ved that he should no longer escape. They themselves divided
into two bands. Thor waded down the river to the waterfall; the other
gods stood in a group below. Loki swam backwards and forwards between
them. First he thought he would dart out into the sea, and then that
he would spring over the net back again into the river. This last
seemed the easiest way of escape, and with the greatest speed he
attempted it. Thor, however, was watching for him, and as soon as Loki
leaped out of the water he stretched out his hand and caught him
while he was yet turning in the air. Loki wriggled his slippery, slimy
length through Thor's fingers; but the Thunderer grasped him tightly
by the tail, and, holding him in this manner in this hand, waded
to the shore. There Father Odin and the other gods met him; and, at
Odin's first searching look, Loki was obliged to drop his disguise,
and, cowering and frightened, to assume his proper shape before the
assembled lords. One by one they turned their faces from him; for, in
looking at him, they seemed to see over again the death of Baldur the
Beloved.

You were told that there were high rocks looking over the sea near
Loki's house. One of these, higher than the rest, had midway four
projecting stones, and to these the gods resolved to bind Loki so that
he should never again be able to torment the inhabitants of Manheim or
Asgard by his evil-doings. Thor proposed to return to Asgard, to bring
a chain with which to bind the prisoner; but Odin assured him that
he had no need to take such a journey. "Loki," he said, "has already
forged for himself a chain stronger than any you can make. While
we have been occupied in catching him, his two sons, Ali and Nari,
transformed into wolves by their evil passions, have fought with and
destroyed each other. With their sinews we must make a chain to bind
their father, and from that he can never escape."

It was done as Asa Odin said. A rope was made of the dead wolves'
sinews, and as soon as it touched Loki's body it turned into bands of
iron and bound him immovably to the rock. Secured in this manner the
gods left him.

[Illustration: THE PUNISHMENT OF LOKI.]

But his punishment did not end here. A snake, whose fangs dropped
poison, glided to the top of the rock and leaned his head over to peer
at Loki. The eyes of the two met and fixed each other. The serpent
could never move away afterwards; but every moment a burning drop from
his tongue fell down o