[Illustration: A SPAHI (NATIVE CAVALRY SOLDIER) ADMIRED BY AN ABAB BOY
SCOUT OF THE FUTURE.]
But he only replied that he must be clean for the birth of his child,
and therefore he meant to go on swimming, no matter what the risk was
to him.
This quite nonplussed the giants.
They could not run him down, because if their canoe were to touch a
human being their power over men would be lost.
Just then, when they were pausing, wondering what to do, they heard
the cry of a baby come from the woods on the shore.
Then one of the giants stood up and chanted to the swimmer a message
from the great God that, because he had bravely held out against all
their threats in order that his child should be the son of a clean
father, he should never die, but should remain for ever as a reminder
to other warriors to do their duty, and to obey the law of the tribe.
And his wife and child, too, should be for ever near him.
So the moment he touched the shore he became the great upright rock,
now called the Siwash Rock. And a short distance from him, in the
woods, are two more rocks, a big one and a little one beside it--his
wife and child.
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