Many warts, many wrinkles, a long grey beard, long white hair, a huge hump, a deep cauldron, a ruinous house, a deep voice, a strange stump on his left hand, a handful of bones, an odd smoke, a large nose, crooked teeth, some missing teeth. All these things was the old man. And many other things, and other things, and some things less, and our boy needs you to know who the old man is, and the old man needs these things to be who he is: the old man of the village.