With the first rays of the sun the young Sodno went upstairs and entered the old woman’s room. She was already up and dressed, and sitting by the window knitting, and the young man crept in softly and crouched down on the floor, laying his head on her lap. For a while he kept silence, then he whispered gently: ‘Tell me, dear mother, where did my eldest brother conceal his riches?’ ‘What a strange question! Surely you must know,’ answered she. ‘No, I have forgotten; my memory is so bad.’ ‘He dug a hole under the doorstep and placed it there,’ said she. And there was another pause. By-and-by the Sodno asked again: ‘And where may my second brother’s money be?’ ‘Don’t you know that either?’ cried the mother in surprise. ‘Oh, yes; I did once. But since I fell upon my head I can remember nothing.’ ‘It is behind the oven,’ answered she. And again was silence. ‘Mother, dear mother,’ said the young man at last, ‘I am almost afraid to ask you; but I really have grown so stupid of late. Where did I hide my own money?’ But at this question the old woman flew into a passion, and vowed that if she could find a rod she would bring his memory back to him. Luckily, no rod was within her reach, and the Sodno managed, after a little, to coax her back into good humour, and at length she told him that the youngest Stalo had buried his treasure under the very place where she was sitting. ‘Dear mother,’ said Lyman, who had come in unseen, and was kneeling in front of the fire. ‘Dear mother, do you know who it is you have been talking with?’ The old woman started, but answered quietly: ‘It is a Sodno, I suppose?’ ‘You have guessed right,’ replied Lyma. The mother of the Stalos looked round for her iron cane, which she always used to kill her victims, but it was not there, for Lyma had put it in the fire. ‘Where is my iron cane?’ asked the old woman. ‘There!’ answered Lyma, pointing to the flames. The old woman sprang forwards and seized it, but her clothes caught fire, and in a few minutes she was burned to ashes. So the Sodno brothers found the treasure, and they carried it, and their sister and the reindeer, to their own home, and were the richest men in all Lapland. [From Lapplandische Marchen, J. C. Poestion.] Andras Baive Once upon a time there lived in Lapland a man who was so very strong and swift of foot that nobody in his native town of Vadso could come near him if they were running races in the summer evenings. The people of Vadso were very proud of their champion, and thought that there was no one like him in the world, till, by-and-by, it came to their ears that there dwelt among the mountains a Lapp, Andras Baive by name, who was said by his friends to be even stronger and swifter than the bailiff. Of course not a creature in Vadso believed that, and declared that if it made the mountaineers happier to talk such nonsense, why, let them!