soldiers scramble, musket in hand, to their ranks.
“March on to Rock Clermond,” he said to the general. “Fight fearlessly,
for I shall come behind to help you.”
So the army set out along the dark road, and Gargantua sped to his room.
He took out his great sword and lance shining like flashes of lightning.
Then with his huge comb, each tooth of which was an elephant’s tusk, he
began smoothing his tousled hair. As he did so, there was a bump on the
floor,—another, another and another.
A servant knocked upon the door. “Prince Gargantua,” he cried, “sounds
like thunder come from your room. The ceiling below trembles. Is
something amiss?”
“Why, no,” laughed Gargantua, “I am but combing some small shot out of my
hair.”
The servant gaped, with round eyes. “They are cannon balls, your
Highness!” he cried in alarm.
“So they fired their cannon at me at the Ford of Vede,” muttered
Gargantua in surprise.
Then taking up his arms, he went down for a bite of supper with his
father; and just at dawn galloped off down the road.
Meanwhile the army drew near Rock Clermond. Picrochole’s captain of the
guard saw them coming, and dashed to tell his king.
Picrochole roused up angrily. “Is Grangousier with them?” he snapped.
“No, sire, I saw no giants,” said the captain of the guard.
Picrochole reflected. “Of course not, of course not,” he cried testily.
“Grangousier is too old after all; and that son of his is off at school
in Paris. A mere handful of shepherds coming to surprise us, no doubt!
Well, then, sound the charge; and follow me, every mother’s son. We shall
teach these blockheads once again to eat the cakes of Lerné.”
So, in a vain fury of boldness, Picrochole led his men helter-skelter
through the gate and down the hill upon Grangousier’s army. He drew
his sword to charge, when suddenly against the morning sky, he saw
Gargantua’s great figure looking down.
Picrochole staggered; then turned and scurried like a rabbit across the
dewy grass. “The giant!” he shrieked. “The giant!” And his men scampered
breathlessly after.
Gargantua stooped, and scooped up four or five of them in each of his
great hands. As for the rest, his army chased them so hard that every
baker of them was caught. Only Picrochole got away; but perhaps it was
just as well, for the kingdom was rid of him, as he was never seen or
heard of afterward.
When every captive was brought back, Gargantua called them all about
him. “Cake-bakers of Lerné,” he boomed, “my father, Grangousier, is the
mildest king in all the world, and the first friend of cooks.”
“Aye, aye,” cried all the bakers, waving their caps.
“And because you have served him with good cakes these many years,”
went on Gargantua, “he will not throw you into prison as you deserve,
but he will let you all go free and forgiven to your homes _on one
condition_,”—and here the giant’s voice grew stern,—“that you and your
families forever give his shepherds as many good cakes as they wish to
buy. As for Marquet and the captain of the guard, Grangousier orders them
to his palace kitchen. There they shall bake every day six cakes for
every one he sent by Ulrich Gallet.”
“Long live good King Grangousier, and his son Gargantua!” cried the
cake-bakers.
Gargantua turned his horse, and pranced joyously toward home, with
his army streaming after. Last of all came Marquet and the captain of
Picrochole’s guard, very humble and crestfallen, marched between four
strong soldiers.
Grangousier saw them coming. “Cooks, cooks, cooks!” he cried. “Fire
up your ovens, and spread the finest banquet since the days of King
Ahasuerus!”
And the cooks did. That day Gargantua feasted with his father, and
Ponocrates, Gymnast, and Eudemon (who arrived just in time), and all the
victorious army. And this is what they ate, according to Ulrich Gallet’s
list:
Sixteen roasted beeves,
Thirty-two calves,
Sixty-three kids,
Ninety-five sheep,
Two hundred and twenty partridges,
Four hundred capons,
Seven hundred snipe,
Twelve thousand pullets and pigeons,
Fourteen hundred hares,
One hundred and forty pheasants;
and deer, turkeys, ducks, geese, and vegetables without number. And after
they had finished _that_, there was served up a whole ton of the hottest,
most fragrant little cakes in all the world, baked by Marquet and the
captain of Picrochole’s guard.
“A fine feast!” cried Gargantua.
