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 idea they found reason to change in the course of time. The parents of Rasmus and Niels were good Catholics, and when they were getting old the mother took it into her head that she would like to go to Rome and see the Pope. The others didn’t see much use in this, but she had her way in the end: they sold all the sheep, shut up the house, and set out for Rome on foot. Niels took his gun with him. “What do you want with that?” said Rasmus; “we have plenty to carry without it.” But Niels could not be happy without his gun, and took it all the same. It was in the hottest part of summer that they began their journey, so hot that they could not travel at all in the middle of the day, and they were afraid to do it by night lest they might lose their way or fall into the hands of robbers. One day, a little before sunset, they came to an inn which lay at the edge of a forest. “We had better stay here for the night,” said Rasmus. “What an idea!” said Niels, who was growing impatient at the slow progress they were making. “We can’t travel by day for the heat, and we remain where we are all night. It will be long enough before we get to Rome if we go on at this rate.” Rasmus was unwilling to go on, but the two old people sided with Niels, who said, “The nights aren’t dark, and the moon will soon be up. We can ask at the inn here, and find out which way we ought to take.”