Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 08 (28 page)

'Collect all the babies in the village the same size as yourself,'
answered the bones; 'shave the sides of their heads, and hang white
beads round their necks, and tell them that when anybody calls
"Motikatika," they are to answer to it. And be quick for you have
no time to lose.'

Motikatika went out directly, and brought back quite a crowd of
babies, and shaved their heads and hung white beads round their
little black necks, and just as he had finished, the ground began to
shake, and the huge ogre came striding along, crying: 'Motikatika!
Motikatika!'

'Here we are! here we are!' answered the babies, all running to meet
him.

'It is Motikatika I want,' said the ogre.

'We are all Motikatika,' they replied. And the ogre sat down in
bewilderment, for he dared not eat the children of people who had
done him no wrong, or a heavy punishment would befall him. The
children waited for a little, wondering, and then they went away.

The ogre remained where he was, till the evening, when the woman
returned from the fields.

'I have not seen Motikatika,' said he.

'But why did you not call him by his name, as I told you?' she
asked.

'I did, but all the babies in the village seemed to be named
Motikatika,' answered the ogre; 'you cannot think the number who
came running to me.'

The woman did not know what to make of it, so, to keep him in a
good temper, she entered the hut and prepared a bowl of maize,
which she brought him.

'I do not want maize, I want the baby,' grumbled he 'and I will have
him.'

'Have patience,' answered she; 'I will call him, and you can eat him
at once.' And she went into the hut and cried, 'Motikatika!'

'I am coming, mother,' replied he; but first he took out his bones,
and, crouching down on the ground behind the hut, asked them
how he should escape the ogre.

'Change yourself into a mouse,' said the bones; and so he did, and
the ogre grew tired of waiting, and told the woman she must invent
some other plan.

'To-morrow I will send him into the field to pick some beans for
me, and you will find him there, and can eat him.'

'Very well,' replied the ogre, 'and this time I will take care to have
him,' and he went back to his lake.

Next morning Motikatika was sent out with a basket, and told to
pick some beans for dinner. On the way to the field he took out his
bones and asked them what he was to do to escape from the ogre.
'Change yourself into a bird and snap off the beans,' said the bones.
And the ogre chased away the bird, not knowing that it was
Motikatika.

The ogre went back to the hut and told the woman that she had
deceived him again, and that he would not be put off any longer.

'Return here this evening,' answered she, 'and you will find him in
bed under this white coverlet. Then you can carry him away, and
eat him at once.'

But the boy heard, and consulted his bones, which said: 'Take the
red coverlet from your father's bed, and put yours on his,' and so he
did. And when the ogre came, he seized Motikatika's father and
carried him outside the hut and ate him. When his wife found out
the mistake, she cried bitterly; but Motikatika said: 'It is only just
that he should be eaten, and not I; for it was he, and not I, who sent
you to fetch the water.'

(Adapted from the Ba-Ronga (H. Junod).)

On one of the great moors over in Jutland, where trees won't grow
because the soil is so sandy and the wind so strong, there once lived
a man and his wife, who had a little house and some sheep, and two
sons who helped them to herd them. The elder of the two was
called Rasmus, and the younger Niels. Rasmus was quite content
to look after sheep, as his father had done before him, but Niels had
a fancy to be a hunter, and was not happy till he got hold of a gun
and learned to shoot. It was only an old muzzle-loading flint-lock
after all, but Niels thought it a great prize, and went about shooting
at everything he could see. So much did he practice that in the long
run he became a wonderful shot, and was heard of even where he
had never been seen. Some people said there was very little in him
beyond this, but that was an idea they found reason to change in the
course of time.

The parents of Rasmus and Niels were good Catholics, and when
they were getting old the mother took it into her head that she
would like to go to Rome and see the Pope. The others didn't see
much use in this, but she had her way in the end: they sold all the
sheep, shut up the house, and set out for Rome on foot. Niels took
his gun with him.

