When I saw I was in a man's shape, I said I would take the child back to his father and mother, as I knew the grief they were in after him. I got a ship, and took the child with me; and as I journeyed I came to land on an island, and I saw not a living soul on it, only a castle dark and gloomy. I went in to see was there any one in it. There was no one but an old hag, tall and frightful, and she asked me, "What sort of person are you?" I heard some one groaning in another room, and I said I was a doctor, and I asked her what ailed the person who was groaning.
"Oh," said she, "it is my son, whose hand has been bitten from his wrist by a dog."
I knew then that it was he who had taken the child from me, and I said I would cure him if I got a good reward.
"I have nothing; but there are eight young lads and three young women, as handsome as any one ever laid eyes on, and if you cure him I will give you them."
"Tell me first in what place his hand was cut from him?"
"Oh, it was out in another country, twelve years ago."
"Show me the way, that I may see him."
She brought me into a room, so that I saw him, and his arm was swelled up to the shoulder. He asked me if I would cure him; and I said I would cure him if he would give me the reward his mother promised.
"Oh, I will give it; but cure me."
"Well, bring them out to me."