INITIAL T . 203
A STORM COMES ON . 204
PANTAGRUEL HOLDS THE MAST 205
A SEA BREAKS OVER PANURGE 206
LAND IN SIGHT 20T
IT WAS LATE IN THE AFTERNOON ...... 208
INITIAL T 209
PANCTRGE REVIVES 211
" THE DAEK AND GLOOMY FOREST " , . . . .212
THE DEMONS AND THE HEROES 215
" WE HAD LOST ANOTHER GOOD HERO " 217
INITIAL A 218
THE LAND OF WIND 219
"WITHOUT WIND WE MUST DIE" 221
INITIAL A 223
PANTAGRUEL SPIES A MONSTER ...... 224
SHOOTING AT THE WHALE ....... 225
PANTAGRUEL TRIES HIS HAND ...... 226
DEATH OF THE MONSTER ........ 227
LANDING THE MONSTER ........ 228
ON WILD ISLAND ......... 229
INITIAL N 231
THE HOSPITABLE FOLK OF PAPIMANY 232
"THE MAYOR RODE UP" . . . . . . . . 233
ENTERING THE FROZEN SEA ....... 234
A SHOWER OF FROZEN WORDS ...... 235
LANDING ON THE ROCKS 236
MASTER GASTER ......... 237
SHARP ISLAND 241
THE SHORES OF LANTERN-LAND 245
THREE GOOD GIANTS
CASTLE GRANDGOUSIER.
THREE GOOD GIANTS.
CHAPTER I.
HOW THE FIRST GIANTS CAME INTO THE WORLD.
AT the beginning of the world the pure blood of Abel, shed by his wicked brother Cain, made the soil very rich. Every fruit seemed to grow that year to a dozen times its usual size. But the fruit that seemed to thrive best, and to taste mo*t toothsome, and to be most eaten, was the medlar. So much of that fruit was eaten at that particular time that the year came to be called the ' Year of Medlars."
Now, in this "Year of Medlars," the good men and women who lived then happened to eat a little too much of this fine fruit. It was all very nice while it was being eaten ; but, somehow, after a little time it was found that terrible swellings, but not all in the same place, came out on those who had shown themselves too fond of the fruit. Some grew big and twisted in their shoulders, and became what were afterwards called Hunch-backs.
Some found themselves with longer legs than others, which, being quite as thin and bony as they were long, made malicious people, who had not eaten of the fruit, shout, " Crane ! Crane! Long-legged Crane!" whenever one of the poor people showed himself.
Some there were who could boast of a nose as red as it was long and knotty, which made evil-tongued men say they had been more among the grapes than among the medlars. But this was, after all, the fault of the medlars. There was no doubt of that. Others, having a special love for picking out everybody's secrets, found their medlars running into big ears, which grew so long that they soon
THE GIANT CHALBEOTH.
Thung down to their breasts. And those who once had the Big Ear lost, after that, all desire for other people's secrets, because their ears were so large they caught everything bad their neighbors were always saying about them.
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.
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
THE GIANT HURTALI ON THE AKK.
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.
It would really be of no use to tell the names of all the Giants who came between Hurtali and our merry old King Grandgousier. Some of them you already know. Long after Hurtali came Goliath, the Giant, whom young David slew with his sling and stone; Briareus, the Greek Giant of a hundred hands; King Porus, the Indian Giant, who fought with Alexander, and was defeated by him; and the famous Giant Bruyer, slain by Ogier the Dane, Peer of France. There are so many of them that I would soon grow tired of giving, and you of hearing, even their names. All that we care about knowing is that, in a straight line from Hurtali, the Giant who rode on the Blessed Ark, the fifty-fourth was GRANDGOUSIER, who was the father of GARGANTUA, who, in his turn, was the father of PANTAGRUEL.
These are the three Giants whose story I am about to tell, two of whom will prove more wonderful heroes than are to be read of either in ancient or modern history.
CHAPTER II.
GARGANTUA IS BORN.
KING GRANDGOUSIER — the fifty-seventh in a straight line from Chalbroth, the first Giant — was a jovial King in his day. Although a Giant, he was the pink of politeness and kindly feeling. His whole life was one continual dinner. He was very fond of his own ease, this jovial King, but he also loved to make those around him happy. He kept open house, and the sun never rose on a day when there was not some high lord or some poor pilgrim at his table, eating and drinking of his best. He had a great horror of seeing people thirsty around him. 'There is too much good wine flowing in my kingdom for anybody to feel thirsty. Everybody should drink before he is dry," he was fond of saying. So one of the main duties of his Chief Butler Turelupin was to make all the servants, all comers and goers, drink before they were dry. It was said to take eighteen hundred pipes of wine yearly to do this. He never was known to look at the clothes a guest wore, — oh, no, not he, that good, hearty old King Grandgousier ! And it was a pretty sight to see, whenever a guest or a friend wished to say anything privately, how tenderly the old Giant would pick him up, and put him on his knee, and bend his great head and listen ever so carefully to try and find out what he had to say. His head was lifted so far above the ground that, otherwise, one would have had to shout out loud enough for all in the palace to hear.
