But even the walls seem to be elastic, and so does the floor; perhaps a layer of straw or of moss was spread over them and gave them the softness of felt, rather coarse, to be sure, but not unpleasant. The travellers felt that they could sleep there comfortably and warm. So they did. At daybreak Thor rubbed his eyes, stretched his arms and proposed to take a turn in the country, to stretch his legs and to shake off the heaviness of sleep. Through the white mists which were still hanging on the tops of high hills he thought he saw a huge mass of disheveled hair, and then he discovered in the centre of that head two eyes. At first he thought this head and these eyes were simply a rock covered with shrubbery and two small pools of water shining in the rays of the rising sun. But soon the disheveled head began to move, bent down to the ground, and turned now {374}to one side and now to another. In the meantime the mists had risen and Thor found that he was standing before a giant of such enormous size that those whom he was generally engaged in hunting down would not have reached to his knee. The giant advanced toward him, always looking here and there, and still with his eyes fixed on the ground, as if he were looking for something he had lost. Thor, who was easily incensed by the sight of a giant, went straight up to meet him and said in an arrogant tone:-- “What are you doing here? What is your name? Who are you?” “My name is Skrymner,” replied the other. “Did you not know? As for me, I have no need to ask you any such question; you are the god Thor, one of those under sized gods who live with Odin on the ash tree Ygdrasil. Have you seen my glove? I have lost my glove; yes! yesterday,” he added in the most indifferent manner possible, and as if he were solely occupied with his search. “I have found nothing of the kind,” replied Thor, who was always in bad humor, and now regretted that he did not have his hammer at hand. “And do you travel quite alone?” asked Skrymner. {375} “I have three companions.” “I do not see them.” “They are all three still asleep in that house there, in which we have spent the night.” And with his finger he pointed at the house, which they had used as an inn for the night. Skrymner looked both surprised and delighted. “My glove!” he cried, “that is my glove! I have found it.” He hastened to pick up this apparent house with its five long passages, and took it up, but not before he had shaken it, holding it close to the ground, and showing thus that he was not without a feeling of humanity. Loki, Tialft, and Raska tumbled out upon the grass, rather terrified by their sudden ascension and the sudden somerset which they had been forced to make. But as soon as they had recovered from their first surprise, and especially from the discovery that they had spent the night in a glove, they thought of continuing their journey.