He drew back in surprise and fear.

It addressed him in a grating man's voice: "Well, my brave young knight, whence come you?
whither go you?
wherefore so terrified ?" And then first he saw that he had before him a little old man so wrapped up in a rough garment of fur, that scarcely one of his features was visible, and wearing in his cap a strange-looking long feather.
"But whence come YOU and whither go YOU ?" returned the angry Sintram.
"For of you such questions should be asked.

What have you to do in our domains, you hideous little being ?" "Well, well," sneered the other one, "I am thinking that I am quite big enough as I am--one cannot always be a giant.

And as to the rest, why should you find fault that I go here hunting for snails?
Surely snails do not belong to the game which your high mightinesses consider that you alone have a right to follow! Now, on the other hand, I know how to prepare from them an excellent high-flavoured drink; and I have taken enough for to-day: marvellous fat little beasts, with wise faces like a man's, and long twisted horns on their heads.

Would you like to see them?
Look here!" And then he began to unfasten and fumble about his fur garment; but Sintram, filled with disgust and horror, said, "Psha! I detest such animals! Be quiet, and tell me at once who and what you yourself are." "Are you so bent upon knowing my name ?" replied the little man.