him: he cut open the bird, found its heart, swallowed it, and
took the cloak home with him. The next morning when he awoke he
remembered the promise, and wanted to see if it had come true.
But when he lifted up his pillow, there sparkled the gold piece,
and the next morning he found another, and so on every time he
got up. He collected a heap of gold, but at last he thought to
himself, 'What good is all my gold to me if I stay at home? I
will travel and look a bit about me in the world.' So he took
leave of his parents, slung his hunting knapsack and his gun
round him, and journeyed into the world.

It happened that one day he went through a thick wood, and when
he came to the end of it there lay in the plain before him a
large castle. At one of the windows in it stood an old woman
with a most beautiful maiden by her side, looking out. But the
old woman was a witch, and she said to the girl, 'There comes one
out of the wood who has a wonderful treasure in his body which we
must manage to possess ourselves of, darling daughter; we have
more right to it than he. He has a bird's heart in him, and so
every morning there lies a gold piece under his pillow.'

She told her how they could get hold of it, and how she was to
coax it from him, and at last threatened her angrily, saying,
'And if you do not obey me, you shall repent it!'

When the Hunter came nearer he saw the maiden, and said to
himself, 'I have travelled so far now that I will rest, and turn
into this beautiful castle; money I have in plenty.' But the
real reason was that he had caught sight of the lovely face.