t meat, then set to work and cut it up as
soon as you please. Cut it up and give to those who wish to eat of it."

The little old man was delighted at this, and sent out his two
women-folk to cut up that seal. But they stayed away a long while,
and no one came in with any meat. So the little old man went out to
look for them.

And there stood the two women, hauling at the little fjord seal,
which they could not manage to drag up from the shore. They could not
even manage it with the old man's help. They hauled away, all three
of them, bending their bodies to the ground in their efforts, but the
seal would not move. Then at last the stranger came out, and he took
that seal by the flipper with one hand, and carried it up that way.

"What strength, what strength! The man is a giant indeed," cried the
little folk. And they fell to work cutting up the seal, but to them
it seemed as if they were cutting up a huge walrus, so hard did they
find it to cut up that little seal.

And people came hurrying down from the houses up above, and all wished
to share. The women of the house then shared out that seal. Each of
the guests was given a little breastbone and no more, but this to
them was a very great piece of meat. When they held such a piece in
their hands, it reached to the ground, and their hands and clothes
were covered with fat.

Inside on the bench sat an old hag who now began trying to make
herself agreeable to the guest. She squeezed up close to him and kept
on talking to him, and looking at him kindly. She was old and ugly,
and the man would have nothing to do with her. Suddenly he gave a
loud whistle.

"Ugh--ugh!" cried the old hag in a fright, and fell down from the
bench. Then she stumbled down into the passage way, and disappeared.

And now after they had feasted on the seal meat, those from the houses
up above cried out:

"Let the guest now come up here; we have foxes' liver to eat!"

And as he did not come at once, they cried again. And then he went
up. The house was full of people, all busy eating foxes' liver.

"It is very hard to cut," said the dwarfs. "It is dried."

And the dwarfs worked away as hard as they could, but could not cut
it through. But the guest took and munched and crunched as if it had
been fresh meat.

"Ai, ai--see how he can eat," cried some.

But all those in the house were very kind to him, and would gladly
have seen him married into their family. And the young women had
dre