At sunrise Quadragant was up again, carrying his new masters between his fingers, which he twisted together in the shape of a cradle. In less than five minutes he reached, in obedience to their orders, the old castle in ruins, where a ‘solemn meeting was held, not only by the fugitives of the day before, but also by the principal representatives of all the dwarfs of that part of Germany. When the sentinels announced the arrival of the giant, all thought their last hour had come and endeavored to escape, hoping to find a refuge in the lowest depths of the old building. Kreiss, however, had ordered the giant to put him down in front of the cellars of the castle, and now entered the great Meeting Hall, assuming like all great conquerors, an air of extreme modesty. Then he informed them that the giant was their slave! They at once threw themselves at his feet and expressed their desire to proclaim him Emperor of the Dwarfs. Kreiss, however, having heard of a recent experiment of that kind, was far from believing such sudden enthusiasm to be either deep or permanent. [Illustration: 383] From that day the giant abandoned his {363}old name of Quadragant, and assumed that of _Ptitskuchen,_ which at that time meant Friend of the Dwarfs, but which, translated into modern German, represents our _omelette soufflee_. [Illustration: 385] {365}At first all went well; but at the end of three weeks Putskuchen looked sad and melancholy; Putskuchen only took half a dozen meals a day; Putskuchen was slowly fading away; Putskuchen was in love, in love with a young giantess, who taunted him with having become the servant of these wretched pygmies and reproached him with his poverty. The unhappy creature fell off more and more, the _omelette soufflee_ fell down flat, and Putskuchen was a mere lath of thirty feet in length. Kreiss had always felt a certain tenderness for him, and hence, after having asked the consent of all the other chieftains, he placed in the giant’s hands a large heap of gold scales such as the dwarfs were in the habit of collecting in the neighboring mountains. It was enough to buy three wives, instead of one. The fact had no sooner become known than all {366}the happy giant fathers of the country desired him as a son-in-law, and when they saw how liberally his services had been rewarded by his new masters, they were all eager to become the serfs of the dwarfs. Thus, thanks to Kreiss, the giants gradually came all, one by one, and entered the service of the dwarfs. Certain skeptics have maintained that the whole story is symbolic. According to their interpretation the giant fastened to the ground and muzzled by the dwarfs, is the people, the people always kept down and always held in subjection, in spite of its gigantic strength. The dwarfs, who lived under the oak, the sacred tree of all nations of Celtic origin, are the priests.