grovel upon the heap of ashes. Arnkill now seized and split the distaff,
which he had at first suspected, upon which Kalta tauntingly observed,
that if their visits had been frequent that evening, they could not be
said to be altogether ineffectual, since they had destroyed a distaff.
They were accordingly returning completely baffled, when Geirrida met
them, and upbraided them with carelessness in searching for their enemy.

"Return yet again," she said, "and I will accompany you."

Katla's maidens, still upon the watch, announced to her the return of
the hostile party, their number augmented by one who wore a blue mantle.

"Alas!" cried Katla, "it is the sorceress Geirrida, against whom spells
will be of no avail."

Immediately rising from the raised and boarded seat which she occupied,
she concealed Oddo beneath it, and covered it with cushions as before,
on which she stretched herself complaining of indisposition. Upon the
entrance of the hostile party, Geirrida, without speaking a word, flung
aside her mantle, took out a piece of sealskin, in which she wrapped up
Katla's head, and commanded that she should be held by some of the
attendants, while the others broke open the boarded space, beneath which
Oddo lay concealed, seized upon him, bound him, and led him away captive
with his mother. Next morning Oddo was hanged, and Katla stoned to
death; but not until she had confessed that, through her sorcery, she
had occasioned the disaster of Gunlaugar, which first led the way to
these feuds.