“He vanished away from me this morning, after you had gone, when he was playing kayak-man out in the passage.”
And when she had said this, her husband answered:
“It is you, wicked old hag, who have killed him. And now I will kill you.”
To this his wife answered:
“Do not kill me yet, but wait a little, and first seek out one who can ask counsel of the spirits.”
And now the husband began eagerly to search for such a one. He came home bringing wizards with him, and bade them try what they could do, and when they could not find the child, he let them go without giving them so much as a bite of meat.
And seeing that none of them could help him, he now sought for a very clever finder of hidden things, and meeting such a one at last, he took him home. Then he fastened a stick to his face, and made him lie down on the bedplace on his back.
And now he worked away with him until the spirit came. And when this had happened, the spirit finder declared:
“It would seem that spirits have here found a difficult task. He is up in a place between two great cliffs, and two old inland folk are looking after him.”
Then they stopped calling spirits, and wandered away towards the east. They walked and walked, and at last they sighted a lot of houses. And when they came nearer, they saw the smoke coming out from all the smoke holes. It was the heat from inside coming out so. And the father looked in through a window, and saw that they were quarrelling about his child, and the child was crying.