l. They lost their way once
and came to a large cave, in which was a monster (lit. animal,
_armalu_), who was building a fire. The two monks, however, did not
believe it was a monster, but said: "Let us go and rest there." They
entered, and saw the monster killing a sheep and roasting it. He had
already killed and cooked twenty.

"Eat!" said the monster to them. "We don't want to eat; we are not
hungry." "Eat, I tell you!" After they had eaten the sheep, they lay
down, and the monster closed the entrance to the cave with a great
stone. Then he took a sharp iron, heated it in the fire, and stuck it in
the throat of the larger of the two monks, roasted the body, and wanted
the other monk to help eat it. "I don't want to eat," said he; "I am
full." "Get up!" said the monster. "If you don't I will kill you."

The wretched monk arose in fright, seated himself at the table, and
pretended to eat, but threw the flesh away. In the night the good man
took the iron, heated it, and plunged it in the monster's eyes. Then the
monk in his terror slipped into the skin of a sheep. The monster felt
his way to the entrance of the cave, removed the stone, and let the
sheep out one by one; and so the good man escaped and returned to
Trapani, and told his story to some fishermen. The monster went fishing,
and being blind, stumbled against a rock and broke his head. The other
version is from the Albanian colony of Piana de' Greci (Comparetti, No.
70), in Sicily, and is substantially the same as the story just
given.[31]

Generally, however, the stories in which giants are outwitted by men are
more complicated, and may be divided into two classes: one where the
giant is outwitted by superior cunning, the other where the giant's
stupidity is deceived by the man's braggadocio. The first class may be
represented by a Sicilian story (Pitre, No. 33), entitled:

XVIII. THIRTEENTH.

There was once a father who had thirteen sons, the youngest of whom was
named Thirteenth. The father had hard work to support his children, but
made what he could gathering herbs. The mother, to make the children
quick, said to them: "The one who comes home first shall have herb
soup." Thirteenth always returned the first, and the soup always fell to
his share, on which account his brothers hated him and sought to get rid
of him.

The king issued a proclamation in the city that he who was bold enough
to go and steal the ogre's coverlet should receive a measure of