STORIES 497

“Lake-Swallower.’”’®8 Though Afguntém had given most explicit direc-
tions not to follow this road, the youngest girl had set her heart on taking
it and would not listen to the entreaties of the others. At length the
wilful one set out on the forbidden path, and her sisters, unwilling to have
her go alone, decided to accompany her, though the eldest was very much
frightened.

Soon they came to Lake-Swallower’s house, near a pond. Inside the
door was an old woman, paralysed from her knees down, who told them
they had made a great mistake in coming by that road; she too had erred
in her youth, with the result that the monster had captured her and she
was unable to leave his house, though he had never actually hurt her.
The eldest sister explained that it was all due to the folly of the youngest
that they had ventured on the wrong trail. Whereupon the little girl
began to cry bitterly. The old woman continued:

“Lake-Swallower will return shortly. He always eats a meal of dry
mountain goat bones, then he goes to the pool for adrink. Your only
chance of escape is while he is drinking, since, once started, he cannot stop
until the water is exhausted.”

Presently in came Lake-Swallower, a giant, ten feet tall and of mas-
sive proportions; from his belt dangled two mountain goats which he
carried as easily as a human hunter would have carried two grouse. He
gulped down the two animals for his meal, like a wolf, devouring skin,
bones, and meat. When he had finished, he called to him the four little
girls, whom he was delighted to see in his house, and bade them go
with him to the lake, where he proposed to drink. He told them to lift
his head by the top-knot when he had swallowed enough, because, unless
helped, he was unable to stop until the lake was dry.

The girls went with him, but as soon as he began to drink they fled
back to the fork in the road where they had so foolishly disobeyed
Afguntém’s instructions. Lake-Swallower could not stop, but with each
gulp he took in so large a quantity of water that soon he had drained the
pool. Then he set off in pursuit of the fleeing girls.

He gained on them rapidly and had almost overtaken them when the
eldest, who was in the rear, set the whetstone upright behind her; it
became a steep mountain which Lake-Swallower could not surmount.
He hurried round the obstacle, however, and again found the trail of his

‘quarry. Once more he was on the point of catching the girls when the
eldest placed the comb in his track; instantly, there sprang up a forest
of tangled undergrowth, which delayed the monster for a considerable
period. At length he forced his way through, and again he had almost
captured the four when the eldest threw out the eagle down. This turned

8] iterally, ““He Who Has a Lake in His Head.”