`` Ho ! ho ! ho ! '' quoth the Giant , shaking his mountainous sides . `` What a funny thing it is to be little ! If I were not Antaeus , I should like to be a Pygmy , just for the joke 's sake . '' The Pygmies had but one thing to trouble them in the world . They were constantly at war with the cranes , and had always been so , ever since the long-lived Giant could remember . From time to time , very terrible battles had been fought in which sometimes the little men won the victory , and sometimes the cranes . According to some historians , the Pygmies used to go to the battle , mounted on the backs of goats and rams ; but such animals as these must have been far too big for Pygmies to ride upon ; so that , I rather suppose , they rode on squirrel-back , or rabbit-back , or rat-back , or perhaps got upon hedgehogs , whose prickly quills would be very terrible to the enemy . However this might be , and whatever creatures the Pygmies rode upon , I do not doubt that they made a formidable appearance , armed with sword and spear , and bow and arrow , blowing their tiny trumpet , and shouting their little war cry . They never failed to exhort one another to fight bravely , and recollect that the world had its eyes upon them ; although , in simple truth , the only spectator was the Giant Antaeus , with his one , great , stupid eye in the middle of his forehead . When the two armies joined battle , the cranes would rush forward , flapping their wings and stretching out their necks , and would perhaps snatch up some of the Pygmies crosswise in their beaks . Whenever this happened , it was truly an awful spectacle to see those little men of might kicking and sprawling in the air , and at last disappearing down the crane 's long , crooked throat , swallowed up alive . A hero , you know , must hold himself in readiness for any kind of fate ; and doubtless the glory of the thing was a consolation to him , even in the crane 's gizzard . If Antaeus observed that the battle was going hard against his little allies , he generally stopped laughing , and ran with mile-long strides to their assistance , flourishing his club aloft and shouting at the cranes , who quacked and croaked , and retreated as fast as they could . Then the Pygmy army would march homeward in triumph , attributing the victory entirely to their own valor , and to the warlike skill and strategy of whomsoever happened to be captain general ; and for a tedious while afterwards , nothing would be heard of but grand processions , and public banquets , and brilliant illuminations , and shows of wax-work , with likenesses of the distinguished officers , as small as life . In the above-described warfare , if a Pygmy chanced to pluck out a crane 's tail feather , it proved a very great feather in his cap . Once or twice , if you will believe me , a little man was made chief ruler of the nation for no other merit in the world than bringing home such a feather . But I have now said enough to let you see what a gallant little people these were , and how happily they and their forefathers , for nobody knows how many generations , had lived with the immeasurable Giant Antaeus .
In the remaining part of the story , I shall tell you of a far more astonishing battle XXXXX any that was fought between the Pygmies and the cranes .
In although at for if of quoth than that upon