“No,” said the lad, “let me go and bring her here.”
“Very well, go, then,” said the young bride.
The lad went to his stepmother and telling her all that he had done, brought her to the palace of the Black Mountains. There she was the mother-in-law of the fair bride, and therefore the superior of the whole palace. Both the bride and the maidens had to submit to her.
The lad used to go out hunting. The stepmother, being well versed in witchcraft and medicine, went secretly, and administered some remedy to the corpse of the giant, so that he was soon healed. Falling in love with the giant, she took him to the palace and hid him in the cellar, where she secretly paid him daily visits, as she was afraid of her stepson. Wishing, however, to have none to oppose her, the witch one day said to the giant:
“Giant, you must advise me of a way by which I may send my son on an errand, and from which he may never come back.”
Upon the advice of the giant, she entered her room and putting under her bed pieces of very thin and dry Oriental bread, lay down upon the bed and feigned sickness. In the evening the lad returned from hunting, and hearing that his stepmother was ill, hastened to her side, and asked:
“What is the matter, mother?”
“O, son,” exclaimed the witch, with a sickly voice, “I am very sick. I shall die,” and as she turned from one side to the other the dry bread began to crackle.
“Hark!” exclaimed the witch, “how my bones are crackling!”
“What is the remedy, mother, what can I do for you?” asked the lad.