"So the Giant threw his rabbit stick at the bigger boy, but the boy
jumped up and the stick caught fire as it passed under him. Then the
Giant threw at smaller boy just high enough to hit his head, but he
ducked down and the stick passed over his head like a streak of fire.
Then he tried bow and arrows, but nothing hurt the boys.
"Then the Giant said, 'Well I have used all my weapons and failed, so
now you can try to kill me.'
"So both boys threw their rabbit sticks at the same time. One broke the
Giant's legs, the other cut off his head. Then the boys smelled the pine
gum that he was made of, so they burned him up and he sure did make a
big blaze.
"They just saved his head, and carried it to the Hopi at Oraibi. They
arrived just when the people were having breakfast, at about ten in the
morning. So they reported to the second chief and presented him with the
Giant's head.
"The second chief was well pleased and said he was glad and very
thankful, and then he said, 'I don't know what I can give you for a
proper gift, but I have two daughters and, if you want them, you can
take them along.'
"The boys smiled and whispered, 'They look pretty good, let's take them
for squaws.' So they said they would take them.
"'All right,' said their father, 'come on the fourth day and get them.'
"So they went home and told their grandmother, and on the fourth day
they came back and got their wives.
"The Hopi always kept the head of this Giant to use as a mask in some
dances.
"Really the most important thing we do with this kind of a mask is for
the men to wear when they go round the village and call out the children
and scare them a little bit and tell them to be good so they don't have
to come back with the basket and carry them off. Sometimes they act like
they were going to take some naughty children with them right now, and
ask the parents if they have any bad ones, and the parents are supposed
to be very worried and hide the children and tell the Giants their
children are good, and always the parents have to give these Giants that
come around some mutton and other things to eat, in order to save their
children; and then the children are very grateful to their parents.
"You see, the parents always tell the men who are coming around,
beforehand, of a few of the things the children have been doing, so when
they come looking for bad children they mention these special things to
show the children that they know about it. And parents tell children a
Giant may come back for them if they are pretty bad, and come right down
the chimney maybe.
"My brother is a pretty tall man, and I am the tallest man in Oraibi, so
we are sometimes chosen to act the part of Giants. Then we paint all
black and put on this kind of a mask. It is an enormous black head with
a big beak and big teeth. The time when the Giants go around and talk to
the children is in February.