But the lively giant now began to be afraid in the presence of a new people. He seemed to wish to ask them who they were and whence they came. Then an answer to this question came to him. He looked up to the sky and pointed upward with one finger, saying by signs:
"Did you come down from Heaven?"
"He was so tall," says our descriptive Knight, "that the tallest of us only came up to his waist." He was probably hardly taller than many of his race. Falkner, in his account of Patagonia (1774), says that he saw men there seven feet and a half high.
Of this dancing giant our historian gives a further description in lively and interesting colors:
"He had a large face painted red all around, and around his eyes were rings of yellow, and he had two hearts painted on his cheeks. He had but little hair on the top of his head, which was painted white.
"When he was brought before the Captain, he had thrown over him the skin of a certain beast, which skin was very carefully sewed."
The dancing giant
The skin was that of a guanaco, a kind of llama.