nothing could worst him.

In those days the Mount of Cornwall was kept by a huge giant named
Cormoran. He was eighteen feet in height, and about three yards round
the waist, of a fierce and grim countenance, the terror of all the
neighbouring towns and villages. He lived in a cave in the midst of
the Mount, and whenever he wanted food he would wade over to the main-
land, where he would furnish himself with whatever came in his way.
Everybody at his approach ran out of their houses, while he seized on
their cattle, making nothing of carrying half-a-dozen oxen on his back
at a time; and as for their sheep and hogs, he would tie them round
his waist like a bunch of tallow-dips. He had done this for many
years, so that all Cornwall was in despair.

One day Jack happened to be at the town-hall when the magistrates were
sitting in council about the Giant. He asked: "What reward will be
given to the man who kills Cormoran?" "The giant's treasure," they
said, "will be the reward." Quoth Jack: "Then let me undertake it."

So he got a horn, shovel, and pickaxe, and went over to the Mount in
the beginning of a dark winter's evening, when he fell to work, and
before morning had dug a pit twenty-two feet deep, and nearly as
broad, covering it over with long sticks and straw. Then he strewed a
little mould over it, so that it appeared like plain ground. Jack then
placed himself on the opposite side of the pit, farthest from the
giant's lodging, and, just at the break of day, he put the horn to his
mouth, and blew, Tantivy, Tantivy. This noise roused the giant, who
rushed from his cave, crying: "You incorrigible villain, are you come
here to disturb my rest? You shall pay dearly for this. Satisfaction I
will have, and this it shall be, I will take you whole and broil you