When the man awoke in the morning he was much alarmed because of the
story told him by the vision of the night. He no longer trusted his
witch-wife and he decided to get rid of her. But he feared she would
attack the children before he could prevent it. So when the witch-wife
went out to get water from the stream to make breakfast, he gave each
of the children a stick, a white stone, and a bunch of soft moss, and
he said, "You must run away from here and stay away until I can find
you, for you are in great danger. You will find these three things I
give you of great use. Throw them behind you if any evil thing pursues
you, and they will keep you from harm." The children in great fear at
once ran away into the forest. Then the man hung his magical spider
web over the door of the house, and sat quietly inside waiting for
his wife to come back. In a little while she came home, carrying a
pail of water, but she did not see the web with its fine strands
hanging across the door, and when she walked into it she was at once
entangled in its meshes. She struggled hard to get free, but her head
was inside the door while her body was outside, and the web held her
fast around the neck. Then the man said, "I know now that you are a
cruel witch-woman. You will beat my children no more." With his
stone-axe he struck her a mighty blow which completely severed her
head from her body. Then he ran from the house as fast as he could and
went towards his children, who were watching him not far away.
But the man was not yet done with the cruel witch-woman. As he ran
from the house her headless body, freed from the spider web, ran after
him, while her severed head, with eyes staring and hair flying,
followed the children, sometimes bumping along the ground and
sometimes rising through the air. The father thought it would be well
to go in a different direction from the children, and he went west,
while they went east. The children were very frightened when they saw
the horrible head behind them, slowly gaining upon them. Then they
remembered their father's magic gifts. When the head was close upon
them, they threw their sticks on the ground at their backs and at once
a dense forest sprang up between them and their pursuer. The children
said, "Now we will rest here for a while, for we are nearly out of
breath. The wicked head cannot get through that dense forest." And
they sat on the grass and rested.