“It is you,” answered the dame, “that are coming from mountains and plains where no doubt you have found human beings, and the smell comes out of your own mouths. I have eaten no human being.”
“Yes, mother, you have,” exclaimed the giants.
“How if my nephew, the son of my human sister, has come to pay me a visit!” answered the giantess.
“O mother,” exclaimed the giants, “show us our human cousin; we will not hurt him, but talk with him.”
The giantess took the lad out of the box and brought him to the giants, who were very much pleased to see a human being so small, but so beautiful and manly. Holding him up like a toy, the giants handed him to one another to gratify their curiosity by looking at him.
“Mother, what has our cousin come for?” inquired the giants.
“He has come,” answered the giantess, “to pick a Melon of Life, and carry it to his mother who is sick. You must go and get the Melon of Life for him.”
“Not we,” exclaimed the forty giants, “it is above our ability.”
The youngest of the forty brothers, however, who was lame, said to the lad:
“Cousin, I will go with you and get the Melon of Life for you. You must only take with you a jug, a comb, and a razor.”