“A fine son!” beamed Grangousier, happy as only a giant can be.
“A fine father!” called Gargantua.
“And fine cakes!” said Queen Gargamelle.
—_Adapted from Rabelais’ “Gargantua.”_
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XI
The Man Who Went to the Giants’ Country
You who scoff at tales of giants,
Only sure of what you’ve seen,
Listen to this man of science
Who had long with giants been:
Then when doubting folk confront you,
Flout your faith or mock your fear,
Tell them of this wise man, won’t you?
Read them what’s recorded here.
_Seymour Barnard._
XI
The Man Who Went to the Giants’ Country
[Illustration]
As the world grew older and ways became stiffer, there came a
dreadfully dull time when nothing ever happened by magic, and
everything could be explained by a Reason. Worn out by this
heavy atmosphere, the gods left the earth for the clouds, and
the fairies vanished into moonlight and mist.
As for the giants, who had been so neighborly, they disappeared
altogether. No frightened herdboy following a cry through the
moonlit forest, came upon their towering figures. No Indian
pushing out over the misty sea was hailed by a giant canoe.
People became quite superior and scornful. There was hardly a
person who would discuss giants seriously. The grown-ups would
only sniff; and even the children, who were young enough to
know better, would cry, “Pooh! There never were any _giants_.”
Oddly enough, it happened, as those things sometimes do, that
one of the most matter-of-fact persons of all, an Englishman
and a scientist, came suddenly upon the giants’ country. After
that, you may be sure, the people who had been the first to
scoff whenever giants were mentioned, became quite silent
and respectful. Here is the Englishman’s own story of the
adventure, almost as he wrote it in his stiff, honest, grown-up
way:
[Illustration]
In June, 1702, I, Lemuel Gulliver, ship’s surgeon, went on board the
merchant-vessel _Adventure_ bound for Surat. Rounding the Cape of Good
Hope, we had a good voyage through the Straits of Madagascar. But just
south of the equator a violent gale sprang up, and continuing for twenty
days, drove us before it a little to the east of the Spice Islands.
Suddenly, the wind dropped and there was a perfect calm. I was delighted,
but the captain, who knew those seas, bade us all prepare for a storm.
The next day, just as he had said, a wind called the Southern monsoon set
in. We reefed the best we could, but it was a very fierce storm, and the
waves broke strange and dangerous. We let our topmast stand, and the ship
scudded before the sea.
Thus we were carried about five hundred leagues to the east, so that the
oldest sailor aboard could not tell in what part of the world we were.
Our provisions held out well, our ship was stanch, and our crew all in
good health, but we were in great distress for lack of water.
The wind moderated, and the next day a boy on the topmast discovered
land. Soon, we were in full view of an island or continent, on the south
side of which was a neck of land jutting out into the sea, and a creek
too shallow to hold our ship. We cast anchor about a league away, and
our captain sent a dozen of his men well armed, in the long-boat, with
buckets for water. I asked his leave to go with them, to see the country
and make what discoveries I could.
When we came to land, we saw no river or spring, nor any sign of
inhabitants. Our men wandered on the shore, hoping to find some fresh
water near the sea, and I walked alone on the other side where the
country was all barren and rocky. Beginning to be tired, I started back
toward the shore, only to see our men already in the boat rowing for dear
life to the ship.
I was going to holloa to them when I saw a huge creature walking
after them in the sea. The water was hardly to his knees, and he took
prodigious strides. But our men had the start of him by half a league,
and as the sea thereabout is full of sharp-pointed rocks, the monster was
not able to overtake the boat. This I was told afterward, for I dared not
stay to see, but ran as fast as I could the way I first went, and climbed
up a steep hill which gave me a view of the country. I found it fully
cultivated; but what first surprised me was the length of the grass,
which in the hay-fields was about twenty feet high.
I came upon a high road, for so I took it to be, though it served the
inhabitants only as a footpath through a field of barley. Here I walked
for an hour but could see little, for the grain rose forty feet into the
air on either side. Coming at last to the end of the field, I found it
fenced in with a hedge over one hundred feet high, and a stile impossible
for me to climb.
