He rolled
in the snow and saved himself.
Then the son of Sulev thought it best to go back to the ship. Calling
his party together, he found that the youngest, the yellow-haired boy
who was cupbearer to the king, was gone. The birds told the helmsman,
the wise Lapp, that the lad had made friends with the water-sprites
beyond the snow mountains and would never return.
The winds drove the ship about for many days till she grounded again on
a strange shore.
Another party of nobles and sailors went to search this country. Being
tired, they lay down under an ash tree and fell asleep. The people in
this land were giants, and a giant's daughter found them. They were so
very small to the giant child that she picked them up and put them in
her apron, and carried them home to her father.
"Look at these strange creatures, father," she said. "I found them
asleep under a head of cabbage in our garden. What are they?"
The giant knew them to be men from the east. Now the east has always
been noted for its wisdom, so he questioned these men with riddles.
"What walks along the grass, steps on the edge of the fence, and walks
along the sides of the reeds?" he asked.
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