He was so very tall that he carried a pine tree , which was eight feet through the butt , for a walking stick . It took a far-sighted Pygmy , I can assure you , to discern his summit without the help of a telescope ; and sometimes , in misty weather , they could not see his upper half , but only his long legs , which seemed to be striding about by themselves . But at noonday in a clear atmosphere , when the sun shone brightly over him , the Giant Antaeus presented a very grand spectacle . There he used to stand , a perfect mountain of a man , with his great countenance smiling down upon his little brothers , and his one vast eye -LRB- which was as big as a cart wheel , and placed right in the center of his forehead -RRB- giving a friendly wink to the whole nation at once . The Pygmies loved to talk with Antaeus ; and fifty times a day , one or another of them would turn up his head , and shout through the hollow of his fists , `` Halloo , brother Antaeus ! How are you , my good fellow ? '' And when the small distant squeak of their voices reached his ear , the Giant would make answer , `` Pretty well , brother Pygmy , I thank you , '' in a thunderous roar that would have shaken down the walls of their strongest temple , only that it came from so far aloft . It was a happy circumstance that Antaeus was the Pygmy people 's friend ; for there was more strength in his little finger than in ten million of such bodies as this . If he had been as ill-natured to them as he was to everybody else , he might have beaten down their biggest city at one kick , and hardly have known that he did it . With the tornado of his breath , he could have stripped the roofs from a hundred dwellings and sent thousands of the inhabitants whirling through the air . He might have set his immense foot upon a multitude ; and when he took it up again , there would have been a pitiful sight , to be sure . But , being the son of Mother Earth , as they likewise were , the Giant gave them his brotherly kindness , and loved them with as big a love as it was possible to feel for creatures so very small . And , on their parts , the Pygmies loved Antaeus with as much affection as their tiny hearts could hold . He was always ready to do them any good offices that lay in his power ; as for example , when they wanted a breeze to turn their windmills , the Giant would set all the sails a-going with the mere natural respiration of his lungs . When the sun was too hot , he often sat himself down , and let his shadow fall over the kingdom , from one frontier to the other ; and as for matters in general , he was wise enough to let them alone , and leave the Pygmies to manage their own affairs -- which , after all , is about the best thing that great people can do for little ones . In short , as I said before , Antaeus loved the Pygmies , and the Pygmies loved Antaeus . The Giant 's life being as long as his body was large , while the lifetime of a Pygmy was but a span , this friendly intercourse had been going on for innumerable generations and ages . It was written about in the Pygmy histories , and talked about in their ancient traditions . The most venerable and white-bearded Pygmy had never heard of a time , even in his greatest of grandfathers ' days , when the Giant was not their enormous friend . Once , to be sure -LRB- as was recorded on an obelisk , three feet high , erected on the place of the catastrophe -RRB- , Antaeus sat down upon about five thousand Pygmies , who were assembled at a military review .
But this was one of those unlucky accidents for which nobody is to blame ; so that the small folks never took it to heart , and only requested the Giant to be careful forever afterwards to examine the acre of ground where he intended XXXXX squat himself .
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