e you weeping?'

'To-morrow the giant will return from the hunting hill, and I must marry
him,' she sobbed. And Ian took no heed, and only said: 'How can I bring
him home?'

'Shake the iron chain that hangs outside the gate.'

And Ian went out, and gave such a pull to the chain that he fell down at
full length from the force of the shake. But in a moment he was on his
feet again, and seized the chain with so much strength that four links
came off in his hand. And the giant heard him in the hunting hill, as he
was putting the game he had killed into a bag.

'In the leeward, or the windward, or in the four brown boundaries of the
sea, there is none who could give my chain a shake save only Ian,
the soldier's son. And if he has reached me, then he has left my two
brothers dead behind him.' With that he strode back to the castle, the
earth trembling under him as he went.

'Are you Ian, the soldier's son?' asked he. And the youth answered:

'No, of a surety.'

'Then who are you in the leeward, or the windward, or in the four brown
boundaries of the sea, who are able to shake my battle chain? There is
only Ian, the soldier's son, who can do this, and he is but now sixteen
years old.

'I will show you who I am when you have wrestled with me,' said Ian. And
they threw their arms round each other, and the giant forced Ian on to
his knees; but in a moment he was up again, and crooking his leg round
the shoulders of the giant, he threw him heavily to the ground. 'Stumpy
black raven, come quick!' cried he; and the raven came, and beat the
giant about the head with his wings, so that he could not get up. Then
he bade Ian take out a sharp knife from under his feathers, which he
carried with him for cutting berries, and Ian smote off the giant's head
with it. And so sharp was that knife that, with one blow, the giant's
head rolled on the ground.

'Rest now this night also,' said the raven, 'and to-morrow you shall
take the knight's three daughters to the edge of the rock that leads to
the lower world. But take heed to go down first yourself, and let them
follow after you. And before I go you shall give me a piece of tobacco.'

'Take it all,' answered Ian, 'for well have you earned it.'

'No; give me but a piece. You know what is behind you, but you have
no knowledge of what is before you.' And picking up the tobacco in his
beak, the raven flew away.

So the next morning the knight's youngest daughter loaded asses with al