King Grandgousier was very fond of his wine, and could drink, — being a giant, — at a single meal, more than a dozen common men could manage to swallow at a dozen meals each. 1 He was also very fond of salt meat. He never failed to have on hand a good supply of French hams, from Mayence and Bayonne, — the finest known in those days, —
KING GRANDGOUSIER KEEPS OPEK HOUSE
superb smoked b
eef-tongues; an abundance of chitterlings, when in season, and salt beef, with mustard to spice the whole. All these fine things were reinforced by sausages from Bigorre, Longaulnay, and Rouargue,—the very best in all France. But there was something which King Grandgousier loved above everything in the way of eating, and that was tripes. So fond was he of them that he had ordered all the royal meadows to be searched, and all the fat beeves
1 Children must remember that times have changed for the better since the wild days of these old giants. To drink so hard and long that a man, from too much wine, would fall under the table and lie there because not able to move, was looked upon as a virtue then. Now, in our happier days, we know it to be a virtue for a man to keep himself sober, and a shame for him to be seen drunk grazing in the royal meadows, three hundred and sixty-seven thousand and fourteen of them, to be killed, so that there might be plenty of powdered beef to flavor the royal wine for the season. Then he had the Royal Herald, with great flourish of trumpets, to name a day on which all his neighbors — brave fellows and good players at nine-pins • —were to join him in a Great Feast of Tripes.
THE KING AOT> QUEEN LOVE TRIPES
King Grandgousier had a fair and stately wife named Gargamelle. She was a daughter of the King of the Parpaillons, and was herself a giantess, but not quite so tall as her husband. Grandgousier and Gargamelle dearly loved one another, and all that they wanted in this world was a son to bear the father's name, and be King after him. Queen Gargamelle liked to be in the open air, and see games of ninepins and ball and leap-frog played by nimble men and women. And Grandgousier, at such games, was always found seated at her side, like a good husband, seeming to enjoy them as much as she did.
At last, one fine day, a little boy was born to them.
He must have been a wonderful baby; because just as soon as he was born, instead of crying "Mie! mie! mie!" as any other baby would have done, he shouted out at the top of his lungs, "Drink! drink ! drink ! " There never were such lungs as his, everybody said. The old Doctor himself, and the Three Wise Old Women who were there, all declared that he had the biggest throat ever known, — not even excepting his father's. Now it happened that, of all the days of the year, the very day the Royal Herald had proclaimed, with flourish of trumpets, for the famous Feast of Tripes, was the very day on which the baby Prince was born. When the great news was carried to King Grandgousier, who was drinking and making merry with his friends, that he had a son, and that the young Prince was already bawling for his drink, his joy almost choked him, and he could only find breath to say in French : —
'' Que grand tu as! " — meaning " What a big throat thou hast! "
Everybody, including Queen Gargamelle, when she heard of it, the family Doctor, and the Three Old Wise Women, laughed at this joke of the King, and declared that it was the very best name that could be given to the royal babe. From that moment, they began, when talking to him or speaking of him, to call him little Prince Que-grand-tu-as! Although they ran these four words trippingly together, and nobody not in the secret would have thought it more than a very strange name, yet, somehow, it was too long; and so, little by little, they kept changing till the very oldest of the Three Old Wise Women, who had been, one hot day, half-dozing over the cradle, started up suddenly, crying : —
"I have" it T"
'Well, what have you?" called the second oldest, who was wide awake, sharply.
T The name for our dear little Prince ! "
" Don't be too sure of that, gossip. But why don't you say what it is?'' she snapped in an awful curiosity, and just the least bit jealous.
" GARGANTUA ! "
" Oh, my! " said the third oldest, who was a mild sort of old lady.
Some say that it was the lords and neighbors who were feasting on the tripes, when the old King cried out, Que grand tu as! who had shouted back that the young Prince ought to be called " Gargantua." I am rather afraid that the oldest of the Three Wise Old Women had been listening at the door of the royal banqueting hall, when she ought to have been in Queen Gargamelle's chamber.
CHAPTER III.
GARGANTUA AS A BABY.
THEN Father Grandgousier heard that the name which the very oldest of the Wise Women had found for his son had been fixed for all time, he was delighted beyond measure, and said to Queen Gargamelle, while rubbing the palms of his great hands together : —
" So the witch has fastened' Gargan-tua' on my boy after all. By my crown ! what we have to do now is never to let Master Great Throat be empty. Now, tell me, my dear, where are we to get milk enough for that throat ? " The Queen looked at her baby ; then she looked at her husband ; then she looked into herself, and, finding nothing there ?miled,
to say an no d sa th
THE QUEEN LOOKED AT HER BABY.