I was trying to find a gap in the hedge when I saw a man as tall as a
church-steeple approaching the stile. Hiding myself in the grain, I heard
him call, but the noise was so high in the air that at first I thought it
was thunder. Immediately seven monsters, each with a reaping-hook as big
as six scythes, came to reap the grain in the field where I was.
I kept as far from them as I could, but I could move only with great
difficulty, for the barley-stalks were sometimes less than a foot apart
so that I could hardly squeeze between them. However, I struggled on till
I came to a part of the field where the grain had been beaten down by the
rain and wind. Here it was impossible to advance a step, for the stalks
were so interwoven that I could not creep between, and the beards of the
barley were so strong and pointed that they pierced through my clothes.
At the same time, hearing the reapers close behind me, I threw myself
down between two ridges, overcome with despair.
The next moment I saw an immense foot not ten yards away and the blinding
gleam of a great reaping-hook above my head. I screamed as loud as fear
could make me. The huge reaper stopped short, and looking about on the
ground for some time, finally spied me. He considered a while as if he
were planning how he could pick up a small, dangerous animal so that it
could neither bite nor scratch him. At last he ventured to take me up by
the middle, between his forefinger and thumb, and held me within three
yards of his eyes.
Good fortune gave me so much presence of mind that I resolved not to
struggle as he held me in the air, about sixty feet from the ground,
although he grievously pinched my sides. Instead, I raised my eyes and
clasped my hands, speaking some words in a humble tone and groaning to
let him know how cruelly I was hurt by the pressure of his thumb and
finger. He seemed to understand, for putting me gently into his pocket,
he ran along with me to his master, the farmer I had first seen.
The farmer blew my hair aside to get a better view of my face, and then
placed me softly on the ground on all-fours. But I got immediately up,
and walked slowly backward and forward. Pulling off my hat, I made a low
bow to the farmer. I fell on my knees, and spoke several words as loud as
I could. I took a purse of gold out of my pocket and humbly presented it
to him. He received it on the palm of his hand, and turned it with the
point of a pin, but could make nothing of it.
[Illustration: A cat three times as big as an ox]
He spoke to me, but the sound of his voice pierced my ears like that of
a water-mill. I answered as loud as I could in several languages, and
he laid his ear within two yards of me, but all in vain. We could not
understand each other.
He then sent his servant to work, and taking out his handkerchief, spread
it on his left hand, which he placed flat on the ground with the palm
upwards. He beckoned to me to step up on it, which I could easily do, as
it was not more than a foot thick. Wrapping me up in the handkerchief,
he carried me home to his house. There he showed me to his wife; but she
screamed and ran back as if I had been a spider. However, when she had
seen how gentle I was, and how well I obeyed the signs her husband made,
she became extremely tender to me.
It was dinner-time, and the servant brought in a dish of meat about
twenty-four feet across. At the table were the farmer, his wife, and
three children. The farmer placed me at some distance from him on the
table, which was thirty feet high from the floor. I was in a terrible
fright, and kept as far as I could from the edge, for fear of falling.
The wife minced a bit of meat and crumbled some bread, placing it before
me on a plate. I made her a low bow, took out my knife and fork, and
began to eat, which gave them much delight.
[Illustration: The baby seized me by the middle]
Then the master beckoned me to come to his plate; but as I walked on the
table, I stumbled against a crust and fell flat on my face. I got up
immediately, and finding the good people greatly concerned, I waved my
hat over my head, giving three _huzzas_ to show that I had received no
hurt. Just then I heard a noise like that of a dozen stocking-weavers
at work, and turning my head, found it to be the purring of a cat three
times as big as an ox. The fierce look of this creature, which had
jumped into the mistress’s lap, altogether discomposed me, although I
stood at the further end of the table, fifty feet away. I was less afraid
of the dogs, one of which was a mastiff as big as four elephants.
But my chief danger came from another quarter. When dinner was almost
over, a nurse came in with a child a year old in her arms, who
immediately spied me and began a squall that you might have heard across
London, to get me for a plaything. The mother put me towards the baby,
who suddenly seized me by the middle, and put my head into his mouth,
where I roared so loud that he was frightened and let me drop. And I
should certainly have broken my neck if the nurse had not held her apron
under me. To quiet the baby, the nurse shook a rattle filled with rocks
as big as cobblestones, which was fastened by a cable to the child’s
waist.
