would rush forward, flapping their wings and
stretching out their necks, and would perhaps
snatch up some of the Pygmies crosswise in
their beaks. Whenever this happened, it was
truly an awful spectacle to see those little men
of might kicking and sprawling in the air,
and at last disappearing down the crane's long,
crooked throat, swallowed up alive. A hero,
you know, must hold himself in readiness for ary
kind of fate; and doubtless the glory of the
thing was a consolation to him, even in the
crane's gizzard. If Antaeus observed that the
battle was going hard against his little allies,
he generally stopped laughing, and ran with
mile-long strides to their assistance, nourishing
hi.- ciub aloft and shouting at the cranes, who
quacked and croaked, and retreated as fast as
they could. Then the Pygmy army would
march homeward in triumph, attributing the vic-
tory entirely to their own valor, and to the war-
like skill and strategy of whomsoever happened
to be captain general; and for a tedious while
afterwards, nothing would be heard of but grand
processions, and public banquets, and brilliant
illuminations, and shows of waxwork, with like-

[[82]]

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v?