"What are they like?" demanded Dorothy.

"No one knows, for no one has ever passed the Merry-Go-Round
Mountains," was the reply, "but it is said that the Thistle-Eaters
hitch dragons to their chariots and that the Herkus are waited upon by
giants whom they have conquered and made their slaves."

"Who says all that?" asked Betsy.

"It is common report," declared the shepherd.
"Everyone believes it."

"I don't see how they know," remarked little Trot, "if no one has been
there."

"Perhaps the birds who fly over that country brought the news,"
suggested Betsy.

"If you escaped those dangers," continued the shepherd, "you might
encounter others still more serious before you came to the next branch
of the Winkie River. It is true that beyond that river there lies a
fine country inhabited by good people, and if you reached there, you
would have no further trouble. It is between here and the west branch
of the Winkie River that all dangers lie, for that is the unknown
territory that is inhabited by terrible, lawless people."

"It may be, and it may not be," said the Wizard. "We shall know when
we get there."