But the one of all the family whom I liked the best was a little girl
nine years old, who became from the first my chief protector. It was she
who fixed up a bed for me in her doll’s cradle, and it was she who taught
me the language. When I pointed out anything, she told me the name of
it in the giants’ tongue, so that in a few days I was able to call for
whatever I wished. She was very good-natured, and not above forty feet
high, being small for her age. She gave me the name of Grildrig, meaning
mannikin. I called her my Glumdalclitch, or little nurse.
[Illustration: She was not above forty feet high]
It soon began to be known in the neighborhood that my master had found
in the field a tiny animal shaped exactly like a human creature, which
seemed to speak in a little language of its own, had already learned
several words of theirs, walked erect on two legs, was tame and gentle,
and would come when it was called. Another farmer, who lived near by,
came on a visit on purpose to find out the truth of this story. Being old
and dim-sighted, he put on his spectacles to see me better, at which I
could not help laughing, for his eyes looked like the full moon shining
into a room at two windows. This man was thought to be a great miser, and
to my way of thinking, he well deserved it, for the first thing he did
after seeing me was to advise my master to show me as a sight in the next
town.
Accordingly, the next market-day, my master mounted his daughter, my
little nurse, on a pillion behind him, and rode with me to town. I
was carried in a wooden box, closed on every side, with a little door
to let me in and out, and a few gimlet holes to give me air. Although
Glumdalclitch had put her doll’s quilt in the box for me to lie down on,
I was nevertheless terribly shaken up by this journey of only half an
hour. The horse went about forty feet at every step, and trotted so high
that the motion was like the rising and falling of a ship in a great
storm.
My master alighted at an inn; and having hired the crier to give notice
of me through the town, placed me on a table in the largest room of the
inn, which was about three hundred feet square. My little nurse stood on
a low stool close by, to take care of me and direct what I should do. To
prevent danger, my master would allow but thirty people at a time to see
me, and set benches round the table so as to put me out of everybody’s
reach.
I walked about on the table as Glumdalclitch commanded; she asked me
questions, and I answered them as loud as I could. I paid my humble
respects to the audience, and said they were welcome. I took up a thimble
filled with wine, and drank their health. I flourished my sword, and
exercised with part of a straw as a pike. That day I was shown to twelve
sets of people, and as often forced to go through the same antics till I
was half-dead with weariness and vexation. For those who had seen me made
such wonderful reports that the people were ready to break down the doors
to come in.
[Illustration: I took up a thimble]
Finding how profitable I was, my master decided to take me to the
metropolis. And so, having made my box more comfortable for a longer
journey, he and Glumdalclitch set out with me for Lorbrulgrud, or the
Pride of the Universe, three thousand miles away. Arriving there, my
master hired a large room on the principal street of the city, not far
from the royal palace, and showed me ten times a day. The fame of me
spread far and wide, for during the journey I had learned to speak the
language fairly well, and understood every word I heard. Indeed, we had
not been long in the city when a gentleman usher came from the palace,
commanding my master to take me there immediately for the diversion of
the Queen and her Ladies.
Her Majesty was beyond measure delighted with me. I fell on my knees,
and begged the honor of kissing her imperial foot. But she ordered me
to be set on a table, and held out her little finger toward me, which I
embraced in both my arms, putting the tip of it with the utmost respect
to my lips. She asked whether I would be content to live at Court. I
bowed down to the table, and answered that I should be proud to devote
my life to her Majesty’s service. She then asked the farmer if he were
willing to sell me at a good price. He said he would part with me for a
thousand pieces of gold, which were ordered for him on the spot.
One request only I made of the Queen: that Glumdalclitch, who had always
tended me with so much kindness, might continue to be my nurse and
instructor. Her Majesty agreed, and easily got the farmer’s consent, who
was glad enough to have his daughter preferred at Court. As for the poor
girl herself, she was not able to hide her joy.
