The four went further, and they found a robbers’ den. The robbers had killed a heifer. When the robbers saw them, they fled. They went away, and left the meat untouched. They cooked the meat and ate. They passed the night. In the morning Mare’s Son said, ‘Let three of us go to hunt, and one stay at home to cook.’ They left Tree-splitter at home to cook, and he cooked the food nicely. And there came an old man to him, a hand’s-breadth tall, with a beard a cubit in length.
‘Give me to eat.’
‘Not I. For they’ll come from hunting, and there’ll be nothing to give them.’
The old man went into the wood, and cut four wedges, and threw him, Tree-splitter, on the ground, and fastened him to the earth by the hands and feet, and ate up all the food. Then he let him go, and departed. He put more meat in the pot to cook. They came from hunting and asked, ‘Have you cooked the food?’
‘Ever since you’ve been away I’ve had the meat at the fire, but it isn’t cooked properly.’
‘Dish it up as it is, for we’re hungry.’
He dished it up as it was, and they ate it. They passed the night. The next day they left another cook, and the three of them went off to hunt. The old man came again.
‘Give me something to eat.’
‘Not I, for they’ll come from hunting, and there’ll be nothing to give them to eat.’
He went into the wood, and cut four wedges, and fastened him to the earth by the hands and feet, and ate up all the food, and let him go, and departed. He put more meat in the pot to cook. They came from hunting. ‘Have you cooked the food?’