"That is how it begins."
Then the old woman's eyes sparkled.
"Ay; that is good. Learn it me, I pray you. Now I know that you have wizardry, for you name the old gods."
"Tell me first what hammer and nail work in footprint."
"Why, yon old hag has overlooked me," she said savagely. "Now, if one does as I have done, one nails her witchcraft to herself [{xiii}]."
"Whose footprint does the nail go into?" Harek asked.
"Why, hers surely. Now this is the spell," and she chanted somewhat in broad Wessex, and save that Baldur's name and Thor's hammer also came into it, I do not know what it all was. I waxed impatient now, for I thought that Heregar might be waiting for us.
But she and Harek exchanged spells, and then I said:
"Now, dame, know you of any thane in hiding hereabouts?"
Thereat she looked sharply at me.