“Very well,” answered he. As soon as his mother was out of sight, the baby took out some magic bones, and placed them in a row before him. “You are my father,” he told one bone, “and you are my mother. You are the biggest,” he said to the third, “so you shall be the ogre who wants to eat me; and you,” to another, “are very little, therefore you shall be me. Now, then, tell me what I am to do.” “Collect all the babies in the village the same size as yourself,” answered the bones; “shave the sides of their heads, and hang white beads round their necks, and tell them that when anybody calls ‘Motikatika,’ they are to answer to it. And be quick for you have no time to lose.” Motikatika went out directly, and brought back quite a crowd of babies, and shaved their heads and hung white beads round their little black necks, and just as he had finished, the ground began to shake, and the huge ogre came striding along, crying: “Motikatika! Motikatika!” “Here we are! here we are!” answered the babies, all running to meet him. “It is Motikatika I want,” said the ogre. “We are all Motikatika,” they replied. And the ogre sat down in bewilderment, for he dared not eat the children of people who had done him no wrong, or a heavy punishment would befall him. The children waited for a little, wondering, and then they went away. The ogre remained where he was, till the evening, when the woman returned from the fields. “I have not seen Motikatika,” said he. “But why did you not call him by his name, as I told you?” she asked. “I did, but all the babies in the village seemed to be named Motikatika,” answered the ogre; “you cannot think the number who came running to me.” The woman did not know what to make of it, so, to keep him in a good temper, she entered the hut and prepared a bowl of maize, which she brought him. “I do not want maize, I want the baby,” grumbled he “and I will have him.” “Have patience,” answered she; “I will call him, and you can eat him at once.” And she went into the hut and cried, “Motikatika!” “I am coming, mother,” replied he; but 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.