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THE OGRE’S CAPTIVE.

jerked by her persecutor to ascertain if she were safe when out of his sight. However, she managed during his periods of slumber to cut a great many bundles of reeds and fasten them together, and one day when her captor seemed more sound asleep than usual she slipped away and tied these bundles together into a raft. This she cast into the river, and having managed to untie one end of her tether she fastened it to some other untouched rushes, which being pliable would give to the giant’s pull with an elastic movement. Then getting on the raft she floated away on the swift current very rapidly and silently till she reached the mouth of the river near the place where her friends lived.

When the ogre awoke, he cried out “Oh, food of the dogs, where are you?” and receiving no answer went in search of his victim. Finding the cut rushes by the bank of the river he saw how his plaything had managed to escape him; so throwing himself on his face he drank up the river. But the brave woman had landed and could not be sucked back into the jaws of her goblin enemy. Her people asked her “When does the giant sleep?” and she answered “When the north-west wind blows, then he sleeps long and heavily.” They then all formed themselves into a war party and cautiously proceeded up