the sense of smell that any animal was running
past him, whether a hare, or a fox, or a bear, he immediately started
in chase of it, caught it--and dinner was ready for him. The
hero was exceedingly swift-footed, and there was not a single
wild beast which could run away from him. Well, one day it
fell out thus. A fox slunk past; the hero heard it, and was
after it directly. It ran up to the tall stump, and turned sharp
off on one-side; but the blind hero hurried on, took a spring,
and thumped his forehead against the stump so hard that he
knocked the stump out by the roots. Katoma fell to the ground,
and asked:

"Who are you?"

"I'm a blind hero. I've been living in the forest for thirty
years. The only way I can get my food is this: to catch some
game or other, and cook it at a wood fire. If it had not been
for that, I should have been starved to death long ago!"

"You haven't been blind all your life?"

"No, not all my life; but Princess Anna the Fair put my
eyes out!"

"There now, brother!" says Katoma; "and it's thanks to
her, too, that I'm left here without any feet. She cut them both
off, the accursed one!"

The two heroes had a talk, and agreed to live together, and
join in getting their food. The blind man says to the lame:

"Sit on my back and show me the way; I will serve you
with my feet, and you me with your eyes."

So he took the cripple and carried him home, and Katoma
sat on his back, kept a look out all round, and cried out from
time to time: "Right! Left! Straight on!" and so forth.

Well, they lived some time in the forest in that way, and
caught hares, foxes, and bears for their dinner. One day the
cripple says--

"Surely we can never go on living all our lives without a
soul [to speak to]. I have heard that in such and such a town
lives a rich merchant who has a daughter; and that merchant's
daughter is exceedingly kind to the poor and crippled. She
gives alms to everyone. Suppose we carry her off, brother, and
let her live here and keep house for us."

The blind man took a cart, seated the cripple in it, and rattled
it into the town, straight into the rich merchant's courtyard.
The merchant's daughter saw them out of window, and immediately
ran out, and came to give them alms. Approaching the
cripple, she said:

"Take this, in Christ's name, poor fellow!"

He [seemed to be going] to take the