And long may it be so."

This shepherd also told him to beware of the beasts he should next
meet, for they were of a very different kind from any he had yet seen.

So the young man went on, and by-and-by he saw a multitude of very
dreadful beasts, with two heads, and on every head four horns. And he
was sore frightened, and ran away from them as fast as he could; and
glad was he when he came to a castle that stood on a hillock, with the
door standing wide open to the wall. And he went into the castle for
shelter, and there he saw an old wife sitting beside the kitchen fire.
He asked the wife if he might stay for the night, as he was tired with
a long journey; and the wife said he might, but it was not a good
place for him to be in, as it belonged to the Red Ettin, who was a
very terrible beast, with three heads, that spared no living man it
could get hold of. The young man would have gone away, but he was
afraid of the beasts on the outside of the castle; so he beseeched the
old woman to hide him as best she could, and not tell the Ettin he was
there. He thought, if he could put over the night, he might get away
in the morning, without meeting with the beasts, and so escape. But he
had not been long in his hiding-hole, before the awful Ettin came in;
and no sooner was he in, than he was heard crying:

"Snouk but and snouk ben,
I find the smell of an earthly man,
Be he living, or be he dead,
His heart this night shall kitchen my bread."

The monster soon found the poor young man, and pulled him from his
hole. And when he had got him out, he told him that if he could answer