ffin," said
Hans.  "Then when you get to him," said the man, "just ask him why I am
forced to carry everybody over the lake."  "Yes, indeed, most certainly
I'll do that," said Hans.  Then the man took him up on his shoulders, and
carried him across.  At length Hans arrived at the Griffin's house, but the
wife only was at home, and not the Griffin himself.  Then the woman
asked him what he wanted?  Thereupon he told her everything;--that he
had to get a feather out of the Griffin's tail, and that there was a castle
where they had lost the key of their money-chest, and he was to ask the
Griffin where it was?--that in another castle the daughter was ill, and
he was to learn what would cure her?--and then not far from thence
there was a lake and a man beside it, who was forced to carry people
across it, and he was very anxious to learn why the man was obliged
to do it.  Then said the woman, "But look here, my good friend, no
Christian can speak to the Griffin; he devours them all; but if you like,
you can lie down under his bed, and in the night, when he is quite fast
asleep, you can reach out and pull a feather out of his tail, and as for
those things which you are to learn, I will ask about them myself."  Hans
was quite satisfied with this, and got under the bed.  In the evening, the
Griffin came home, and as soon as he entered the room, said, "Wife, I
smell a Christian."  "Yes," said the woman, "one was here to-day, but
he went away again;" and on that the Griffin said no more.

In the middle of the night when the Griffin was snoring loudly, Hans
reached out and plucked a feather from his tail.  The Griffin woke up
instantly, and said, "Wife, I smell a Christian, and it seems to me that
somebody was pulling at my tail."  His wife said, "Thou hast certainly
been dreaming, and I told thee before that a Christian was here to-day,
but that he went away again.  He told me all kinds of things that in
one castle they had lost the key of their money-chest, and could find
it nowhere."  "Oh! the fools!" said the Griffin; "the key lies in the wood-
house under a log of wood behind the door."  "And then he said that in
another castle the daughter was ill, and they knew no remedy that would
cure her."  "Oh! the fools!" said the Griffin; "under the cellar-steps a toad
has made its nest of her hair, and if she got her hair back she would be well." 
"And then he also said that there was a place where there was a lake and
a man beside it who was forced to carry everybody across."  "Oh, the fool!"
said the Griffin; "if he only put one man down in the middle, he would never
have to carry another across."  Early the next morning the Griffin got up and
went out.  Then Hans came forth from under the bed, and he had a
beautiful feather, and had heard what the Griffin had said about the
key, and the daughter, and the ferry-man.  The Griffin's wife repeated
it all once more to him that he might not forget it, and then he went
home again.  First he came to the man by the lake, who asked him
what the Griffin had said, but Hans replied that he must first carry
him across, and then he would tell him.  So the man carried him across,
and when he was over Hans told him that all he ha

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