out again to give
it a wipe, and finds it full of blood.

"'What have you been putting into it?' says she to her man.

"'Nothing,' says he.

"She thinks it must have been a nonsensical piece of woman's fancy,
and puts her frying-pan into the fire again.... _Pouf!_ A head comes
tumbling down the chimney!

"'Oh! look! It is nothing more nor less than the dead man's head,' says
the old woman. 'How he stares at me! What does he want!'

"'_You must avenge me_!' says a voice.

"'What an idiot you are!' said the hemp-grower. 'Always seeing something
or other that has no sort of sense about it! Just you all over.'

"He takes up the head, which snaps at his finger, and pitches it out
into the yard.

"'Get on with my omelette,' he says, 'and do not bother yourself about
that. 'Tis a cat.'

"'A cat! says she; 'it was as round as a ball.'

"She puts back her frying-pan on the fire.... _Pouf!_ Down comes a leg
this time, and they go through the whole story again. The man was no
more astonished at the foot than he had been at the head; he snatched
up the leg and threw it out at the door. Before they had finished, the
other leg, both arms, the body, the whole murdered traveler, in fact,
came down piecemeal. No omelette all this time! The old hemp-seller grew
very hungry indeed.

"'By my salvation!' said he, 'when once my omelette is made we will see
about satisfying that man yonder.'

"'So you admit, now, that it was a man?' said the hunchback wife. 'What
made you say that it was not a head a minute ago, you great worry?'

"The woman breaks the eggs, fries the omelette, and dishes it up without
any more grumbling; somehow this squabble began to make her feel very
uncomfortable. Her husband sits down and begins to eat. The hunchback
was frightened, and said that she was not hungry.

"'Tap! tap!' There was a stranger rapping at the door.

"'Who is there?'

"'The man that died yesterday!'

"'Come in,' answers the hemp-grower.

"So the traveler comes in, sits himself down on a three-legged stool,
and says: 'Are you mindful of God, who gives eternal peace to those who
confess His Name? Woman! You saw me done to death, and you have said
nothing! I have been eaten by the pigs! The pigs do not enter Paradise,
and therefore I, a Christian man, shall go down into hell, all because a
woman forsooth will not speak, a thing that has never been known before.
You must deliver me,' and so on, and so on.

"The woman, who was m