‘Ha Diriaou, ha Digwener,’
(And Thursday and Friday!)
‘Mat! Mat!’ (Good! Good!) cried the Korrigans in chorus, and though he could not tell why they were so delighted, he was glad to have given them pleasure. When they offered him the choice of wealth or power in return for some mysterious service which he seemed to have rendered them, he only laughed, for he thought that they were poking fun at him.
‘Take away my hump, then,’ he cried at last, ‘and make me as handsome as my friend Jean. A little maid whom I love dearly will not look at me when he is near, though she likes well enough to talk to me by the fountain if he is out of the way.’
‘Is that all?’ exclaimed the Korrigans. ‘That will not give us the slightest trouble!’ and catching him in their veils, they tossed him three times in the air. The third time he alighted on his feet. He was now as tall and straight as he could wish to be, with fine soft hair as black as the raven’s wing.