THE GIANT’S SON AND THE BEAUTI- FUL MAIDEN

N the olden time there lived giants, who were

fierce and cruel. They were cannibals, and

many of them possessed magical power; so the Indians were all the more afraid of them.

In a certain part of the forest, there lived such a giant with his wife and son. The son was not like his father; he was just like other Indians. It was his work to go into the forest and hunt for the tracks of human beings for his father. But he hunted animals for his own food.

One day the young Indian was in a distant part of the forest, hunting tracks for his father, when he saw a beautiful Indian maiden. She was the most beautiful maiden he had ever seen, and he thought, “If I could only have this maiden for my wife!” And he went to her, and talked with her, and she led the way to her home. She told him that she lived alone with her helpless old father and mother, and that she was the only one to care for them. She

hunted in the forest for animals for their meat, 126