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).]

Niels And The Giants

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 ide