“The goodness of the hour upon you, mother!” said the lad.
“Heaven bless you, son!” said the old dame. “Neither the snake on its belly, nor the bird with its wing could come here; why did you venture to come?”
“Your love brought me hither, mother,” answered the lad.
The fairy woman was pleased with the lad, and said to him:
“The seven fairies, my sons, have just gone out a-hunting; they hunt all night long and come back in the morning. If they find you here they will devour you. Let me hide you.”
So speaking, she hid the lad in a hole near the cave. At daybreak the seven fairies returned, and smelling a human being, exclaimed:
“O mother! last night you ate a human being; have you not kept at least some bones for us to pick?”
“I have eaten no human being,” said their mother; “but my nephew, the son of a human sister, has come to visit us.”
“Where is he, mother? we want to see our human cousin,” said the fairies.
The old woman brought the lad out from the hole and presented him to the fairies, who were much pleased with him and asked him the reason for his journey. The lad said that he was going after Zoolvisia.