'What do you want with that?' said Rasmus; 'we have plenty to
carry without it.' But Niels could not be happy without his gun,
and took it all the same.

It was in the hottest part of summer that they began their journey,
so hot that they could not travel at all in the middle of the day, and
they were afraid to do it by night lest they might lose their way or
fall into the hands of robbers. One day, a little before sunset, they
came to an inn which lay at the edge of a forest.

'We had better stay here for the night,' said Rasmus.

'What an idea!' said Niels, who was growing impatient at the slow
progress they were making. 'We can't travel by day for the heat,
and we remain where we are all night. It will be long enough
before we get to Rome if we go on at this rate.'

Rasmus was unwilling to go on, but the two old people sided with
Niels, who said, 'The nights aren't dark, and the moon will soon be
up. We can ask at the inn here, and find out which way we ought
to take.'

So they held on for some time, but at last they came to a small
opening in the forest, and here they found that the road split in two.
There was no sign-post to direct them, and the people in the inn
had not told them which of the two roads to take.

'What's to be done now?' said Rasmus. 'I think we had better have
stayed at the inn.'

'There's no harm done,' said Niels. 'The night is warm, and we can
wait here till morning. One of us will keep watch till midnight, and
then waken the other.'

Rasmus chose to take the first watch, and the others lay down to
sleep. It was very quiet in the forest, and Rasmus could hear the
deer and foxes and other animals moving about among the rustling
leaves. After the moon rose he could see them occasionally, and
when a big stag came quite close to him he got hold of Niels' gun
and shot it.

Niels was wakened by the report. 'What's that?' he said.

'I've just shot a stag,' said Rasmus, highly pleased with himself.

'That's nothing,' said Niels. 'I've often shot a sparrow, which is a
much more difficult thing to do.'

It was now close on midnight, so Niels began his watch, and
Rasmus went to sleep. It began to get colder, and Niels began to
walk about a little to keep himself warm. He soon found that they
were not far from the edge of the forest, and when he climbed up
one of the trees there he could see out over the open country
beyond. At a little distance he saw a fire, and beside it there sat
three giants, busy with broth and beef. They were so huge that the
spoons they used were as large as spades, and their forks as big as
hay-forks: with these they lifted whole bucketfuls of broth and great
joints of meat out of an enormous pot which was set on the ground
between them. Niels was startled and rather scared at first, but he
comforted himself with the thought that the giants were a good way
off, and that if they came nearer he could easily hide among the
bushes. After watching them for a little, however, he began to get
over his alarm, and finally slid down the tree again, resolved to get
his gun and play some tricks with them.

When he had climbed back to his former position, he took good
aim, and waited till one of the giants was just in the act of putting a
large piece of meat into his mouth. Bang! went Niels' gun, and the
bullet struck the handle of the fork so hard that the point went into
the giant's chin, instead of his mouth.

'None of your tricks,' growled the giant to the one who sat next
him. 'What do you mean by hitting my fork like that, and making
me prick myself?'

'I never touched your fork,' said the other. 'Don't try to get up a
quarrel with me.'

'Look at it, then,' said the first. 'Do you suppose I stuck it into my
own chin for fun?'

The two got so angry over the matter that each offered to fight the
other there and then, but the third giant acted as peace-maker, and
they again fell to their eating.

While the quarrel was going on, Niels had loaded the gun again,
and just as the second giant was about to put a nice tit-bit into his
mouth, bang! went the gun again, and the fork flew into a dozen
pieces.

This giant was even more furious than the first had been, and words
were just coming to blows, when the third giant again interposed.

'Don't be fools,' he said to them; 'what's the good of beginning to
fight among ourselves, when it is so necessary for the three of us to
work together and get the upper hand over the king of this country.
It will be a hard enough task as it is, but it will be altogether
hopeless if we don't stick together. Sit down again, and let us finish
our meal; I shall sit between you, and then neither of you can blame
the other.'

Niels was too far away to hear their talk, but from their gestures he
could guess what was happening, and thought it good fun.

