Others—and now, listen—grew long in legs, but not longer in legs than they grew stout in body, and it was from these people that the Giants sprang. When those who grew so long in legs and so stout in body began to walk on the earth, the neighbors did their best to please them. You may be sure there was no talk about medlars then.
The first who became known as a giant was called Chalbroth.
THE GIANT CHALBROTH.
Chalbroth was the father of all the Giants, and the great-grandfather of Hurtali, who reigned in the time of the Deluge, and who was lucky enough not to be drowned in the deep waters.
Doubtless, the eyes of some of my young readers are twinkling, and they are ready to cry out very positively: "Oh, no! There was no Giant in Noah's Ark, you know. How could there be? Only Noah and his family were in the Ark. The Bible says that!"
There was one Wise Man, however, who lived a long time after the first Giant had appeared, and after many great ones had been noticed, and who had seen some with his own eyes. This Wise Man had thought, in a quiet way, a great deal about the Big People, and, through much study, had found out why it was they were not all drowned.
This Wise Man makes himself very clear on this point. He says that Hurtali—the great-grandson of Chalbroth, the first Giant—escaped the Deluge, not by getting into the Ark,—it was altogether too small for that,—but by getting outside of it. In other words, he used it as a man strides a horse, riding on top of it, with one huge leg hanging over the right side and the other over the left. If Hurtali was very heavy, the Blessed Ark was very stout. He got so used to his seat after a while, that, being on the outside, and able to see everything around him, he made his long legs do for the Ark just what the rudder of a ship does for her. He must have saved it from many and many a rough shock against jutting mountains and sharp rocks as the waters were rising, and as, after covering the earth, they began to sink lower and lower; but it may be relied on—since the Wise Man says so—that, during the forty days and nights, Giant Hurtali was on the best of terms with Noah and all his family. This might look strange; but it appears that there was on the top of the Ark a chimney, and it was through this chimney that Hurtali could always, for the asking, have his share of his favorite pottage handed up to him.
THE GIANT HURTALI ON THE ARK.