FAIRIES AND GIANTS OF CORNWALL. 149 
male Cinderella ; but when at last he comes in contact with ‘a giant 
or troll, he outmanceuvres and destroys him, somewhat in the 
style of Jack. There is Boots who ate a match with the Troll. He 
is the younger son of a poor farmer, and, going out to cut wood, 
meets a giant who threatens him, but he is not to be frightened, 
for, having a new-made cheese with him, he squeezes out the 
whey, and tells his opponent that if he is not quiet, he will squeeze 
the water from him as he does from that stone. The Troll then 
becomes civil, and cuts a quantity of timber for him, and then 
takes him home for refreshment, where they feast on a huge pot 
of porridge, and Boots proposes to eat, for a match. The cunning 
fellow privily hangs his bag before him, into which he ladles most 
of his share ; and after a while, in order to make room, as he says, 
cuts it open and lets the porridge out, recommending the Troll to 
do the same, which he stupidly does, and thus destroys himself, 
and Boots takes possession of his treasure. In one tale the hero 
is called the Herd Boy. He squeezes the cheese, and plays some 
other tricks, and at night suspecting the giant wants to kill him, 
places a churn in his bed which the giant smashes with a club, 
and is much astonished in the morning to see the youth quite 
sound but complaining that a flea had bitten him in the night. 
The eating-match then takes place, ending as before. This, and 
other escapes from the club of the giant, one as distant as Persia, 
in the story of Ahmed of Isfahan and the stupid Goole, have a 
‘similarity to the adventures of the Scandinavian god Thor, him 
self no mean giant, with the giant Skrymir. Thor and his 
companions pass the night in a spacious house with a broad en- 
trance, which is claimed in the morning by Skrymir as his glove. 
They all travel together till night, when Skrymir lays down to 
sleep. Thor, who is here the aggressor, at three several times in 
the night, strikes him with his mystic hammer. Skrymir, however, 
only complains that a leaf, or an acorn, had fallen on him, but he 
was a magician, and the blows were given on a rock, in which 
they made deep indentations. 
In the Norse tale of the Giant who had no Heart, Boots, who 
gets into his house, is hidden three times under his bed, the giant 
exclaiming each time, “‘ What a smell of Christian blood is here.” 
He is ultimately overcome by Boots, after some hazardous adven- 
tures, and hairbreadth escapes. Something like this cry for blood, 
G2 