The Queen commanded her own cabinet-maker to make a box that might serve
me as a bedroom, after the model that Glumdalclitch and I should agree
upon. This man, who was most ingenious, in three weeks finished for me a
wooden room, sixteen feet square and twelve high, with windows, a door,
and two closets. The board that made the ceiling lifted up on hinges so
that Glumdalclitch could take out my bed every day to air, and let it
down at night, locking up the roof over me. A skilful workman, who was
famous for little curiosities, made me two tables and two chairs of a
substance not unlike ivory. The room was quilted on all sides, as well
as the floor and the ceiling, so that no harm might come to me if my box
were carelessly carried, or jolted about in a coach.
The Queen likewise ordered the thinnest silks that could be gotten to
make me new clothes. But even these were thicker than blankets, and very
much in my way till I was used to them.
So fond of my company did the Queen become that she could not dine
without me. I had a table placed on that at which she ate, just at her
left elbow. Glumdalclitch stood on a stool nearby, to assist and take
care of me. I had an entire set of silver dishes, which in proportion to
the Queen’s were not much bigger than those of a doll’s house. For her
Majesty’s knives were twice as long as a scythe, set straight upon the
handle, and her spoons, forks, and plates were all on the same scale. I
remember the first time I ever saw a dinner-party at Court, when a dozen
of these enormous knives and forks were being plied at once, I thought I
had never seen so terrible a sight.
But after living among the giants several months, my first horror at
their huge size so far wore off that I could not help smiling at myself
when the Queen used to place me on her hand before a mirror in which both
our figures were reflected together. The contrast was so ridiculous that
I really began to think I must have dwindled far below my usual size.
But nothing mortified me so much as the Queen’s dwarf, who was the
smallest ever known in the country, being hardly thirty feet high. Seeing
at last a creature so far beneath him, he became insolent, and never
failed to make some smart remark about my littleness. My only revenge
was to call him brother and challenge him to wrestle, which made him not
a little angry. One day, at dinner, he became so nettled that raising
himself up on the frame of the Queen’s chair, he picked me up by the
middle and let me drop into a large silver bowl of cream, and then ran
away as fast as he could. I fell in over my head, and if I had not been a
good swimmer, I believe I should have been drowned. For Glumdalclitch was
at the other end of the room, and the Queen was too frightened to help
me. However, my little nurse ran to my relief, and took me out, after I
had swallowed more than a quart of cream. I was put to bed, but I was not
hurt, except for my clothes, which were ruined.
[Illustration: She could not dine without me]
Indeed, I should have lived happily enough in Brobdingnag (for that
is the name of the giants’ country), if my littleness had not made me
continually the victim of the most absurd accidents. I remember one
morning Glumdalclitch set me in my box on a window-sill to give me the
air. I opened my windows and sat down at my table to eat a piece of
sweet-cake for breakfast, when twenty wasps as big as partridges came
flying into the room, droning louder than so many bag-pipes. Some of
them seized my cake and carried it piecemeal away. Others flew about my
head, deafening me with their noise, until I was afraid I should be stung
to death. However, I had the courage to draw my sword, and attack them
in the air. Four of them I killed, but the rest got away, and I shut my
windows in a hurry.
Another day Glumdalclitch let me walk about by myself on a smooth
grass-plot in the garden, when there suddenly fell such a violent
shower of hail that I was struck to the ground. And when I was down, the
hail-stones, which were as big as tennis-balls, gave me such cruel bangs
that I could scarcely creep to the shelter of a primrose. As it was, I
was so bruised from head to foot that I could not go out for ten days.
But a more dangerous accident happened to me in the same garden when my
little nurse had left me for a few minutes alone. While she was away,
a small white spaniel belonging to one of the gardeners, ranged by the
place where I lay. The dog, following the scent, came directly up, and
took me in his mouth. Wagging his tail, he ran straight to his master,
and set me gently on the ground. Luckily, he had been so well taught,
that I was carried between his teeth without the least hurt. But the
poor gardener, who knew me well, was in a terrible fright. He took me
up tenderly in both his hands, and asked me how I did; but I was so
amazed and out of breath that I could not speak a word. In a few minutes,
however, I came to myself, and he carried me safely to my little nurse.