" Poor creature I " they said one to another. " He
has a very dull time of it, all by himself; and we
ought not to grudge wasting a little of our precious
time to amuse him. He is not half so bright as we
are, to be sure ; and, for that reason, he needs us to
look after his comfort and happiness. Let us be kind
to the old fellow. Why, if Mother Earth had nok



THE PYGMIES. 58

been very kind to ourselves, we might all have been
Giants too."

On all their holidays, the Pygmies had excellent
sport with Antaeus. He often stretched himself out
at full length on the ground, where he looked like the
long ridge of a hill ; and it was a good hour's walk,
no doubt, for a short-legged Pjrgmy to journey from
head to foot of the Giant. He would lay down his
great hand flat on the grass, and challenge the tallest
of them to clamber upon it, and straddle from finger
to finger. So fearless were they, tnat they made
nothing of creeping in among the folds of his gar-
ments. When his head lay sidewise on the earth,
they would march boldly up, and peep into the great
cavern of his mouth, and take it all as a joke (as in-
deed it was meant) when Antaeus gave a sudden snap
with his jaws, as if hewei^ going to swallow fifty of
them at once. You would have laughed to see the
children dodging in and out among his hair, or swing-
ing from his beard. It is impossible to tell half of
the funny tricks that they played with their huge
comrade ; but I do not know that anything was more
curious than when a party of boys were seen running
races on his forehead, to try which of them could get
first round the circle of his one great eye. It was
another favorite feat with them to march along the
bridge of his nose, and jump down upon his upper

lip.
