The Giant's Daughters

THE GIANT'S DAUGHTERS ⁸

There was a poor family. The old man and woman had four sons. The youngest one ate too much, so they told his brothers to take him to the mountains and leave him there. On the way he gathered all the food he could find, for be knew already what they planned to do. The sun set, and it got dark; they were in the mountains. The little boy said, "Oh, brothers, it is night. Where shall we sleep? Stay where you are and I shall climb this pine tree to see if there is any light around." He climbed up the tree, and he saw a light like a star far off. "Let's go to that place and sleep there and perhaps they will give. us food." "What shall we do with the oxen (oxcart)?" "We shall leave them right where they are. When we return in the morning we shall come back to this place."

They went off toward the light he had seen. They traveled all night and came to the house. When they were close, the elder

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brother said, "Perhaps this is a giant's house." "What can we do?" said the little boy. "We are here now, and we must go in." The little boy told the elder brother, "Knock on the door." He said, "Ho, inside!" "What is that? Who are you boys?" "We are little Cochiti Indians." "All right; just come in," said the giant. He woke his wife and told her to give some supper to these poor little Indian boys. In his heart the giant was saying, "I shall have a good dinner out of those boys." But the little boy knew already what he was thinking.

The elder brother said, "We were just looking for a place to sleep. We were out for wood and night overtook us." They gave them a room to sleep in. In the room were four little girls, daughters of the giant. On the west side they put the four Indian boys, and on the east side the four daughters of the giant. The girls had each a round piece of rabbit skin tied over their heads for caps, and the boys had fox skin bandas. The little boy knew that the giant would come to kill them. In the middle of the night the giant sharpened his long black stone knife with which to cut off their heads. When the. giant was asleep, the boy got up and put the rabbit skin caps on the boys and the bandas on the girls. Then he went back to bed. Just as he was going to sleep he heard the giant coming. He came to the boys. "No," he said, "these are my daughters; they have rabbit skin caps." He went to the girls and felt of the bandas. "These are the boys." He cut off their heads. Then he woke up the others and told them to come out. The boys came out and ran away from that house.

They came to an old woman's house and she gave a piece of glass to the little boy, and said, "Throw it back and it will splinter and stick up." The giant, who was following them, got to the place where the splinter of glass was and he could hardly make his way. He was very angry. The boys went on. They met Old Grandmother Spider. She gave, the little boy a piece of root and said, "Chew this root up and spit it behind you." He spit it behind him, and a great spined cactus came up on the path. They ran on as fast as they could. They met an old woman again. She said, "My poor, dear children, run fast; the giant is getting close to you." She gave the little boy a needle and said, "As he comes near to you, throw the needle back toward him." The giant was near; he threw the needle and it stuck out in the path behind them. The giant could not walk through it nor step over it. They went on, and they met an old woman again. She gave the youngest boy a piece of glass and said, "As the giant comes throw it back, and it will make a sheet of ice." The giant fell and slid and could not get up. His knees were all cut and torn, and the boys were saved.

Footnotes

178:8 Informant 2. Notes, p. 247.