'Thrice is lucky,' said he to himself; 'I'll have another shot yet.'

This time it was the third giant's fork that caught the bullet, and
snapped in two.

'Well,' said he, 'if I were as foolish as you two, I would also fly into
a rage, but I begin to see what time of day it is, and I'm going off
this minute to see who it is that's playing these tricks with us.'

So well had the giant made his observations, that though Niels
climbed down the tree as fast as he could, so as to hide among the
bushes, he had just got to the ground when the enemy was upon
him.

'Stay where you are,' said the giant, 'or I'll put my foot on you, and
there won't be much of you left after that.'

Niels gave in, and the giant carried him back to his comrades.

'You don't deserve any mercy at our hands,' said his captor 'but as
you are such a good shot you may be of great use to us, so we shall
spare your life, if you will do us a service. Not far from here there
stands a castle, in which the king's daughter lives; we are at war
with the king, and want to get the upper hand of him by carrying off
the princess, but the castle is so well guarded that there is no
getting into it. By our skill in magic we have cast sleep on every
living thing in the castle, except a little black dog, and, as long as he
is awake, we are no better off than before; for, as soon as we begin
to climb over the wall, the little dog will hear us, and its barking
will waken all the others again. Having got you, we can place you
where you will be able to shoot the dog before it begins to bark,
and then no one can hinder us from getting the princess into our
hands. If you do that, we shall not only let you off, but reward you
handsomely.'

Niels had to consent, and the giants set out for the castle at once.
It was surrounded by a very high rampart, so high that even the
giants could not touch the top of it. 'How am I to get over that?'
said Niels.

'Quite easily,' said the third giant; ' I'll throw you up on it.'

'No, thanks,' said Niels. 'I might fall down on the other side, or
break my leg or neck, and then the little dog wouldn't get shot after
all.'

'No fear of that,' said the giant; 'the rampart is quite wide on the
top, and covered with long grass, so that you will come down as
softly as though you fell on a feather-bed.'

Niels had to believe him, and allowed the giant to throw him up.
He came down on his feet quite unhurt, but the little black dog
heard the dump, and rushed out of its kennel at once. It was just
opening its mouth to bark, when Niels fired, and it fell dead on the
spot.

'Go down on the inside now,' said the giant, 'and see if you can
open the gate to us.'

Niels made his way down into the courtyard, but on his way to the
outer gate he found himself at the entrance to the large hall of the
castle. The door was open, and the hall was brilliantly lighted,
though there was no one to be seen. Niels went in here and looked
round him: on the wall there hung a huge sword without a sheath,
and beneath it was a large drinking-horn, mounted with silver.
Niels went closer to look at these, and saw that the horn had letters
engraved on the silver rim: when he took it down and turned it
round, he found that the inscription was:—

Whoever drinks the wine I hold
Can wield the sword that hangs above;
Then let him use it for the right,
And win a royal maiden's love.

Niels took out the silver stopper of the horn, and drank some of the
wine, but when he tried to take down the sword he found himself
unable to move it. So he hung up the horn again, and went further
in to the castle. 'The giants can wait a little,' he said.

Before long he came to an apartment in which a beautiful princess
lay asleep in a bed, and on a table by her side there lay a
gold-hemmed handkerchief. Niels tore this in two, and put one half
in his pocket, leaving the other half on the table. On the floor he
saw a pair of gold-embroidered slippers, and one of these he also
put in his pocket. After that he went back to the hall, and took
down the horn again. 'Perhaps I have to drink all that is in it before
I can move the sword,' he thought; so he put it to his lips again and
drank till it was quite empty. When he had done this, he could
wield the sword with the greatest of ease, and felt himself strong
enough to do anything, even to fight the giants he had left outside,
who were no doubt wondering why he had not opened the gate to
them before this time. To kill the giants, he thought, would be
using the sword for the right; but as to winning the love of the
princess, that was a thing which the son of a poor sheep-farmer
need not hope for.