s, I will,' replied the ogress.

'Thank you, thank you!' cried Halfman, kissing her on the forehead. 'My
wife is dearer to me than anything else in the world, and it is not my
brother's fault that I am not dead long ago.'

'Very well, I will rid you of him,' said the ogress, 'but only on one
condition. If a boy is born to you, you must give him to me!'

'Oh, anything,' answered Halfman, 'as long as you deliver me from my
brother, and get me my wife.'

'Mount on my back, then, and in a quarter of an hour we shall be there.'

The ogress was as good as her word, and in a few minutes they arrived at
the outskirts of the town where Halfman and his brothers lived. Here
she left him, while she went into the town itself, and found the wedding
guests just leaving the brother's house. Unnoticed by anyone, the ogress
crept into a curtain, changing herself into a scorpion, and when the
brother was going to get into bed, she stung him behind the ear, so that
he fell dead where he stood. Then she returned to Halfman and told him
to go and claim his bride. He jumped up hastily from his seat, and
took the road to his father's house. As he drew near he heard sounds
of weeping and lamentations, and he said to a man he met: 'What is the
matter?'

'The judge's eldest son was married yesterday, and died suddenly before
night.'

'Well,' thought Halfman, 'my conscience is clear anyway, for it is quite
plain he coveted my wife, and that is why he tried to drown me.' He
went at once to his father's room, and found him sitting in tears on
the floor. 'Dear father,' said Halfman, 'are you not glad to see me? You
weep for my brother, but I am your son too, and he stole my bride from
me and tried to drown me in the brook. If he is dead, I at least am
alive.'

'No, no, he was better than you!' moaned the father.

'Why, dear father?'

'He told me you had behaved very ill,' said he.

'Well, call my brothers,' answered Halfman, 'as I have a story to tell
them.' So the father called them all into his presence. Then Halfman
began: 'After we were twelve days' journey from home, we met an ogress,
who gave us greeting and said, "Why have you been so long coming? The
daughters of your uncle have waited for you in vain," and she bade us
follow her to the house, saying, "Now there need be no more delay; you
can marry your cousins as soon as you please, and take them with you to
your own home." But I warned my brothers that the man was not our uncle