But here , on the palm of my hand , stands a wonder that outdoes them all ! Your body , my little friend , is about the size of an ordinary man 's finger . Pray , how big may your soul be ? '' `` As big as your own ! '' said the Pygmy . Hercules was touched with the little man 's dauntless courage , and could not help acknowledging such a brotherhood with him as one hero feels for another . `` My good little people , '' said he , making a low obeisance to the grand nation , `` not for all the world would I do an intentional injury to such brave fellows as you ! Your hearts seem to me so exceedingly great , that , upon my honor , I marvel how your small bodies can contain them . I sue for peace , and , as a condition of it , will take five strides , and be out of your kingdom at the sixth . Good-bye . I shall pick my steps carefully , for fear of treading upon some fifty of you , without knowing it . Ha , ha , ha ! Ho , ho , ho ! For once , Hercules acknowledges himself vanquished . '' Some writers say , that Hercules gathered up the whole race of Pygmies in his lion 's skin , and carried them home to Greece , for the children of King Eurystheus to play with . But this is a mistake . He left them , one and all , within their own territory , where , for aught I can tell , their descendants are alive to the present day , building their little houses , cultivating their little fields , spanking their little children , waging their little warfare with the cranes , doing their little business , whatever it may be , and reading their little histories of ancient times . In those histories , perhaps , it stands recorded , that , a great many centuries ago , the valiant Pygmies avenged the death of the Giant Antaeus by scaring away the mighty Hercules . THE DRAGON 'S TEETH . Cadmus , Phoenix , and Cilix , the three sons of King Agenor , and their little sister Europa -LRB- who was a very beautiful child -RRB- , were at play together near the seashore in their father 's kingdom of Phoenicia .
They had rambled to some distance from the palace where their parents dwelt , and were now in a verdant meadow , on one side XXXXX which lay the sea , all sparkling and dimpling in the sunshine , and murmuring gently against the beach .
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