[1] The story-teller speaks the dwarf’s part throughout in a hurried and jerky manner, to illustrate the little man’s shyness.
[2] A heavy burden carried on the back is supported by a strap or thong passing over the forehead.
The Boy from the Bottom of the Sea, Who Frightened the People of the House to Death
Well, you see, it was the usual thing: “The Obstinate One” had taken a wife, and of course he beat her, and when he wanted to make it an extra special beating, he took a box, and banged her about with that.
One day, when he had been beating her as usual, she ran away. And she was just about to have a child at that time. She walked straight out into the sea, and was nearly drowned, but suddenly she came to herself again, and found that she was at the bottom of the sea. And there she built herself a house.
While she was down there, the child was born. And when she went to look at it, she nearly died of fright, it was so ugly. Its eyes were jellyfish, its hair of seaweed, and the mouth was like a mussel.
And now these two lived down there together. The child grew up, and when it was a little grown up, it could hear the children playing on the earth up above, and it said:
“I should like to go up and see.”
“When you have grown stronger, then you may go,” said his mother. And then the boy began practising feats of strength, with stones. And at last he was able to pick up stones as big as a chest, and carry them into the house.