and in the Comitia, or popular meeting, in spring, before which it was
to be presumed Snorro would indict Thorarin for the slaughter of his
kinsman. Arnkill could not, however, forbear asking his nephew how he
had so far lost his usual command of temper. He replied in verse--

"Till then, the master of my mood,
Men called me gentle, mild, and good;
But yon fierce dame's sharp tongue might wake
In wintry den the frozen snake."

While Thorarin spent the winter with his uncle Arnkill, he received
information from his mother Geirrida that Oddo, son of her old rival
Katla, was the person who had cut off the hand of his wife Ada, and
that he gloried in the fact. Thorarin and Arnkill determined on instant
vengeance, and, travelling rapidly, surprised the house of Katla. The
undismayed sorceress, on hearing them approach, commanded her son to sit
close beside her, and when the assailants entered they only beheld
Katla, spinning coarse yarn from what seemed a large distaff, with her
female domestics seated around her.

"My son," she said, "is absent on a journey;" and Thorarin and Arnkill,
having searched the house in vain, were obliged to depart with this
answer. They had not, however, gone far before the well-known skill of
Katla, in optical delusion occurred to them, and they resolved on a
second and stricter search. Upon their return they found Katla in the
outer apartment, who seemed to be shearing the hair of a tame kid, but
was in reality cutting the locks of her son Oddo. Entering the inner
room, they found the large distaff flung carelessly upon a bench. They
returned yet a third time, and a third delusion was prepared for them;
for Katla had given her son the appearance of a hog, which seemed to