stile because every step was six feet high, and the upper stone above
twenty.

I was endeavoring to find some gap in the hedge, when I discovered one
of the inhabitants in the next field, advancing towards the stile, of
the same size with him whom I saw in the sea pursuing our boat. He
appeared as tall as an ordinary spire steeple, and took about ten yards
at every stride, as near as I could guess. I was struck with the utmost
fear and astonishment, and ran to hide myself in the corn, from whence I
saw him at the top of the stile, looking back into the next field on the
right hand, and heard him call in a voice many degrees louder than a
speaking trumpet; but the noise was so high in the air that at first I
certainly thought it was thunder. Whereupon seven monsters, like
himself, came towards him with reaping-hooks in their hands, each hook
about the largeness of six scythes. These people were not so well clad
as the first, whose servants or laborers they seemed to be; for, upon
some words he spoke, they went to reap the corn in the field where I
lay. I kept from them at as great a distance as I could, but was forced
to move, with extreme difficulty, for the stalks of the corn were
sometimes not above a foot distance, so that I could hardly squeeze my
body betwixt them. However, I made a shift to go forward till I came to
a part of the field where the corn had been laid by the rain and wind.
Here it was impossible for me to advance a step; for the stalks were so
interwoven that I could not creep through, and the beards of the fallen
ears so strong and pointed that they pierced through my clothes into my
flesh. At the same time I heard the reapers not above a hundred yards
behind me.

Being quite dispirited with toil, and wholly overcome by grief and
despair, I lay down between two ridges, and heartily wished I might