_Hans_. Do I know him! _Burial-wife_. "Thou desirest the fairest of women for thy bride?" I said. "She is not here; but if thou dost not shrink before the danger, I can show thee the way, my son." _Hans_. The way to death! _Burial-wife_. "There lies an isle in the northern seas, where day and night are merged in dawn; never more shall he rejoice at sight of home who loses his path there in a storm. There lies thy path. And there, where the holy word is never taught, within a crystal house there lives a wild heron, worshiped as a god. From that heron thou must pluck three feathers out and bring them hither." _Hans_. And if he brings them? _Burial-wife_. Then I will make him conscious of miraculous power, through which he shall find and bind her to himself who awaits him in night and need; for by this deed he grows a man, and worth the prize. _Hans_. And then? When he has got her, and sighs and coos and lies in her bosom half a hundred years, when he turns himself a very woman, I shall be the last to wonder at it. Look! [_he picks up a piece of amber_] I shovelled this shining glittering bauble out of the dune-sand. I have heaped up whole bushels of it in my greedy zeal. Now, as I toss from me this sticky mass of resin, that borrows the name and place of a stone, so with the act I hurl away in mocking laughter these many-colored lies of womankind. [_He tosses the lump to the ground._] Now go and brew my evening draught. I will to the sea to seek my master. [_He goes out to the right. The_ Burial-wife _looks after him grinning and goes into the tower._] _Ottar_ [_sticking his head through the bushes_]. Holloa, Gylf! _Gylf_ [_coming out_]. What is it? [_The others also appear._] _Ottar_. Here is the tower, here lie the graves in a sandy spot; run below to the Duke and tell him; not a man to be seen, not even a worm, naught but a burying-ground, rooted up and worried as though we had been haunting it ourselves. [Gylf _goes out._] _Skoell_. Nay, for we would have saved some of our loved dead for the raven, we would not have been so stingy as to bury them straightway. [_They all laugh._] _The First_ [_pointing out to sea_].--Ho--there! _Ottar_. What's the matter? _The First_. Does not the boat pass there that yesterday crossed our path on the high seas, whose steersman threatened fight with our dragon? How comes the bold rascal here? _The Second_ [_who has raised up the lump of amber_]. I tell you, comrades, let the fellow go, and look what I have found. _Ottar_. Death and the devil! Then we are in Amberland. _The Third_ [_staring_]. That is amber? _Ottar_. Give it to me! _The Second_. I found it--it is mine! _Ottar_. Thou gorging maw! _The Second_. Thieves! Flayers! _Ottar_. Dog! I'll strike thee dead! _Skoell_. Be quiet, fools, there is plenty more! Go look in the tower, and you may curse me for a knave if you find the mouse-hole empty. _The First_. Come. _The Two Others_. Yes, come! [_The three go into the tower._]