Empty handed and hungry De‘o´niot returned from his hunting excursion. Going into his apartment he flung himself upon the floor to rest, then starting up, he called, “Hurry, bring me my hatchet, Oh quick, I need it immediately to kill this beast!”
Forgetting all that her husband had told her the bride picked up a hatchet and a bow and ran around the lodge to the opposite door.
When the nephew returned he found his wife missing. The only trace of her was her skirt that lay on the floor.
“Ho!” he exclaimed, “De‘o´niot has feasted on my woman and thrown her skirt to me as a reminder.” Then calling to his uncle he asked, “Oh uncle, how did you discover my woman?”
“Because I knew that it was not your breathing but a breath much faster that I heard over the partition,” was the reply.
The next day another woman came with a proposal of marriage. At first refusing her, and then accepting her on the condition that she would quietly remain in his room and heed not the entreaties of De‘o´niot, he married her, but when he returned from his hunting, she, like the first, had formed the repast of his uncle, who as before flung her dress over the partition. In like manner another wife came and was eaten.
Finally a married woman came weeping through the woods and begged De‘o´niot to protect her.
“Protect you!” the man-eater roared, “O ho! I would be more apt to eat you. That is my business,—eating people!”
“Oh protect me!” pleaded the woman, “for my husband is a ferocious giant and is now pursuing me!”
“So truly if that is the case you had better go into my nephew’s room where I cannot reach you and stay there while I watch for that man of yours.”
Presently in the distance De‘o´niot saw a giant striding through the underbrush.
“Ho, ho!” he exclaimed to himself, “That woman is the first one I ever saw and liked, so I am truly glad to do her a service in destroying her man-giant.”
With a whoop the giant pounced upon De‘o´niot. “Where is my wife?” he bellowed.
De‘o´niot did not answer but grasped the giant’s throat and after a frightful struggle twisted his neck.
“I am greatly obliged to you,” he called to the woman. “Such an amount of flesh will keep me from hunger for many days.”
When the nephew returned he found the new wife awaiting him and after some questioning he accepted her.