"When Father Grandgousier called into the Queen's chamber, for a secret conference, his Royal Butler, who, first asking permission of their Majesties, called the Royal Steward, who called the Royal Dairy-
AN UNCOMMON BABY CARRIAGE.
man, who called the Chief Milkman. After a long talk behind closed doors, the whole party filed out of the royal apartments, the Chief Milkman holding in his hand a scroll, showing a large, red seal, and tied many times around with a broad, red ribbon, the Royal Butler closing the line and looking wise as a privy-councillor.
The scroll contained an order, authorizing the Chief Milkman — as there were not cows enough in the whole kingdom to give such milk as was needed for the young Prince — to furnish the remainder. So there w T ere brought to the royal cattle-yard seventeen thousand nine hundred and thirteen cows, all famed for the richness of their milk. Master Gargantua had, luckily, with the milk of these cows, enough to keep him alive until he was a year and ten months old. Then the wise old Doctor thought that the child ought to be taken more into the fresh air. In fact, what the Doctor really wanted, and w r as half crazy about not finding, was a carriage suited to the young Prince. A common baby carriage would not do at all. At last a youthful page, who dearly loved the strong oxen he had seen during the frequent visits he was fond of making to the royal stables, thought a fine large cart, not too pretty but very strong, and drawn by oxen, might do. The oxen were ready, but they could not be used until the Royal Carpenter had measured and made a cart that would hold the young giant.
There never was a happier baby than Gargantua the first time he was placed in the cart. He was, in truth, a marvel of a baby, both because his body was so big and his face was so broad that, from much drinking of milk and good wines, he could boast of several chins, — some said nine ; others swore there were ten,—which lapped each one over the other, as if they felt they were good company. Every day he would be taken out to ride. Then when he was tired he would cry, " Drink ! drink! drink! "
Whenever that cry was heard, presto ! the cart would come to a stand-still, the oxen would begin to munch, and everybody would make a rush to the wine-cellar. Of course, the King's son always had the best wines, and the lackey who was lucky enough to reach him first when he cried for drink always had the right to a cupful for himself. So it is quite certain that never was a baby so well waited on as was Gargantua. He cried " Drink! drink! drink I " so often that all the servants got to be sad topers from skipping off to the cellars whenever he called; and it turned out at last that even the tinkling of an empty glass, as a knife would strike against it, or the sight of a flagon or a bottle, would make him jump up and dance with joy, and start him afresh to bawling for "Drink! drink! drink!" and the lackeys to scampering to the wine-cellar after the wine.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ROYAL TAILOR'S BILL FOR GARGANTUA'S SUIT.
HEN Gargantua had outgrown the age for riding in his ox-cart, and was just beginning to toddle round the palace-walks, it occurred to Father Grand-gousier that he was getting to be a big boy. So he ordered the Royal Tailor into his Royal Presence.
"So ho! Thou art the clothes-maker, art thou? Now, measure my son, and make a suit for him. His mother say
s he looks best in blue and white," was all he said.
The Royal Tailor bowed humbly, while all the time he was shivering in his fine velvets and silks, at the honor of making clothes for a Giant Prince. For the old King, who simply wanted everything loose and easy-like, it was all well enough; but how would it be when he began to fit the royal heir ? was what he kept asking himself. A royal tailor believes in his heart that he is a sort of king-maker, because he makes the clothes that give to a King that grand, imperial air which compels all men to kneel before him. He never will appear the least bit ruffled at the most impossible order given him, provided the order come from a King; but bows and smiles, no matter how sick and angry he may be at heart.
To do the Royal Tailor justice, he did his best with the order given him. He made the clothes — and his bill.
That bill is still kept at Montsoreau. It is really a curiosity, and runs in this way : —
MAKING GARGAXTUA S SOT.
His MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY,
To THE ROYAL TAILOR,
For His Royal Highness' shirt with gusset
Doublet of white satin ..... Breeches of white broadcloth .... Shoes of blue and ciimson velvet
Coat of blue velvet
Girdle of silk serge
Cap of velvet, half white and half blue Gown of blue velvet
Ells
DR.
1,100 813
1,1051 406
1,800 3001 3001
9,600
15,4251
Besides all this quantity of rich cloth for Gargantua's full court-suit, there was brought from Hyrcania the Wild a bright blue feather for his plume. This plume was held in place by a handsome enameled clasp of gold, -weighing sixty-eight marks, which the Crown Jewellers, by his father's orders, with great care, made for him; also a ring foi the forefinger of his left hand, with a carbuncle in it as large as an ostrich-egg; and a great chain of gold berries to wear around his neck, weighing twenty-five thousand and sixty-three marks.
Three good giants Page 2
