this, he
said to the Soldier:

"Now let's be off."

Well, they went off. On the way the Soldier said:

"Tell me; why did you draw off their blood in those phials?"

"Why, in order that the bride and bridegroom might die.
To-morrow morning no one will be able to wake them. I alone
know how to bring them back to life."

"How's that managed?"

"The bride and bridegroom must have cuts made in their
heels, and some of their own blood must then be poured back
into those wounds. I've got the bridegroom's blood stowed
away in my right-hand pocket, and the bride's in my left."

The Soldier listened to this without letting a single word
escape him. Then the Warlock began boasting again.

"Whatever I wish," says he, "that I can do!"

"I suppose it's quite impossible to get the better of you?"
says the Soldier.

"Why impossible? If any one were to make a pyre of aspen
boughs, a hundred loads of them, and were to burn me on that
pyre, then he'd be able to get the better of me. Only he'd
have to look out sharp in burning me; for snakes and worms
and different kinds of reptiles would creep out of my inside, and
crows and magpies and jackdaws would come flying up. All
these must be caught and flung on the pyre. If so much as a
single maggot were to escape, then there'd be no help for it; in
that maggot I should slip away!"

The Soldier listened to all this and did not forget it. He and
the Warlock talked and talked, and at last they arrived at the
grave.

"Well, brother," said the Warlock, "now I'll tear you to
pieces. Otherwise you'd be telling all this."

"What are you talking about? Don't you deceive yourself;
I serve God and the Emperor."

The Warlock gnashed his teeth, howled aloud, and sprang
at the Soldier--who drew his sword and began laying about him
with sweeping blows. They struggled and struggled; the Soldier
was all but at the end of his strength. "Ah!" thinks he,
"I'm a lost man--and all for nothing!" Suddenly the cocks
began to crow. The Warlock fell lifeless to the ground.

The Sold