He would lay down his great hand flat on the grass , and challenge the tallest of them to clamber upon it , and straddle from finger to finger . So fearless were they , that they made nothing of creeping in among the folds of his garments . When his head lay sidewise on the earth , they would march boldly up , and peep into the great cavern of his mouth , and take it all as a joke -LRB- as indeed it was meant -RRB- when Antaeus gave a sudden snap of his jaws , as if he were going to swallow fifty of them at once . You would have laughed to see the children dodging in and out among his hair , or swinging from his beard . It is impossible to tell half of the funny tricks that they played with their huge comrade ; but I do not know that anything was more curious than when a party of boys were seen running races on his forehead , to try which of them could get first round the circle of his one great eye . It was another favorite feat with them to march along the bridge of his nose , and jump down upon his upper lip . If the truth must be told , they were sometimes as troublesome to the Giant as a swarm of ants or mosquitoes , especially as they had a fondness for mischief , and liked to prick his skin with their little swords and lances , to see how thick and tough it was . But Antaeus took it all kindly enough ; although , once in a while , when he happened to be sleepy , he would grumble out a peevish word or two , like the muttering of a tempest , and ask them to have done with their nonsense . A great deal oftener , however , he watched their merriment and gambols until his huge , heavy , clumsy wits were completely stirred up by them ; and then would he roar out such a tremendous volume of immeasurable laughter , that the whole nation of Pygmies had to put their hands to their ears , else it would certainly have deafened them . `` 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 XXXXX them ; although , in simple truth , the only spectator was the Giant Antaeus , with his one , great , stupid eye in the middle of his forehead .
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