“Curses on you for an old hag! Is it little I have gone through that you treat me in this way?”
“I have a cloth about my shoulders. Go into that, and I will carry you,” said the hag.
There wasn’t a joint in the hag’s back that wasn’t three inches long. When she had him on her back there wasn’t a leap that she gave that the joints of her backbone were not going into Cud’s body.
“Hard luck to you for a hag, after all I have gone through to have me killed at last.”
“You have not far to go now,” said she; and after a few leaps she was at the end of her journey. She took him into a grand castle. The best table of food that he had ever set eyes on was left down there before him.
“Sit there, now, son of the King of Urhu; eat and drink.”
“I have never taken food without company,” said Cud, “and I will not take it this time.”
“Will you eat with me?”
“Bad luck to you for a hag, I will not.”